NH DES – Granite Grok

I’m not crazy…my mother had me tested.

But Representative Abrami thinks I am paranoid because I oppose SB 11; however, I may be just crazy enough to believe I own the water on my property. Sadly, it seems that the NH Department of Environmental Services says “No”. If that doesn’t give you pause, then go to the former Governor John Lynch’s website and read the final report of the Water … Read more

Monday OCTOBER 29 – WATER COMMISSION MEETING in CONCORD

by Steve MacDonald

MONDAY OCTOBER 29 – WATER COMMISSION MEETING in CONCORD If you value your property rights you will attend this meeting of the State of New Hampshire Water Sustainability Commission on Monday, October 29, 2012 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services 29 Hazen Drive – Concord, NH

How Convenient…and Annoying

by Tom

NH WSC

Have you ever noticed that the Water Sustainability Commission, and most of the other “sustainability” groups, all hold their “public meetings” during the business day?

This one, in particular, really irks me…

Leave It To Beavers

by Steve MacDonald

The big news today is the disappearance of an entire pond in Hollis, New Hampshire. The town decided to breach a dam, which drained Hayden Reservoir, becasue it was cheaper than keeping it and paying for the work to meet the sharia-law like standards, tithing, and annual tribute demanded by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental services.

I’m sure the DES is disappointed.

The Complete Gaia Comment Stream

by Steve MacDonald

New Hampshire Public Employee Gaia managed to read, consume, and then comment at the Concord Monitor’s web site some 1200 times in just three years, more often than not during office hours. (Just to clarify this lastpoint, a super majority of time during office hours.) We could guess that they were doing it during one … Read more

BE BREITBART: Update 8: DES Right To Know Update : DOIT and DES – living up to their own policies (#FAIL)

by Skip

The last post on this topic (GraniteGrok’s Right To Know to the State of NH on the non-State biz use of the State’s network: political commenting) effectively ended on these notes:

“what did they know and when did they know it?“

and “they did know it all and they knew it when the packets went through the system.”

Which leads up to the next important question:“…can the State live up to its own personnel policies in this area?”

This actually breaks down into two parts:

Can the State technically actually do what the policies say imply based on the results sent to us from our Right To Know request?

And if the State can technically support its policies – are they actually using those technical tools and if not, why not?

Now, I would be remiss to not point out that part of RTK for our calculus is still outstanding – Mr. Richard de Seve’s outbound (of the NH State domain) emails which the DES RTK guy has told me, multiple times now, is in process:

Request 5:

5. Any and all of Mr. de Seve’s emails that were outbound of the NH State’s domain and whose destination were other than for another NH State employee.

Response to 5:

All known emails have been collected and are currently being reviewed to determine 1) whether they are responsive to your request and 2) whether they are subject to any privilege or statutory exemption under RSA 91-4. Responsive, non-exempt emails will be provided upon completion of this review.

So, this needs to be fit into the picture when they arrive. In the mean time, there is more to review and our interim conclusion at the end…

BE BREITBART: Update 7: Right To Know Request – IT/HR – Lunches, breaks aggregation and NH official policy

by Skip

The last post concerning our Right To Know request of the NH Department of Environmental Services (primarily) and Department of IT (secondarily) covered the NH policy on lunch and rest breaks:

DES’s standard workday is 8:00 am through 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday. This reflects a 7.5 hour/day, 37 .5 hour/week basic workweek which, consistent with NH Admin. Rule Per 1201.03, accounts for a half hour lunch period that is not considered work time. Also, pursuant to Per 1201.03, the workday includes a 15 minute rest period every 4 hours. Lunch and rest periods do not have to be taken at specific times during the workday. Mr. de Seve is assigned to a 37 .5 hour per week schedule that coincides with DES’ standard workday/workweek. As to the DOIT “Computer Use document” referenced in this request, please refer to the Response to Request 3, above.

Well, one of the Groksters read that and had a question (again, with an eye to the quantity of blogging that Mr. Richard de Seve did as he was allegedly working:

Are employees allowed, with their lunch break and rest breaks, to “stitch them” together and form one large break? If that is true, are they allowed to take them earlier or later than the normal lunch times (i.e., use them at the beginning of the day to come in later or delay them until the end of the day and leave early for the day)?

The DES RTK Dude wrote back this afternoon with his answer:

BE BREITBART: Update 8: DES Right To Know Update : IT data requests and response – network traffic (#FAIL)

by Skip

All of the posts in our DES Right To Know request concerning Mr. Richard de Seve massive blogging activities during work hours as he was allegedly working (while on the taxpayer dime) prior to this have been “preliminary”. We set the table, ordered from the menu, and enjoyed the appetizers. Now, it is time for the main courses -the IT (Information Technology) network data and what actions should have been triggered.

