Pared-down county investigation poised to launch probe

LACONIA — A special Belknap County Delegation investigative committee will now move forward with plans to hire an attorney following the re-forming of the committee that resulted in eliminating two members who objected to launching the probe into the handling of county finances.

The delegation voted 13-3 on Tuesday to name state Reps. Norm Silber, Barbara Comtois, and Travis O’Hara to the committee, and authorize spending up to $5,000 for attorney’s fees and other costs associated with the open-ended investigation into budget transfers.

The delegation has contended that county commissioners have been exceeding their authority by unilaterally transferring money in excess of $5,000 from one area of the county budget to another. The delegation maintains that reallocation in those amounts must first be approved by the delegation’s Executive Committee. Chair Michael Sylvia and others on the delegation said Tuesday that commissioners have repeatedly and willfully allowed these transfers to occur in violation of the delegation’s dictates.

Tuesday’s action eliminated state Reps. Tim Lang and Mike Bordes from the panel. Both voted against the motion, as did state Rep. Douglas Trottier.

“If we don’t find the cause, the problem will get worse,” Sylvia told the meeting explaining why the investigation was necessary.

Sylvia charged that the county commissioners had repeatedly shown flagrant disregard for the delegation’s order that it seek prior approval before transferring money from one area of a county department’s budget to another. During the meeting he spoke of “criminal complaints” against the commissioners, and that their actions amounted to or had the appearance of “corruption,” and “racketeering.”

Lang and Bordes objected to the open-ended nature of the investigation, charging that it would become a “fishing expedition.”

Both, along with O’Hara, had refused at a committee meeting on July 8 to consider Silber’s proposal to hire an attorney to assist the committee and so the motion to do so died for lack of a second.

The week after that meeting Sylvia announced he was reducing the committee’s membership from five members to three — Silber, Comtois, and O’Hara — because state law limits such panels to no more than three members from either the Republican or Democratic party. The 16-member delegation is made up exclusively of Republicans. Lang objected to Sylvia’s unilateral move, saying the authority to name people to committee belonged to the delegation as a whole.

The investigative panel, which will be headed by Silber, is scheduled to meet Aug. 23 at 6:30 p.m. Silber said the panel would formally vote to hire a lawyer at that time.

Silber said that the investigation will begin by looking into the funds transfers for the County Nursing Home, “but that might not be the only area” to be investigated, indicating the probe is open-ended.

“Who did what when and who knew what when?” Silber said, explaining the scope of the committee’s inquiry.

No indication was given as to when interrogations would get underway.

Lang repeated his assertion that the probe is a waste of time and money.

“The crux of the argument (between the delegation and the commission) is what constitutes a department (in the budget),” he said, “The commissioners say it’s the total department. We say smaller parts are a department.”

At the July committee meeting Lang said the commissioners had already acknowledged that last year they had spent more than budgeted for pharmacy and medical costs at the nursing home. But on Tuesday he pointed out that this year the commission had been abiding by the delegation's transfer mandates.

“I’m trying to find where reasonable suspicion (of wrongdoing) exists,” Lang said. “What’s the outcome of this?”

“Are you making an argument to support corrupt government?” Sylvia retorted.

Silber blamed the county commissioners for escalating the probe into an adversarial proceeding when the commissioners hired an attorney and decided county employees will appear before the investigative panel only if they are issued a subpoena.

The commissioners, however, had made a proposal three months ago that instead of conducting an investigation that the delegation hire an independent firm to conduct a peer review audit of the county’s financial statements. That audit would “identify any abnormalities in the county’s finances as well as any mismanagement of funds,” according to the proposal contained in a letter sent to each member of the delegation by the commissioners’ lawyer.

The commission has given the committee all material it has requested and promised to provide any information requested in the future, the letter states.

When Lang asked Sylvia if County Commission Chair Peter Spanos could respond to one of Lang’s questions, Sylvia said he would only allow Spanos to speak if he was under oath.

That rejoinder prompted Lang to say that the investigative panel was also acting in an adversarial way.

Comtois said that the county commission has been defying the delegation’s mandates ever since she was first elected as a legislator in 2010 “and they still disregard the delegation.”

In arguing the need for the investigation, she pointed out that two of the three current commissioners who were on the commission last year when the transfer to cover the nursing home pharmacy and medical expenses took place are still serving.

But Lang and Bordes voiced concern that the members of the investigative panel are not approaching their task with an open mind.

“We’re going to find somebody guilty of something,” Lang said.

“It’s a witch hunt,” said Bordes.