County attorney will stay out of fight

LACONIA — Belknap County Commissioners are weighing their options now that Belknap County Attorney Melissa Guldbrandsen has declined to intervene on their behalf in a court case which limits their authority to transfer funds without the approval of the Belknap County Convention's Executive Committee.

Guldbarndsen cited a conflict of interest in representing one part of the county, the commission, against another, the county convention, in declining the request.

''I can understand why,'' said outgoing County Commission Chairman John Thomas (R-Belmont), who recalled that Guldbrandsen had been reluctant to represent the convention earlier this year when it asked for her to seek a court ruling on budget powers which were an issue between the commissioners and convention.

He said that he and other members of the commission are talking about which course to follow now that the convention's Executive Committee has rejected a request to transfer $28,000 from one budget line to another so that the county can pay the $24,000 it faces in unpaid legal bills.

''They are disallowing us from defending ourselves but I don't think they have that power,'' said Thomas, who said that the actions ''have definitely hurt the county.''

''We have 4 or five (legal) cases that have nothing to do with any dispute between the convention and the commission,'' said Thomas, who said he is hoping that the commissioners will be able to formulate a plan for getting a court hearing when they meet Monday at 5:30 to review the budget presentation they will be making at a 7 p.m. meeting of the county convention, which will hold a public hearing on the proposed county budget after it meets to elect new officers.

Commissioners said when they met Wednesday that the result of the committee's action is that the commission can no longer manage the business of the county and that violates the terms of a temporary injunction obtained by the county convention which prohibits the transfer of more than $300 between accounts without approval of the committee.

They maintain that the denial of the requested transfer violated the "good faith" part of the judge's ruling which anticipated the committee would show good faith in approving the transfers.

Incoming county commissioner Richard Burchell (R-Gilmanton) said that it is ironic that the current commissioners have asked the county attorney to represent them after having denied the convention's request earlier this year to have her represent the convention when it sought a clarification in Belknap County Superior Court on the line item budget authority issue.