BY RYAN O’CONNOR

In January, Dunbarton resident Lori Davis sued the town under the Right-to-Know Law after she said she had been denied access to several financial documents.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 29 with the Merrimack County Superior Court claimed Davis had been denied “handouts” at a Jan. 17 budget workshop and that selectmen should have had a public meeting or vote concerning roughly $100,000 that was transferred from surplus to the operating funds.

Selectmen, on the other hand, contended they met with the Department of Revenue Administration on the issue and believed such a meeting fulfilled their legal obligation.

After hearing both sides, Justice Philip P. Mangones agreed with Davis and stated selectmen should address the issue of surplus funds at a public meeting, though he noted that selectmen didn’t break a law.

The ruling states the following:
• “The Court does not conclude that a Right-to-Know Law violation occurred concerning the “handouts” at a workshop.”
• “The Court concludes that the meeting at which the Board of Selectmen determined to apply surplus funds to the operating budget should have been addressed at a duly noticed public meeting.”
• “The Court does not set aside of the actions of Board of Selectmen. RSA 91-A:8, II. However, in the future, the Board of Selectmen’s determination to seek to apply surplus funds to operating expenses should be considered at a duly noticed public meeting.”
• “Neither party is assessed counsel fees.”

Selectmen Chairman Mert Mann said the ruling supports the board’s actions.

“The key thing in that ruling is there is no violation and there is nothing illegal,” he said. “The judge said we didn’t do anything wrong. Period.”

But Davis says the ruling only asserts her reasons for bringing the town to court.

“I’m very pleased that the judge has said they have to do this at a public meeting,” she said. “The question is, ‘Why can’t selectmen read the RSAs and follow them? Why do we, as residents have to monitor them?’”

Background

Though she was provided a spreadsheet that was used at the Jan. 17 meeting, Davis said she was denied other documents that were being reviewed.

“It started out with the accessing of documents. I’ve done that every year with previous boards of selectmen, and they have never had a problem handing out the department head’s budgets at the public meetings,” she said. “My whole point is, yes, I have the right to these documents. It’s the law and you need to start reading it and obeying it.”

The basis of her claim was RSA 91-A:4, IV, which states, “Each public body or agency shall, upon request for any public record reasonably described, make available for inspection and copying any such public record reasonably described, make available for inspection and copying any such public record within its files when such records are immediately available for such release.”

Mann, however, said she was vague in her requests.

“Nothing was hidden. Everything she requested and everything we were required to give her, she had,” he said. “The judge told her to be more specific, and if we’re required to give it to her, she’ll get it.”

The court ruled that miscommunication played a role in the disagreement.

“The attorney for the town never defended the selectmen’s actions for not giving me the documents,” said Davis. “How you can have three miscommunications in a row? I don’t know.”

Still, the day after the trial, but before the judge handed down his decision, Davis said the town provided many of the documents she had requested.

Furthermore, Davis claimed the town should have been upfront with residents when transferring the $100,000 from surplus.

“It’s the law, and every other town around here does it, so why do they feel they’re any different?” she said.

“They simply do not want to follow the rules. You cannot trust these selectmen. They lie and they don’t have the best interest of the town at heart. If it’s for the good of the town why would they hide it?”

But Mann contends that the board was under the belief that their meeting with the Department of Revenue Administration sufficed and that selectmen continue to be upfront with the use of surplus funds.

“It’s in the town report,” he said. “When we set the tax rate, the DRA says do not talk about the tax rate until we have officially confirmed it with you. We do this every single year. It’s in the town report. It’s audited.

Where is the big secret?”

In fact, he said, in the interest of full disclosure, he will even post the judge’s ruling on the town’s Web site.

“We have nothing to hide,” Mann said. “(Davis) continues to try to publicly show that the selectmen are incompetent – that we are constantly doing things that are illegal, but the ruling shows that even a judge says we’re not doing anything illegal.”