By Thomas P. Caldwell, InDepthNH.org

LACONIA — Arguing that they owe it to the taxpayers to make sure public money is well-spent, the Belknap County Commission voted on June 6 to withhold payment of the outstanding legal bill incurred by the Belknap County Delegation in defending against a lawsuit by the Gunstock Area Commission.

The delegation had approved spending $20,000 to defend against the Gunstock commissioners’ lawsuit, aimed at preventing the delegation from removing four of the commissioners from office. Delegation Chair Michael Sylvia, R-Belmont, and Norm Silber, R-Gilford, acted as a “control group” to coordinate with the defense attorneys.

The two representatives did not alert the rest of the delegation when the accrued legal costs exceeded the $20,000 appropriation, and the final bill exceeded $50,000 — two and a half times what the delegation had authorized for payment. (The law firm later granted a courtesy discount that capped the bill at an even $50,000.)

Silber refused comment and Sylvia could not be reached by phone.

When members of the delegation saw the over-expenditures on redacted versions of the invoices from Cleveland, Waters and Bass, they considered removing Sylvia and Silber from leadership positions. They ultimately tabled the motion, but asked for an unredacted set of invoices to understand why the defense had cost so much.

Those unredacted invoices, which the delegation made public, showed that the attorneys were responding to several emails from Sylvia and Silber, as well as Peter Ness, the fifth Gunstock commissioner, who the other commissioners had previously sought to remove. There also was a reference to the removal of Gary Kiedaisch, one of the Gunstock commissioners initiating the lawsuit.

Some members of the delegation and of the public took those references to mean that the attorneys were looking into more than a defense against the lawsuit.

When the delegation asked Sylvia and Silber to share the emails between themselves and the attorneys to better understand what had transpired, the two refused, saying that making them public would remove attorney-client privilege, subject them to Right-To-Know requests, and possibly lead to expensive lawsuits against the delegation. Keeping the emails within the “control group,” even though the entire delegation was the client, would shield them from lawsuits, the two men argued.

In a split decision, the delegation voted to pay the excess legal costs that had been incurred. They already had approved payment of the $20,000 they had authorized.

The delegation also joined Sylvia in seeking reimbursement of those legal expenses from the Gunstock Area Commission, which had ultimately dropped its lawsuit.

Several citizens speaking at the Belknap County Commissioners’ meeting on Monday night spoke against making that final payment without “full disclosure” of what was in the emails.

Among those speaking against the payment were Kiedaisch and former Gunstock Commissioner Brian Gallagher. They said they and Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren, had tried several times to settle the lawsuit, which would have kept the legal bills lower, but Sylvia had refused to consider a settlement.

They also said there was no legal authority that would allow the Gunstock commissioners to reimburse the county delegation’s legal expenses.

“I think there will be a public outcry if these bills are paid without some form of recourse against these two delegates,” Kiedaisch said.

A citizens’ petition had sought Sylvia and Silber’s removal from office, but because they are elected state officials, they can only be removed by the General Court in Concord, the delegation was told. Belknap County Commissioner Hunter Taylor said, however, that he believes they can be excluded from their duties on the county delegation.

“There was, at one point, a motion made to remove the two representatives in question from leadership. That, I think, is clearly something that the delegation has the authority to do,” Taylor said.

Commission Chair Peter Spanos said, “I think this particular iteration of commissioners have always prided themselves on being very methodical, very deliberate, and being very cautious of looking at both sides of the coin. And I know that a lot of these topics came up when two of us voted to authorize the $20,000 payment at a previous meeting.”

Continuing, Spanos said, “So here we are, $30,000 in excess … and it is my opinion that we’d be doing the taxpayers of Belknap County a severe disservice if we do not at least request that the full convention receive unredacted copies of the emails with that law firm.”

Commissioner Glen Waring took issue with the use of the term “control group,” saying it does not apply to a political body.

“I’m of the full understanding and belief that the 18 representatives are the client and, to me, they are entitled to all communication with the law firm,” Waring said. “Nor did Sylvia and Silber have any authority to incur fees to the county or the delegation beyond the $20,000 until they had authority by the delegation to do that.”

He added that the law firm should have been aware of what the appropriation was, as it was included in meeting minutes, and the attorneys should not have gone beyond that appropriation. He also said the delegation’s vote to approve the additional $30,000 was improper “based on the lack of information at the time.”

The commission asked County Administrator Debra Shackett to send a letter to Sylvia, as chair of the delegation, requesting a full unredacted version of the emails, making them available to the entire county delegation, and, “more important, that they represent taxpayers across the county, rather than the taxpayers represented by the two members of the delegation who spearheaded this effort.”

They added that Sylvia and Silber should recuse themselves from the county delegation. As Taylor put it, “If I were a member of that delegation, if they wouldn’t recuse themselves, I would recuse them.”