Heidi Preuss: Gunstock commission’s primary goal should be supporting team, not creating hurdles

To The Daily Sun,

I found last week’s Gunstock Area Commissioners meeting alarming. Commissioner David Strang seems to have goals other than supporting Gunstock to be its best. He once again demonstrated he does not have the needed skills for this position. I can only assume the delegation selected him and Commissioner Doug Lambert over other highly qualified applicants based on a shared political agenda not on what is in our best interest. We have an incredible ski area management team that has brought true professionalism to Gunstock. People that actually know what they are doing and have lifetimes’ of experience doing it. The commission’s primary objective should be aiding and supporting this team, not creating arbitrary hurdles.

Commissioner Strang is still a wet behind the ears commissioner but when speaking about a subject he likely knows nothing, his comment was “who do you think runs this ski area”. Commissioner Strang is a member of a couple-hour-a-month oversight board, not running the ski area, nor is he qualified to. Now head of a newly created and unnecessary audit committee he has added, a delegate, someone who will vote for his next election to this commission, and a “Joe Taxpayer” who just happens to be a fellow political operative running for office. Qualifications? Transparency? No. This is no audit committee. Audit committees exist for massive corporations (GM, Google) or if a board lacks expertise. If Chair Peter Ness, a 37-year tax lawyer, did not feel he was qualified to review the audit then perhaps actual CPAs or other corporate audit experts should have been found, not a random political posse. There were other cringeworthy moments and I highly suggest more people regularly attend. This commission is a reflection of the local representatives we vote for. Consider this and vote carefully in November.

Heidi Preuss

Laconia