City didn’t disclose real estate purchases

LACONIA — Over the last year, the city spent $342,000 on real estate without any public discussion or votes in public session during City Council meetings.

City Councilors, acting in private, authorized City Manager Scott Myers to negotiate purchases of land on Pickerel Pond Road and another parcel abutting the Public Works Department, according to unsealed minutes of nonpublic City Council sessions.

The 15 acres near the pond is to provide access to the water for people using canoes and kayaks and to help protect the watershed. The half-acre of land near the Public Works Department could be helpful for departmental needs.

During its meetings, the City Council did not provide official public notice of the transactions after they went through, although Myers discussed one late in a meeting in response to a question from a councilor.

In an interview Tuesday, Myers said the City Council acted in accordance with state law, which allows nonpublic City Council sessions for several reasons, including “consideration of the acquisition, sale or lease of real or personal property which, if discussed in public, would likely benefit a party or parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community.”

Public knowledge of city interest in a particular parcel, for example, could drive up the cost of the land.

Possible solutions

Myers said he understands there could be a public interest in the city providing better notice once it has spent money to buy property.

“Yes, there is a value to that,” he said Tuesday. “That’s something that I can work to put in place.”

Councilor Bruce Cheney said he would like to see better public notification.

“I’m of the opinion, we’re supposed to announce those once the deal is consummated,” he said.

Councilor Andrew Hosmer, who is mayor-elect, said he favors transparency in the use of public funds, but also doesn’t want to drive up the cost of land.

One possibility might be to negotiate such a sale contingent on City Council approval in public session.

“I don’t see the problem with that,” he said. “That sounds reasonable to me.”

Mayor Ed Engler said it was an oversight that these land purchases were not announced publicly at a City Council meeting.

“We just never went back and made a public announcement,” he said. “We probably should have. Once the deal is consummated, there is no reason to keep it private anymore.”

Handled in public elsewhere

City officials in Franklin and Concord said that when they buy property, they do so in public session. Officials in Plymouth and Tilton say they do such purchases in public through the Town Meeting process.

Franklin City Manager Judie Milner said her City Council may discuss strategy for a land purchase in a nonpublic session, but the actual vote to approve the deal will be in public.

That was the case with two properties the Franklin City Council purchased to provide parking for a major development project, she said.

Concord City Attorney Jim Kennedy said negotiations to buy property in that city would be done in private, but the actual purchase would be done in public session. He said he can’t recall a single land purchase that wasn’t done in public session.

Law for nonpublic session

Richard Gagliuso, who has represented newspapers and media outlets in New Hampshire since the 1980s and is on the board of New England First Amendment Coalition, said the state’s Right to Know Law allows non-public sessions for acquisition of real estate. He said the only question is whether the minutes from that session were released in a timely manner.

The New Hampshire Municipal Association states on its website that a board may do anything in a non-public session that it may do in a public session, so long as the subject matter is appropriate for the non-public session.

Ethical concerns

The law aside, municipal land purchases can have policy ramifications that warrant public discussion, said Phil Kincade, executive director of the New Hampshire Press Association, said 

“It’s not ethical to purchase property and never tell anybody you’ve done it,” he said.

Pat Wood, a local attorney who is versed in municipal law, said that in his experience municipal land purchases are done in public.

“If they are spending public funds, there should be some discussion of that,” he said.

Sealed too long

Former City Councilor Brenda Baer said minutes from non-public meetings are sometimes sealed for too long.

“It kind of upsets me that information isn’t getting out that should be getting out,” she said. “Sealed minutes need to be reviewed to confirm or deny that there is still a reason to keep them sealed.

"Somebody just says ‘Seal them for two years,’ even when there is no reason to seal them for two years.”

Ambulance proposal

Baer said city officials sometimes seal things when they would be better served by giving them a public airing.

Such an instance was present when a private ambulance company offered to take on the city’s ambulance service, she said.

The proposal from Brewster Ambulance was discussed in a nonpublic session on May 14, 2018, according to unsealed minutes.

“Discussion ensued about what documents if any could be made public at this time,” the minutes state. “The city manager stressed that there may be proprietary information and he wanted to confirm with Brewster before releasing anything they submitted.”

Myers ended up releasing the proposal six weeks later. Meantime, opposition built among city firefighters opposed to removing the ambulance service from their responsibilities. Ultimately, Brewster withdrew the proposal.

Pond land

In an Aug. 13, 2018, nonpublic session, the City Council authorized the city manager to negotiate the purchase of the property on Pickerel Pond Road. Councilors sealed the minutes for six months.

Planning Director Dean Trefethen said the deed for the sale was recorded on Dec. 20, 2018, and the sale was announced to the Conservation Commission on Jan. 23, 2019. He said the Conservation Commission had discussed in nonpublic meetings the idea of purchasing the land.

The City Council’s nonpublic minutes said property taxes on the two parcels amounted to $5,000 per year and that if the land were developed, the land could support four or five homes.

Trefethen said there is a rough path on the property that goes from the road to the pond and a small dock on the pond.

“This is an opportunity for people to carry in a kayak or a canoe and be able to enjoy the pond,” he said. “We have a couple of small structures on the property that need to be removed. We may want to enhance the path but it is pretty rustic and we would leave it in a natural state as much as possible.”

Money for the $239,000 purchase of the land came from penalties people pay when they take their land out of Current Use provisions, Trefethen said.

Myers said $10,679 remains in the fund.

Parcel for Public Works

The other property that was purchased is at 18 Wilson Court. The city spent $103,000 on the land. It tore down a small house, leaving the space available for any potential use of the Public Works Department, which it abuts.

In a nonpublic session on Feb. 25, the City Council authorized Myers to negotiate that purchase. The minutes were sealed for six months.

Money for the acquisition came from a surplus associated with the city’s insurance premiums, Myers said.

The purchase was aired publicly at 9:50 p.m. in the “council comments” section of the City Council meeting on June 24.

For some reason, the online minutes for that meeting are truncated, saying, “Councilor Cheney asked for a status update regarding the property bordering”

The video of the meeting shows the exchange.

“I may have missed it,” Cheney said. “Is there a status of the property bordering the Public Works property we’ve been talking about the possibility of purchasing?”

Myers, the city manager, responded: “We have purchased that house and I know we went out to bid and I believe the house is razed as well.”

Mayor Engler responded: “Really, who knew?”