Carving an Exemption Out of a Loophole

Yesterday I could not stay for the whole March 23 Senate hearing on HB 626, the latest attempt to gut the Right to Know Law, RSA 91-A, but I will describe what I saw. As expected I was forced to sit through an excruciating two hours of testimony from public officials of all stripes who were pleading with the Senate Committee for just a little tweak in the bill to make their lives easier.

There I was, nothing to eat since 5 am, no immediate prospects for lunch, low on quarters, and no sickness bag for the speachifying...I was trapped. Then Senator Martel called for a lunch break beginning with a last, parting shot at testimony...mine. Isn't this how it always goes – most committee members are gone and here is your minute and parking ticket.

As with the other hearings, Right to Know Commission members who are dissembling RSA 91-A were given to running out the clock with drivel about how hard they worked. Their rambling testimonials were sprinkled with kudos to their esteemed comrades.

I had a short amount of time so I quickly barked out my testimony about how hard taxpayers and citizens work to get simple documents that are not only public but in many cases specifically required to be public by law. That would be the whole purpose of 91-A and Part I Article 8a of the NH Constitution. Then I took off to do the two talk radio shows scheduled for that day.

Let's face it. The NH Municipal Association and the NH School Board Association, essentially the same organization, are behind gutting 91-A. They picked the attorneys who drafted the mess we call HB626. Here are your tax dollars and public servants at work.

Rep. Thomas was a 626 sponsor as was Rep. Cady who lost all reason in the process. Sen. Jack Barnes was removed from the committee somehow and seems to still be miffed about it but would not take his name off the bill to kill it.

Right to Know Commission member Attorney Peter Smith of Durham has been involved in re-writing 91-A since his Town Council in Durham was caught violating 91-A in 2003 for holding e-mail meetings to hire employees. Nice pick! Smith's highly educated and thoughtful attorney veneer sheds quickly as he tries to explain the intricate differences between draft documents and public documents in the new HB626 bill. Garbage wording is garbage wording. Taking forty minutes attempting to describe what it means simply makes the case.

John Lassey, another attorney, RTKC member, and drafter of sloppy ZBA ordinances in Deering where, unfortunately, he is chairman of the ZBA, has his own 91-A issues. I was attending a ZBA meeting in Deering several years ago when a young, hot shot attorney (in her mind) took issue with points being made by ZBA members during the deliberative portion of the ZBA meeting. She got herself frustrated from not being allowed “object” to a ZBA deliberative discussion in progress. (She seemed to think or dream it was a court case?) After repeatedly being told no public comment was allowed she stomped up to Lassey's desk and slapped a note on it. I waited for the non-public portion of the meeting to end and promptly dropped a RTK request on the ZBA desk for her illegal note. I got a letter a few days later from Lassey saying since he did not read the illegal note it was not public. Interesting concept. No wonder he wound up on the RTK Commission.

Now for what the “I'm special” crowd wanted out of the HB626 hearing.

The gurus of the PUC who attended and were allowed to speak early have just now figured out how the new “improvements” to 91-A would hobble future elite sushi bar meetings where they generate their paper tsunamis. They want a clause to protect their fine work. The PUC gobbled up about a half hour with this nonsense. Sen. Barnes took note that they were a little late getting involved. Bless him.

A woman from Manchester City Hall used her best mouse voice to make her points. When I could hear her she did manage to pique my interest with a comment about the effect of HB626 on future Manchester charter commissions. She claimed the commissions break up into very small, often two person, working groups. Having that small a political subdivision still be considered a “meeting” she said, would hinder that process. Well let's hope so!!

Charter commissions are regularly packed with lawyers and pro-government activists from within the municipality. Just to make sure the desired outcome of the commission's “work” is achieved commissions are broken into small “working groups” so the facilitator can control what is put in the charter. Its called a Delphi technique. Don't fall for it.

On the other hand, The NH Schools Board Assoc. was perfectly happy with the bill. The fact that this re-write was designed to keep taxpayers out of their hair may have something to do with it.

NHMA should be delighted to see HB 626 pass ever since 2003 when the Manchester Firefighters Association sued them for info about how they come up with insurance for that organization. The court declared NHMA a public body subject to 91-A requests. If you knew as much about how NHMA works a we at CNHT do you would have a greater understanding of why this effort to keep the public out of government records and meetings is so important to them.

