Petition demands removal of Silber and Sylvia

LACONIA — A petition with 18 signatures calling for the removal of Reps. Michael Sylvia and Norm Silber under RSA 24:16 from the Belknap County Delegation was sent to the county commissioner's office on Wednesday morning.

Silber doubts the petition's ability to affect his status and that of Sylvia as part of the delegation.

“I think they have misinterpreted what has transpired,” Silber said. “The commission does not have the power to remove elected members of the delegation. Members of the delegation are not county officers.”

The document alleges that Silber and Sylvia violated RSA 24:15, which states no "elected or appointed county officer, shall pay, or agree to pay, or incur any liability for the payment of, any sum of money for which the county convention has made no appropriation," by exceeding the $20,000 expenditure during the delegation's legal battle with members of the Gunstock Area Commission.

RSA 24:16 states that a “petition of five resident taxpayers of the county may be made to the county commissioners, the county attorney, or a superior court judge for such removal.”

After the GAC attempted to remove Gunstock Commissioner Peter Ness, Sylvia “suggested that the removal attempt against Ness might be cause for removal of the three GAC commissioners who participated.”

The GAC hired their own counsel to fight back, incurring heavy costs to the county.

The petition letter claims that the law firm hired by the delegation had already started working with Silber and Sylvia “with over $1,000 in billable time even before the delegation vote approving the hiring of the firm” and that the legal fees incurred by Sylvia and Silber were almost double the $20,000 appropriation. It also claims that the retainer agreement with the law firm, Cleveland, Waters, and Bass, PA, makes no mention of the $20,000 limit.

It's not yet clear if the petition is able to remove Silber and Sylvia.

“We haven't researched it, the legality of it, if there's any precedent, we don't have enough information on hand to offer a valid opinion,” said County Commission Chair Peter Spanos, who had only recently seen the document. “I've never seen this type of petition in my eight years in and out of office. Or anything prior in state or local politics.”

“I think both parties to some extent have some responsibility. They've certainly overstepped their bounds with it,” said Hayden McLaughlin, one of the petition's signers. “It's unfortunate. If they'd done a better job getting Peter Ness out of there way back when, none of this would have happened. This could have been avoided if they'd done their job during that situation.”

Regardless of the petition's ability to remove the delegation members, Spanos acknowledged it as an strong expression of voter attitudes.

“We have a strong mechanism to remove elected officials and that's called elections and we have one every two years. That's the best means to choose and appoint or remove candidates.” Spanos said. “The voters will tell you when they approve of what you're doing and they'll tell you when you've incurred their disfavor, and this petition clearly demonstrates that there's a segment of voters out there who are very angry at certain members of the delegation.”

The petition will be discussed at the next County Commissioner's meeting on Tuesday, May 3, at the county complex. To read a copy of the petition, view this article on laconiadailysun.com.