Kevin Leandro: Elections for Gunstock commissioners would exclude some

To The Daily Sun,

Rep. "DJ Mike" Bordes (RINO-Laconia) recently stated that we need to take the politics out of Gunstock, I agree, but his solution is to turn Gunstock Commissioners into politicians that run county-wide in partisan elections. Seriously?

On Monday I testified against this silly amendment to HB 1397 that was introduced by Rep. Tim Lang and Sen. Bob Giuda. In my comments, I mentioned that it would cost more than $20,000 to run a successful county-wide campaign in a contested election. This is a very conservative estimate based on what it cost to run a successful campaign for county commissioner in contested elections. County commissioners only run in roughly 1/3 of the county. Yes, there are other county officials that are elected county-wide, such as sheriff and register of deeds, however these are full-time, salaried positions and are (usually) uncontested elections. Gunstock Area Commissioners meet monthly and are paid a stipend of only $25 per meeting. This extraordinary expense will limit potential candidates able to serve on the commission to the wealthy, like Gary Kiedaisch and Rusty McLear, and be prohibitive for hard working average folk who want to participate. This amendment a knee jerk reaction from people that didn’t get their way through the process laid out by law or through expensive frivolous lawsuits.

During his testimony, Kiedaicsh stated that unless you have run a large business with $18 million or more in revenue then you have no business on the Gunstock Commission. Sen. Giuda is a retired airline pilot and never ran a large business, yet he chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which appropriates nearly $7 billion, using Kiedasch’s logic, Giuda is grossly unqualified.

Folks, the current system of appointing Gunstock Commissioners works. It has for 63 years, Kiedaisch himself landed on the GAC using this very process.

Kevin Leandro

Belmont