HB626 is designed entirely around elected and appointed officials idea of what the Right to Know Law should be. That is why it passed overwhelmingly in the House.

My suggestion for a “fix” to 91-A:

Go back to the drawing board and do what the RTKC was supposed to do. Come up with a way to keep private medical records private while letting citizens have access to the public information they may contain.

Then adopt penalties such as removal from office and/or costs paid by violators and let the public clean up the Right to Know Law. That wouldn't take long and it would also be constitutional — which HB626 is not..

Will NH's Managed Media Miss The Boat Again?

Recently, media attention has focused squarely on Virginia Beecher, the Commissioner of the NH DMV being re-nominated in spite of all the problems at her department. Things got so bad Gov. John Lynch ordered her to submit a management plan for the division.
(I suggest she use the one Ned Helms submitted as a format.)

The list of charges:

She took out of state trips and can't get the computers straightened out.

Dangerous drivers are being left loose on the road much later than they should be, and not taken off the road until their time off the road is up so they can be back on the road again. I think I have that right?

Another problem. Non-English speakers were being turned away from DMV substations with no translators and then had to drive all the way to Concord to get anything done.

All the papers are hitting the “theme of the week,” leapfrogging and spring-boarding off the in-depth Telegraph investigation where they talked to a DMV employee. Even WCAX TV of Vt. climbed aboard the fish wrapper express.

I wonder if the same scrutiny will apply to Timothy J. Connors, Chairman of the NH Pari-Mutuel Commission. He is up for re-appointment.

If memory serves me well we had a little “incident” with some Gambino mob operations using a NH racetrack for illegal gambling and money laundering. That was last April under the commission's watch. The authorities in New York had to do the heavy lifting in that investigation. Our NH guys were.....?

So everything must be all “better” now.

Another reason not to expand New Hampshire gambling or follow NH newspapers too seriously.

Little Evidence Of Voter Fraud Prosecution (Part III)

Last month I was sent an email by Dover City Councilor Dave Scott who has been working the same day voter registration lists in his area of Dover NH. He told me he had just been asked by “Bud” Fitch, who is in my humble opinion the NH Attorney General's Office equivalent of Sargent Shultz, if he would forward his 2004 voter fraud investigation materials to the AG's Office.

Why Fitch would want to see this material now I don't know other than the statute of limitations has run out on the last election. Dave Scott has brought the same material to Election Law Committee hearings already. This request does fall into the 2000-2001 “investigation technique” that was used by the AG's office back when we first started looking into voter fraud seriously, deny, delay, deny, so that much at least makes sense.

I attended the joint House and Senate hearings on voter fraud back in 2001 and remember supervisors of the checklists from several towns coming in begging for help from the state about non-resident voters. Most of those people have given up looking to the State for help which is why some taxpayers in different parts of the state are still are doing investigations on their own.

Dave Scott, at considerable expense to himself, mailed about 1000 letters to same day registrants who VOTED in Dover. He got back 115 from people who claimed, just weeks before, to live at a certain location. Dave Scott found about 11% of recent voters could not be found. There were 96,000 same day registrants that year, statewide.

Below is the response letter Dave Scott sent to the AG's office. The 115 names and addresses are not included here in my article:

David Scott
220 Back Road, Dover, NH 03820
Phone 603 750 5007, Fax 603 750 5081
E Mail: Inter6 (at) comcast (dot) net
February 7, 2006

Bud Fitch Fax: 223-6229
Office of Attorney General
State of New Hampshire
CC: Bill Gardner Fax 271-6316

Dear Bud:
I want to get this out to you immediately because of the deadline which you have. As mentioned my work load is now much larger than before. In addition to my full time business clients I am now a City Councilor which is turning out to be a half time job.
However I have managed to pick up some data from a year ago. Listed below is list of individuals who registered and voted on election day in Dover. First class letters were sent to these individuals welcoming them to Dover.
We had a total of 115 envelopes returned by the post office as undeliverable for a variety of reasons. I believe I sent to you some envelopes on category 1 and 2 which are a list of individuals, some of whom had forwarding addresses in another state and some had forwarding addresses in towns other than Dover. Of those I believe you identified a certain number and advised the Dover Election clerk to remove them from our voters list.
Here are the other categories and I still have a box full of these returned addresses if you think there is any further useful work that could be done with the remaining 90 or so returned envelopes. I believe about 25 of the 115 voters, whose Dover residence was questionable, have been removed from the Dover voting roles.

