Sen Bob Giuda: Gunstock belongs not to delegation, but people of Belknap County

I found the April 26 Laconia Sun article about the county delegation “seeking a more harmonious relationship” with the Gunstock Area Commission a brilliant act of political theater, as Mr. Mike Sylvia asks as a “sign of good faith” that the GAC pay legal expenses incurred by Sylvia and the delegation in potential violation of the law.

This is the same delegation chair who refused any attempt to negotiate a rapprochement between the delegation and the GAC. It will come as no surprise if the GAC, now controlled by Sylvia’s choice of political operatives and appointed by the delegation, votes to pay those legal expenses. But it cannot hide the fact that the delegation overspent its authorized budget, and should be held accountable for the very same thing they accused the county commissioners of doing not so long ago.

In January, when I asked him to consider a private negotiation with the then-chair of the GAC to resolve the issues between them, Sylvia’s comment was, “I prefer the hammer.” Now that the hammer might just fall on him, he suddenly seeks “a more harmonious relationship.” Some would call that political irony. I call it political deception.

The delegation loyalists on the GAC continue to interfere in the business operations of the mountain, contrary to the intent of the 1959 law. Two are office-holding Republican party operatives and political allies of Sylvia and Norm Silber, and the chair they elected, non-renewed as a Gunstock ski instructor for inappropriately interfering with other instructors giving lessons, was also the subject of an ethics complaint that was summarily dismissed by the delegation and never investigated.

This delegation has ruptured the relationship between itself and the GAC. While it hasn’t violated the letter of the laws governing Gunstock, it has flagrantly violated the intent of those laws. And in spite of the deafening opposition to its actions, it savaged a now-dispossessed GAC that turned Gunstock around and rendered it highly profitable and sustainable for the long term.

At the end of the day, Gunstock belongs not to the county delegation or the county commissioners, but to the people of Belknap County. To change the destructive paradigm that enabled the political extremists on the delegation to perpetrate what history should title “The Gunstock Debacle,” we need to change two things: the law governing Gunstock, and the members of the delegation who violated its intent.

I’m working hard to change the law. And I have every expectation that the good people of Belknap County will do their part in November by voting out those who chose to subvert it.

Sen. Bob Giuda

NH District 2