AG rejects Belmont resident’s complaint against town

BELMONT — The attorney general’s office has concluded town officials did not violate election law as alleged by a local resident.

Charles Gravenhorst filed a complaint contending town officials used taxpayer resources in support of a $3.5 million bond proposal to build a new police station.

Residents favored the plan 688-428, just exceeding the three-fifths vote required to replace the building that has served as police headquarters for 25 years.

“Whereas every other expenditure proposal on the March 10, 2020 ballot passed overwhelmingly, Article #2 passed only by the narrowest of margins — a scant 1% out of more than thirteen hundred votes cast,” Gravenhorst said in an email.

“Consequently, even the slightest unlawful influence on Belmont voters by town officials in this instance could have been decisive and, without it, could reasonably have resulted in the defeat of this exorbitant project.”

A recount was done at his request, but the election outcome did not change.

Gravenhorst, who works as a paralegal, said a postcard the town sent out describing the project and a brochure it  made was a marketing effort intended to gain support for the new building in violation of laws against using public money to influence an election.

While the material did not ask people to vote for the measure, Gravenhorst said it amounted to a tacit endorsement.

Gravenhorst said police personnel also placed signs about the project.

“There can be little doubt, from the Town's plan to 'market' and 'highlight' the project, while enlisting the local constabulary out of public view, that their 'intent' was to influence the vote on the question of the new police building,” he said.

“The mere inclusion of flattering, one-sided imagery, even including emotive photos of an appealing pooch, is more than enough implicit, if not explicit, endorsement of the warrant article.”

A picture of Vito, the police department's German Shepherd, was contained in the material. 

Gravenhorst said that while the brochure addressed why a new building was necessary, it didn’t discuss why it wasn’t necessary.

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Nicholas A. Chong Yen was not persuaded by Gravenhorst's arguments. 

Private, not public money, was used for campaign signs in favor of the project.

Written material sent out by the town explaining the project did not amount to advocacy as defined by legal statutes and court precedent, the assistant attorney general said in a letter to Gravenhorst.

“Based on the foregoing, we conclude there has been no violation of New Hampshire’s election laws,” he said. “This matter is now closed.”

Town Administrator Jeanne Beaudoin said nothing improper was done.

“Nothing we did was asking a voter to vote in any specific way,” she said. “We were just putting the information out there, so we could make sure the voters were aware of what was going on.”

The new police station will be built in place of the Corner Meeting House, which will be torn down along with the old police headquarters.

Police and town officials said the new structure was needed as the current building — in what used to be a fire station — is cramped and insufficient.

Money for the project will come from a bond. Over 20 years and at 2.45 percent interest, it is estimated the bond’s impact would be 30 cents on $1,000 of assessed value. For example, the property tax increase on a $200,000 home would be $60 per year.