These were the envelopes returned of potential voter violations in Dover.

1. Letters returned - with out of state return address = 10
2. Letters returned - with other New Hampshire town return addresses = 11
3. Letters returned – Post office indicated – no such street or street number = 14
4. Letters returned – forwarding address different than voting address given = 13
5. Letters returned – Post Office said not deliverable = 21
6. Attempted delivery – person now known at that address = 31
7. Moved left no address = 115
I don’t remember how many letters we sent out to the list of same day voters we obtained. As I recall it was about 1,000. If that number is correct we had a return of about an 11%.
Is it correct that those to whom you sent letters advising them of being removed that there will be some follow-up to see that they register their cars in their proper community?
Please let me know if I can be of any further help.

David Scott

Lt. Gov. Michael Steele Opens His Mail First...For Once!

It must be nice to be regarded as a black Republican up and comer. You get all types of attention. Take Maryland Lt. Governor Mike Steele for instance. His threat to the Democrat power base in his home state was so unsettling that two of Senator Chuck Schumer's Democrat Senate Campaign Committee dirty tricksters were compelled to dig into his credit card history for future use.

We haven't seen this in public display since Hillary's goon squad grabbed 900 FBI files.

Here is what can be gleaned from meager press reports:

In July 2005, Katie Barge, a Democrat Senate Campaign Committee employee, and another dirt digger, Lauren Weiner, used Steele's social security number to access his credit card records. This would be known in the political world as “opposition research.” This type though is a Federal offense, depending on which party you are from, and carries a two year sentence.

Katie Barge left a job as head of research at Liberal/Progressive David Brock's Media Matters web site to take the DSCC job. Good old Chuck Schumer is the head of the DSCC. Barge started out as “researcher” on the US Senate campaign of Erskine Bowles down in North Carolina. That would be, Clintonista, Erskine Bowles.

Let's do some background on the players. Remember the old song “Dem' Bones” where the lyrics went “the thigh bone connect'a to da hip bone?” Here goes.

Brock used to be the darling of the right, working as a muckraker. He is still a darling as well as a darling of the left. You see, Brock switched sides and is now a Democrat muckraker. Gee, Katie Barge must be quite a talented girl to have overseen all the people who work for Brock, to have worked in a senate campaign for Bowles, and then landed at the DSCC.

Now that Katie needs a lawyer she has the services of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's sex scandal lawyer, William Lawler III. Wow! This young lady gets the best. I wonder who pays to keep all this quiet?

The other dirty trickster, Lauren B. Weiner, is a Scarsdale, N.Y., native. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and while there in 2000 Weiner published an article about Web access to personal records. Interesting credentials!

This has been kept under the radar by the national news media since July 05 but I downloaded several articles about it at the time in anticipation of the inevitable. Here it is: The Washington Post clean-up job and combo sob story about two young girls swept up in events beyond their control.

Here is how the Post describes and downplays what happened to the Lt. Governor of Maryland:

“The episode, which happened last July, came as both parties started digging into the backgrounds of opposing candidates for one of Maryland's marquee races this year, the contest to replace retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D). Opposition research is typical in contested statewide races, but it is illegal under federal law to obtain a credit report under false pretenses.”

I understand now! BOTH parties are guilty and this is really not a crime but rather a simple “episode.” (Notice how I threw the subliminal “rather” in there, as in Dan. Two can play this game.)

Two more whoppers from the Post. Quotes from Lauren B. Wiener's lawyer, as Lauren is the only wiener being charged:

"She basically made a mistake, and she is accepting responsibility for that mistake," Ellerman said. "She wants to get on with her life."

Ellerman said Steele's credit report was destroyed and not disseminated to anyone.”

Of course the Lt. Governor's credit records were not shown to anyone. They are in “Stolen Document Limbo” where all such documents stay until they just show up one day like Hillary's stolen FBI records.

And to end all future discussion, debate, and embarrassing news on the subject we have this grand closing from the Post:

“William Lawler, an attorney for Barge, said it is his understanding from prosecutors that neither his client nor the DSCC will be charged.

