Procedural delays leave county still without approved budget

LACONIA — The Belknap County Delegation tabled the approval of a 2023 budget at its meeting Monday night, despite the fact the budget subcommittee was slated to give a presentation of their recommended alterations to the budget proposed by county commissioners.

The commissioners' proposed budget includes a 6.6% increase in spending, about $2 million, and a county tax increase of 35%, stemming from a 10.6% drop in county revenue.

After Rep. Barbara Comtois (R-Barnstead) questioned whether one of the subcommittee’s meetings had been properly noticed to the public — and therefore the validity of its business — considerable back and forth between representatives ensued about how the delegation should proceed. A motion to accept the commissioners’ proposed budget by Rep. Matt Coker (D–Meredith) who sat on the budget review subcommittee, was narrowly defeated.

In the end, the delegation tabled the budget discussion and adjourned the meeting. 

Comtois, the former clerk, said she was “at a loss for words at the incompetence” that led to a subcommittee meeting not being noticed in accordance with state right-to-know laws.

During and after the meeting, Comtois drew criticism from fellow representatives, who felt she had — for not the first time this term — raised issues of process in a combative nature with the design of impeding the delegation’s work.

“If you noticed a mistake — and you seem to notice mistakes every single time we have a meeting and not prior to that meeting,” Chair Rep. Harry Bean (R-Gilford) said to Comtois, arguing her waiting to raise the issue until the meeting was unproductive and theatric. The subcommittee meeting questioned by Comtois took place in January.

“I’m not here for spectacle. I’m trying to unite the party, and there’s a segment of the party here that’s opposed to everything I’m doing,” Bean said in an interview after the meeting.

“They think I’m happy about this, I’m not happy,” Comtois said in an interview. “This seems to be becoming the norm here: we continually break the law” by not properly noticing meetings and not taking votes in roll call when required, Comtois said. “If we don’t police ourselves, what’s the point? We need to let the public know that we’re holding each other accountable. ... If the chair is not willing to hold the delegation accountable, someone must.”

Tensions flared during the meeting when, after Comtois raised the issue of whether the subcommittee’s meetings had been legally noticed, representatives debated their best, and the legally appropriate, course of action.

“If the meeting somehow wasn’t noted, then, what would you like us to do from there? What would satisfy you on this?” Rep. Travis O’Hara (R-Belmont), the clerk, asked Comtois pointedly.

“It’s not about me, representative,” Comtois responded.

“It absolutely is,” Bean said, cutting Comtois off.

Rep. Steven Bogert (R–Laconia) served on the budget committee, and was named chair during the meeting Comtois questioned.

In comments after the meeting, Bogert echoed Bean’s statement that the issue should have been raised before Monday’s meeting, so that it could be addressed, if necessary, promptly. Bogert sparred with Comtois at a meeting in January over concerns raised about the accuracy of minutes and whether the delegation was adhering to Robert’s Rules of Order.

In Monday’s meeting, too, he said, “There were a lot of distractions.”

“Robert’s Rules of Order are not supposed to be weaponized,” he said. Though, “If there’s concern about [RSA] 91-A, that takes priority over everything.” Bogert, who had been slated to give the presentation of the budget committee’s recommendations, was the one who proposed that it be tabled.

The county budget, which funds the county’s nine departments, is initially drawn up by the three county commissioners. The delegation, however, as holder of the pursestrings, has full license over the budget’s final and official form. Representatives appointed a subcommittee of five in January to review the proposed budget department by department and make any recommended changes. If the delegation does not approve a budget by April 1, the commissioners’ proposed budget goes into effect.

Rep. Lisa Smart (R–Meredith) spoke up near the meeting’s adjournment. She felt the delegation could both address Comtois’ concerns and review the subcommittee’s budget in time. She stepped in, she said, as a mother would to quiet feuding siblings.

“As a mom, it looked like there was a lot of personality conflicts going on,” Smart said in an interview. “I’m an outsider, I’m a freshman here, I’m not well-versed in the terminology and the pomp and circumstance.”

“I respect everyone on this delegation, and I don’t try to take sides,” Smart continued. Comtois’ point was worth looking into, and she also recognized the hours of work the subcommittee had put into presenting a budget. Smart felt that the motion to simply accept the commissioner’s budget came across as retaliatory.

“Why can’t we do both?” Smart said. “Why do we have to sit up here and punish each other?”

As of Tuesday, according to Chair of the Board of County Commissioners Peter Spanos, the county was still looking into whether the meeting in question had been appropriately noticed.

If it was not, Bean, Bogert and Spanos all said the subcommittee is likely to reconvene in a properly noticed meeting and ratify all of its past decisions, and then bring a budget proposal before the full delegation.

All three expressed confidence that the delegation would be able to make the April 1 deadline.

The move to ratify business from a meeting whose legality is in question was recently used by representatives last fall, after a member of the public filed a lawsuit challenging the delegation’s Aug. 1 meeting, which brought about the return of Gunstock Mountain Resort’s senior management.