by Ed Naile
Up in Carroll County, in the County seat of Ossipee there is a major malfunction involving RSA 91-A, The Right to Know Law. Two State Reps., Commissioner-elect Denny Miller and Commissioner David Babson don’t want to serve as County Commissioners because of the nasty RTK Law – they are already subject to as elected officials.
I know, it sounds stupid.
Read for yourself:
Commissioners Seek Imunity From RTK Lawsuits
This reminds me of the Banty Rooster Moderator of Atkinson, Frank Polito, who didn’t want his picture taken at the 2009 Atkinson Deliberative Session – while it was being filmed for cable TV????
Of course, the Banty Rooster actually WAS sued so many times he can not get insurance coverage while still the Banty Rooster Moderator so he retired to another coop – and ain’t that just justice?
But we have a 91-A hero in that county to crow about. And here he is shining forth from the pages of the Conway Daily Sun article:
Rep. Glenn Cordelli (R-Tuftonboro) said it would be “dangerous” to get involved with covering Right to Know lawsuits because the commissioners wouldn’t have any incentive to follow the law.
“The public’s right to know trumps that,” said Cordelli about commissioners’ need for coverage.
Imagine in this day and age a real, for the people, subject to laws and our Constitution, elected official! Wow, I am shocked and encouraged.
I have some bad news for the two anti-RTK county commissioners. If you don’t like the Right to Know Law and just ignore it should the county foolishly agree to pay your legal fees in a 91-A suit you can still be hit with a criminal charge if the documents you hide are part of an effort to destroy or alter public documents to conceal a wrongdoing. Look up RSA Section 641:7
641:7 Tampering With Public Records or Information. – A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if he:
I. Knowingly makes a false entry in or false alteration of any thing belonging to, received, or kept by the government for information or record, or required by law to be kept for information of the government; or
II. Presents or uses any thing knowing it to be false, and with a purpose that it be taken as a genuine part of information or records referred to in paragraph I; or
III. Purposely and unlawfully destroys, conceals, removes or otherwise impairs the verity or availability of any such thing.
Source. 1971, 518:1, eff. Nov. 1, 1973.
It’s real easy for arrogant, self-important public officials to get in all kinds of trouble, see: Superintendent Metzler of Timberlane for example.
So my suggestion to the 91-A fear mongers is this. Get out of elected office and let good people like Reps. Glenn Cordelli and Ed Comeau handle things.