With our tech background, we wanted to be able to establish linkages and definitely prove:

BE BREITBART: Update 6: Right To Know Request – IT/HR – Responses from the State of NH DES.

by Skip

In our last post, we started to go over the first official response from NH’s Department of Environmental Services concerning the political blogging of Richard de Seve while on the taxpayer dime – a LOT of Lefty blogging from this staunch Democrat (sufficient enough to be a Delegate for Dennis Kucinich during his run in 2008 for President). In our Right To Know we had several specific items to which DES had to respond, one way or another, and each was addressed (one way or another).

One way or another? Well, if you remember, I singled out that word “responsive” in that last post; that will be discussed. Not to stretch this out, but essentially, here are the possible outcomes:

The data just does not exist – either it was not captured, plain got lost, or deleted / trashed (based on time criteria) – “No data for you!” (to paraphrase the Seinfeld Soup Nazi)
The data exists, but pertains to personnel matters, and thus are exempt from RSA 91-A requests – again, “No data for you!” (to paraphrase the Seinfeld Soup Nazi)
Data exists, but is beyond the scope of our request (i.e., we will not see all of Mr. de Seve’s emails; sure, we asked for emails, but worded such that we were interested only in those outbound of the State’s domain – and not DES work related) – “meh, so what; no biggie – we’re just not that much into you”
Data exists, it meets our time criteria (1/1/2005 to 3/12/2012) and fits our request – Ahhhhhh – responsive!

BE BREITBART: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

by Skip

We’ve already posted a couple of times on the State employee Rickard “Dick” de Seve’ use of taxpayer paid time and computer services (Is A NH Public Employee Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?, So, what does the State of NH say about “Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?” and An Apology to the NH SEA/SEIU) on the subject, wondering about how a NH State employee (and former lawyer and present chapter VP in the NH SEIU [the Service Employees International Union, the union that represents most union employees employed by the State of NH]), could be posting so many political comments for such a long time on the NH taxpayer dime.

So last week we filed a NH RTK or Right To Know request, identified in most other parts of the country as an FOIA or Freedom of Information Act request. (Grokster Steve and I have been joined by Ed Naile of CNHT -the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers in the effort.) We asked for not only HR records (to establish when he was supposed to be working and if he had indeed read and signed the department internet use policy, and/or any warnings that were constructed based on his use of NH State Property. But that’s not all we asked for…

So, what does the State of NH say about “Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?”

by Skip

A follow on to Steve’s post: “Is A NH Public Employee Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?”

Well, let’s start with the easy stuff. First, many companies of “size” have strict regulations about what employees can and cannot do with computer equipment – and Internet access using that equipment. After all, it isn’t the employe’s as someone else (i.e., the owner, the stockholders, the taxpayers) ended up with less money in their pocket so that this equipment could be purchased, could be provisioned (e.g., sSo, does the State of NH have such a document? InDEED it does!

In fact, there are several, very specific restrictions on what / how State of NH Employees can do with State owned computer equipment and networks – and Internet access. It also seems that each employee has to sign it to show that they have read the document (and, hopefully, understand it:

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
YOUR SIGNATURE AND INITIALS ARE REQUIRED AT THE END OF THIS DOCUMENT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS POLICY.

I would assume, given that Mr. De Seve is allowed the use of “Esq.” after his name (as he is a lawyer), the he would understand that this puts a legal obligation on every employee within State Government. Thus, anything he does (or doesn’t do) with State owned equipment paid for with taxpayer monies entrusted to his care are specifically enumerated within the policy (just like one of the SEIU Collective Bargaining Agreements he negotiated on behalf of the union with the State).

Once again, there is such a clause!

3 COMPUTER USE
The network and computer equipment are State of New Hampshire property and are to be used for State business purposes only.

Just thought I’d bold that part – makes it easier to follow along here in pointing out the important stuff. And yes, this is important! And if that wasn’t clear enough, being a Government document, it goes into more excruciating detail:

Is A NH Public Employee Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?

by Steve MacDonald

What does a New Hampshire Public employee who is also an SEIU chapter Vice President and shop steward do while working on the taxpayer dime? If your name is Richard de Seve, (Dick de Seve, or DickNH, from Gilmanton, NH, VP of the Gilmanton Conservation Commission) you may be posting comments to the Concord Monitor online, throughout the work day, when you shouldn’t be. At least that’s how it looks from here.

How could I suspect such a thing? After encountering the amusing screen name DickNH at the Concord Monitor Online, I felt compelled to find out what kind online footprint someone with that handle generates. What unfolded was a series of connections with a curious conclusion. That a self proclaimed adjunct professor at UNH, with a law degree and former law practice, who is also an SEIU chapter Vice President and Union Steward, employed as a Compliance Supervisor at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, might be using Newspaper Message Boards online to promote the Democrat/Union agenda when he should be doing the taxpayers business.