Executive Council set to vote on new YDC fund administrator — the first to be a political appointee

The New Hampshire Executive Council is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to confirm Gerard Boyle, Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s pick for Youth Development Center settlement fund administrator. Boyle’s confirmation would solidify the transition of the administrator position from independent to political appointee.

The YDC settlement fund is a pool of money the state set aside to pay victims who were abused in New Hampshire’s juvenile justice system. After a deluge of allegations emerged in recent years about rape, assault, and emotional abuse being perpetrated against young detainees, the state established a nonpartisan administrator appointed by the judicial branch to administer the fund. 

The fund operates as an alternative to the lengthy and complicated trial process. However, in 2025, the state Legislature changed the administrator role as part of the 2026-27 budget legislation to be a political appointee chosen by the governor and to give the attorney general veto power over settlements. In response to those changes, John Broderick, who had been serving as administrator, stepped down from the role.

Earlier this month, Ayotte nominated Boyle, a former circuit court judge, to be the new administrator. Boyle presided over the New Hampshire Circuit Court in Concord for 21 years before retiring in 2016. Prior to the circuit court, Boyle presided over the Merrimack County Teen Court, which was established to help rehabilitate young first-time offenders. He’s also a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.

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The change from a nonpartisan neutral administrator to a political appointee has been controversial and was done against the wishes of many victims.

“The confirmation of a new administrator to the YDC Settlement Fund does not undo the damage done to what was an impartial process,” Chuck Miles, who survived alleged abuse including rape and physical violence at several facilities in New Hampshire and now serves on the board of the organization Justice for YDC Victims, said in a statement to the Bulletin. “There are more than a thousand of us with claims still in limbo, and the fund doesn’t have the money to pay what we’re owed.

“I’ve been told to be patient my entire life — patient while I suffered, patient while I healed, patient while I waited for someone to believe me,” Miles continued. “I have waited decades for the state to acknowledge what happened to me and make it right. I’m hopeful this is a turning point, but hope is hard to hold onto when the state keeps changing the rules. Regardless of any single appointment, what we need is a process that is fair and independent. We were promised justice, and we intend to hold the state to that promise.”

Broderick, the former administrator, has been outspoken in opposing the changes, which he has told several news organizations he believes were done so the state could save money on settlement payouts.

“The ‘neutral and independent’ administrator the Legislature thought was necessary for the fund’s credibility only 3 years ago is now a fiction,” Broderick wrote in an open letter published by InDepthNH in July. “In what world does a defendant get to choose and remove the judge in their case and get to reject any jury verdict with which it disagrees? Certainly, none that we would respect.”