"We're pleased to see this matter come to a conclusion," DSCC spokesman Phil Singer said last night. "Our thoughts are with Lauren. She is a fine person who made a mistake."

Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, would not comment on the case or why the office is apparently not charging Barge, who was Weiner's boss at the DSCC.”

Conclusion: The Weiner pleads to a misdemeanor.

The DSCC, Katie Barge the bag man, Schumer the internet secrecy senator, and the parade of liberals around them escape further investigation or interest by the press.

Kind of reminds one of Democrat dirty tricksters Jessie Burchfield and Sen. John Kerry's employee, Geoff Wetrosky, here in NH doesn't it?

The Secret New Hampshire Tax Revolt of 2006

New Hampshire's political experts who fill the pages of our managed media love to toss around their own conceptions of trends. And admittedly, watching the State House can be at times mildly entertaining.

Often this small circle forgets that Concord is not the center of the Granite State universe. Other events do actually occur here — very expensive events such as annual meetings.

The Coalition of NH Taxpayers works with citizens and activists in many towns and schools around the state. Normally, we do not deal with city politics but it was almost impossible to not notice a tax revolt brewing when Mayor Baines was tossed from office, Laconia adopted a spending cap, Portsmouth elected a fiscally responsible mayor, Dover elected one our favorite guys, Dave Scott, and Nashua flipped their tax and spenders for a new group which included our old pal Fred Teeboom. That is a clock cleaning at the city level not seen in a very long time.

Now comes town and school meetings. Here are some results from news accounts and our members on the ground:

A new ally in Merrimack, “Merrimack Cares,” may keep, after the deliberative session, $1.4 million from being dumped into the town's budget. This comes after a 61.3% increase in spending over the last five years. Next vote is in April.

One of the new groups, Plainfield Taxpayers, is having a successful first few months with a few solid wins. They won the issue for future annual school budget day of the week, Saturdays instead of the current Friday nights, 299-184.
The PT candidate for school board did not get in, although he quadrupled the number of votes he got over last year. He'll run again.
The total number of voters doubled the number of past years, and PT is convinced people turned out because of info on the new website www.plainfieldtaxpayers.org and 2 mailings of 1,000 each.

“Monadnock School Taxpayers” won 11 of 12 issues they listed on their voter guide. Our web genius helped start their new site, www.monadnocktaxpayers.org

Hudson: If the Budget committee approved, it passed, if not – well take a guess. Incumbents took a beating - two new selectmen. Voted down: just under $2 million.

Derry, and the Alliance of Derry Taxpayers: All the GOOD GUYS won in Derry for Town Council. The establishment is reeling. AND the Charter Commission Question asking for an "Official Ballot Town Council" Charter Commission where they can't mess with the charter OTHER than adding official ballot voting...
PASSED 60%-40% (needed simple majority) the special election will be in 8 or 9 weeks.

Weare: The Logan Darrow Clements path of destruction went right down to the selectmen seats. Both candidates who tied their wagons to the wing nut lost. The Souter article failed two to one but it was so poorly sabotaged it is hard to say what the vote meant.

Bethlehem: Voters nix town administrator and Tri-Town Business Park.

Littleton: School regionalization with the Profile School District and SAU withdrawal, both passed Tuesday night. A $2.9 million Opera House plan was defeated.

Hillsboro/Deering School budget passed...for the first time since 2002.

Jaffery passed a $9.4M bond for school renovations after years of defeating the big double digit million dollar building projects. A newly organized taxpayer group is coming there soon. Smart spending on display.

Hopkinton, with a “taxpayer group” of sorts, defeated a new petitioned warrant article $2.8 million senior center, a move that probably caught many by surprise. It seemed Hopkinton spending was endless.

Gilford: CNHT worked with Gilford taxpayers to pass SB2 two years ago. This year a $2.96 million Police Station lost 1092 – 645. Connie Grant of the budget committee won a selectman seat. She was supported by the Gilford Taxpayers Association. The tax group opposed two small amounts for a historical society and airport authority both of which passed. An aquifer ordinance passed handily.

The mobocracy of the traditional meeting was on display in Belmont where a $5.8 million school auditorium (new spending fad) was defeated in a jam-packed meeting but reconsidered after enough voters left to flip the vote and reschedule for later this month. We expect SB2 may be popular in Belmont next year. The tax rate there will explode if this passes at the next meeting.

