Silber, rebuffed, abruptly adjourns meeting of County Investigative Committee

LACONIA — The chairman of the special investigative committee looking into budgetary and other possible-but-unspecified irregularities in county government had predicted the panel’s first meeting would be brief.

It turned out to be even shorter than he expected.

The first meeting of the County Investigative Committee abruptly adjourned after only 15 minutes Wednesday, after three of the panel’s five members refused to consider a motion to hire a lawyer, a recommendation urged by committee Chairman Norm Silber.

In opening remarks, Silber said the panel needed to retain its own attorney because the County Commission had recently hired its own legal counsel after the County Delegation voted to launch an investigation into the operation of county government and named five delegation members to a special panel.

The delegation has contended that 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.

Silber said the committee’s attorney would provide legal advice and do the necessary work to issue subpoenas to witnesses who might be called to testify, as well as to obtain court approval for the money necessary to conduct the inquiry.

But state Rep. Tim Lang challenged Silber’s move to hire an attorney, and characterized it as an overreach and waste of taxpayers’ money.

He also pressed Silber to define exactly what the purpose of the investigation was.

“I‘m trying to find the root cause of our conflict,” Lang said. “I’m not going to hire an attorney and spend county funds … and what are we trying to get to. I do not want to see a Washington, D.C.,-style investigation that just meanders everywhere.”

Silber said the handling of budget transfers would be part of the investigation, but went on to say, “There may be other issues that come up. For example, the question has come up whether (the Right-to-Know law) has been complied with with respect to the engagement of counsel by the commissioners. So there may be other issues. But,” he added, “it’s not going to be a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred, looking-at-every-department type of issue. But there are other issues in addition to the transfer policy.”

At Silber’s urging, state Rep. Barbara Comtois made a motion to hire an attorney from the firm of Cleveland, Waters and Bass. Silber’s question if there was a second to the motion was met with seven seconds of silence, whereupon Silber said, “Dies for a lack of a second. The meeting is adjourned.”

He then rapped his gavel and got up from the table.

Lang protested the abrupt adjournment, noting that there was one other item on the agenda that the panel had not discussed.

“We haven’t discussed what the next step in the investigation will be,” he said.

To which Silber replied, “The meeting is adjourned,” and then walked to the back of the room to confer with delegation Chairman Mike Sylvia, who had been watching the proceedings from the audience.

“Someone is taking his ball and going home,” Lang remarked.

As he left the meeting room in the County Complex, Lang walked up to a table where County Commission Chairman Peter Spanos and County Administrator Debra Shackett were sitting, and shook Shackett’s hand.

Asked Thursday morning what the committee’s next step would be, in light of having the idea of hiring an attorney rebuffed, Silber replied, “We’re considering that.”

“It’s just Round 1 in a multi-round matter,” he said.

Silber noted that the issue of retaining an attorney could be brought up again at a future meeting. No date had been set for the next meeting, he said.

“The silence was deafening,” Spanos said Thursday of Silber’s move to adjourn after being given the cold shoulder. “And it spoke volumes.”

He said the majority on the committee know that their constituents are “more concerned that the nursing home has oxygen,” Spanos said, referencing the delegation’s decision to reduce the amount for oxygen in this year’s budget.

Spanos, who served on the delegation from 2015-2020, said at no time did he recall members urging an investigation in county budget matters or other issues.

“There were disagreements between the delegation and the commissioners,” he said. “But that’s not unusual.”

Rather than launch a full-fledged investigation, Lang said Thursday that the disagreement over budget transfers should be submitted directly to a superior court judge for a ruling on whether the commissioners are guilty of contempt of court for violating the terms of an agreement that followed on the heels of a 2014 court ruling.

“Let the court make a decision (and) spank their hands, and then move on with life,” said Lang, who was the only member of the delegation to vote against creating the committee last December. “I’m not willing to spend taxpayer money on a never-ending investigation.”

He said he sent an email to Silber urging the committee members hold a preliminary discussion on what the scope of the investigation should be, but did not receive a reply.

Like Lang, committee member state Rep. Mike Bordes said he was opposed to spending money on the probe.

“We should not be spending $300 an hour (in attorney’s fees) for this,” he said, noting that the delegation, in its budget deliberations, had trimmed money from the line item for oxygen at the nursing home and eliminated funds for a covert listening device — or wire — for the Sheriff’s Department.

Bordes, who had rushed from another meeting, arrived just a couple of minutes before the motion to hire the attorney was made. Less than five minutes after taking his seat, the meeting was over.

“It was what it was,” Bordes said Thursday.