Executive councilors hold up millions of dollars in contracts to protest governor

Executive Councilor Dave Wheeler, a Milford Republican, speaks to reporters after a Council meeting, Oct. 15, 2025. (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin)

At any given meeting, the New Hampshire Executive Council can face 100 separate state contracts to approve or deny. And those contracts can be accompanied by 10 or 20 pages of materials.

It’s a staggering amount of paperwork that can amount to 1.3 million printed pages per year. And this month, Gov. Kelly Ayotte is attempting to change that decades-old system and eliminate the printed packets, which her office says costs about $200,000 per year. 

But Republican councilors have countered that attempt with complaints of their own, claiming the Ayotte administration has not provided crucial documents to accompany the contracts it wants the board to approve. 

On Wednesday, the conflict boiled over at an especially tense council meeting. Councilors accused Ayotte’s departments of withholding documents from the contract packets. In protest, Republicans voted to table a wide range of contracts, seeking to disrupt Ayotte administration priorities until agencies agree to provide the information. 

One after the other, the council took up proposed contracts from a number of the state departments. And one after another, Republicans voted to withhold approval at least until its next meeting in two weeks.

Among the held-up items: $3 million in state funds to support the Child Advocacy Centers; $3.3 million in state and federal funds toward the Homeless Management Information System; $1.2 million in federal funds to preserve a bridge in Raymond; $640,000 in state funds for youth substance use reduction; $276,000 in state and federal funds for adult education and literacy programs; $170,000 in juvenile justice educational programs; and $849,000 in state funds to buy Coca-Cola products for state parks and New Hampshire Hospital vending machines. 

The council also tabled a $10,000 request by the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to reimburse for the temporary fences it set up to manage crowds within Franconia Notch during this year’s foliage season. 

“So the vendor provided the service that was needed, correct?” asked Councilor Karen Liot Hill of Lebanon, the lone Democrat on the council. “It was,” replied Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Commissioner Sarah Stewart. 

“It proved to be useful?” Liot Hill continued. “Yes,” Stewart said. 

“And now they are not going to be paid for the services,” Liot Hill concluded. 

Councilor Dave Wheeler, a Milford Republican, said the holdup in contracts was necessary to make clear to the governor that she should require her departments to provide more information. That includes, for instance, a list of the board of directors of a state contractor, or the secretary of state’s certificate of good standing, documents that he said have been included in the past. 

“Our concern is we need all the information we need to make good decisions,” he said to reporters after the meeting. “… We’re not saying the government overall and the agencies aren’t doing a good job, but we’re here — that’s our constitutional function, to be a check on the executive.” 

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Wheeler said he and other councilors have been pressing the governor to provide the information behind the scenes for months. He and others, including Councilor John Stephen, a Manchester Republican, brought up the request publicly at the Oct. 1 meeting. When the materials for Wednesday’s meeting were released without the requested extra documents, Wheeler, Stephen, and Councilor Joseph Kenney, a Wakefield Republican, planned to table the items in protest, he recalled.

Wheeler said he would be happy to vote for the tabled items as soon as possible, potentially via an emergency meeting over the phone, as soon as the departments requesting each item provide the additional information.

“The items we’ve tabled today, I am willing to come in, in between meetings, if you want to call a special meeting to expedite anything that needs to be expedited,” he said to Ayotte at the end of the meeting. 

Adding to some councilors’ frustration was Ayotte’s push to fully digitize the Executive Council’s paperwork process. 

Every two weeks, each of the five executive councilors receives printed copies of all contracts and other items that will come up at the next meeting, delivered to their home by a State Police trooper. Delivering the boxes takes up about 240 total hours of State Police time per year, the governor’s office said in a statement Tuesday. 

In announcing her plan to make the contracts digital, Ayotte said it would save taxpayers money and allow the State Police — who are facing a shortage of 57 officers — to better use its personnel. She also said the move would increase transparency.

Some on the council, like Stephen, have embraced the digitization idea. But Wheeler, a Christmas tree farmer, opposes it, arguing printed copies better suit his lifestyle. 

“I’m loading dump trucks,” he told reporters. “When there’s no dump truck there, I’m reading my agenda. I can’t do that (with) no cell service. I can’t do that.”

Wheeler dismissed a suggestion that the state provide councilors with printers to print out contracts on their own. But asked whether he would accept Ayotte’s digitization plan in exchange for a promise of more documentation, he demurred.

“A good negotiator never gives out his final answer,” he said.

For her part, Ayotte said she would look into providing the requested documents, but added she is committed to her plan of digitization. “We are going to look and see what of those items can we put online, and how do we get that information in a way that’s more transparent for everyone,” she said. 

One of the tabled contracts — to use $708,000 in federal funds to reconstruct a portion of Route 12 in Charlestown — sparked particular controversy. Liot Hill, who represents Charlestown, denounced the decision by Wheeler, Stephen, and Kenney to table those particular funds, noting that the road has been reduced to one lane for months, and that construction must begin soon in order to finish before the winter.

“I understand his concerns. I share the frustrations. But it is not right for my constituents to be used as collateral,” she said.