Bristol voters rejected an effort to abolish the Budget Committee in favor of an “advisory” one. In effect, no Bud Com. This was a petitioned warrant article with almost all the signatures coming from ...firemen. It seems the annual 10% increases of past years were not enough and the firemen were looking for about 20% this time. The Bud Com said hold on and the rest is politics NH style. Check the local web site there at www.newfoundconcerns.org

Windsor's Town Meeting had a film crew in it for the first time ever this year. Local CNHT member JJ Valera petitioned for a court order after being refused permission to film. Much to his credit, and unlike many elected officials we meet, Windsor Moderator Pat Hines apologized at the meeting for having “a bad day” when he at first denied Mr. Valera access. He said he had log-skidder problems and was tired. I tend to believe anyone who says that.

Hampton voters rejected the annual budget for the third year in a row.

Amherst: Every big ticket spending item (aside from the operating budgets) was defeated, most by large margins. Here's a summary of what went down in flames:

Redesign of transfer station: $350K (bond)
Building for Peabody Mill Environmental Center: $250K
Fire Dept "command vehicle" (SUV) replacement: $33K
DPW Truck replacement: $161K (over 5 years of lease)
New Police officer: $28K (for remainder of year, $39K annually in future years)
Souhegan High School "Wellness Center" (gym expansion): $568K
Total saved by Amherst "no voters": $1.4 million dollars

Tilton just spent $4,311,782.00. A warrant article to spend $268,500 on 7 acres of land in town for future municipal use was defeated. It was assumed by most in attendance that this parcel would be the future home of the new police station, although one has not yet been approved by voters. Another warrant article for $35K was passed to complete an architectural and engineering study for a new station and another $15K was passed to complete an "assessment" of the police department. (The $15K was originally intended to pay for an investigation of the police dept due to the many complaints and lawsuits against it in the past two years.)

Pelham: Not so fast with the warrant article to abolish the Budget Committee – they stay!

Contoocook Valley schools will not be buying laptops for every new sixth grade student.

Meredith bucked the trend and passed a new $2.3 million police station. They took $264,00 from the land use change tax and $500,000 from surplus to pass the deal. So it could be called a frugal spending proposal.

One of the largest spankings went to Bradford Selectmen who lost the “free” health care part of their selectman's compensation. The police station bond for $2.8M went down as well.

Wilton/Lyndeborough School District voters nixed two teacher positions: $82,978 and lowered the budget by $63,276.

After a huge campaign by firemen from within and without Goffstown, the 24/7 coverage petition lost and voters saved $221,258 — a toe in the door figure to say the least. The firefighter candidate won but has not extra cash “on hand.” Voters passed a $300 thousand dollar kindergarten proposal presented as “no cost” to the town.

New Boston: $75,000.00 in seed money for a community center – poof – gone.

Six-town Gov. Wentworth School District will not be seeing a $20 million dollar middle school. New Durham is looking at leaving.

East Kingston voters panned the new library by 4 votes and passed a police station bond by exactly the number of votes needed. Both were $850,000 proposals.

And in what may have evolved from a twice defeated new middle school bond of $24.7 million into a raging turf war between New London and Sutton's competing school spenders saw this very expensive project pass with 78% of the voters approving.

Exeter: Essentially, out of a $91 Million offering, Exeter voters decisively turned down one significant spending article. It was a bond issue item for $6.3 million to restore downtown Exeter with the focus on burying utility lines. It was considered to be too expensive for such public funding and 2 selectmen out of 5 had voted against putting it on the warrant. Instead of the required 60% it received only 43%. Actually, 220 more citizens in total voted on this question than on the town operating budget.

As for “land preservation” purchases to block new homes and drive up current residential values, the bloom is off the rose in Hollis, Brookline, and Mont Vernon. But next door in Mason $2 million was appropriated for 550 acres. A closer look reveals the reason was a federal grant seals the deal. So once again taxpayers were looking at the bottom line.

The most interesting vote was in Bedford where after showing the rest of NH how to bankrupt a municipality schoolies who packed the meeting balked at spending a little under $7 million for a new connector road. Look for some rigged special meetings to jam the spending through anyway. The officials in Bedford are not beyond heads we win - tails you lose warrant articles to get their way.

As more taxpayer revolt news comes in CNHT will print it. No other media outlet will.