Lack of city disclosure for land purchases draws complaint

LACONIA — City officials were wrong in failing to publicly disclose the city’s purchase of three pieces of real estate, Gail Ober, a member of the Zoning Board and a former reporter told the City Council during its meeting Monday.

The transactions involved $342,000 worth of property. The sales, discovered through a review of unsealed minutes from nonpublic council sessions, went through on Dec. 20, 2018, for two of the parcels and April 18 for the other, according to city property records.

They were first reported by The Laconia Daily Sun last Thursday.

There is no indication any law was broken, but advocates for government transparency say the city should notify the public when public money is spent. Such notification is routine elsewhere.

City officials in Franklin and Concord say 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.

Speaking during a public comment period Monday night, Ober, a former reporter for The Laconia Daily Sun, said she was “really disappointed” in the lack of disclosure.

She said the New Hampshire Supreme Court has said “the purpose of the Right to Know Law is to ensure the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussion and records of all public bodies.”

“Once you signed the purchase and sales agreement, that should have been disclosed,” she said. “I know you’ve all gone on record as saying it was an oversight, it was a mistake, it was whatever.

“Councilman (Mark) Haynes and Councilor (Bruce) Cheney, I’ll give you a pass, you’re new on this board, but the rest of you (Mayor Ed Engler) are a president of a newspaper, you (David Bownes) are an attorney, Mr. (Andrew) Hosmer is an attorney, Mr. Scott Myers is a city manager. You should have known better.

“Just as a citizen, it makes me question what else I don’t know that I should have known.”

Engler is president of The Laconia Daily Sun.

During the meeting, nobody addressed Ober’s comments, the lack of disclosure or any possible changes in procedure.

On Tuesday, City Manager Scott Myers said improvements could be made. He made a similar comment last week.

“Certainly, there are circumstances that warrant better communication and better release of information and I can work toward that,” he said.

Engler has said it was an oversight that the land purchases were not announced.

Two of the parcels are at 409 and 411 Pickerel Pond Road and another is at 18 Wilson Court, next to the Public Works Department.

The 15 acres near the pond was purchased to provide access to the water for people using canoes and kayaks and to help protect the watershed. The half-acre of land on Wilson Court could be helpful for the needs of Public Works.

City Councilors met in nonpublic sessions to tell Myers to negotiate for the land. Such sessions are allowed under state law 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.

Such circumstances could lead a board to withhold the  minutes of a nonpublic session from the public. According to the New Hampshire Municipal Association, the minutes “may be withheld until, in the opinion of a majority of the board, the aforesaid circumstances no longer apply.”

Minutes from the nonpublic session involving negotiations to buy the Pickerel Pond Road land were sealed on Aug. 13, 2018, for six months. Minutes for the nonpublic session involving the Wilson Court property were sealed on Feb. 25 for six months.

Money for the $239,000 purchase of the land on Pickerel Pond Road came from penalties people pay when they take their land out of Current Use provisions. The $103,000 to buy the property on Wilson Court came from a surplus associated with the city’s insurance premiums.