By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
While the state continues to retaliate against former Division of Ports and Harbors Director Geno Marconi and his wife, former New Hampshire Supreme Court Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Maroni, it’s turning a blind eye to the current mismanagement at the Ports, according to Rep. Joseph Barton, R-Littleton.
Barton filed three proposed resolutions in the House of Representatives last week, one condemning the treatment of Marconi, one condemning the treatment of Hantz Marconi, and the third expressing no confidence in current Ports Director Richard Hartley.
“The purpose of the resolution is not to exonerate, but to shine a light on abuses of political authority, recognize the improprieties, and prevent these types of abuses in the future,” Barton told InDepthNH.org. “This is not a partisan issue; but a matter of the proper exercise of good governance.”
Geno Marconi is fighting the state in court for the right to a defense attorney in a civil lawsuit related to his former job. While all of the other named defendants are represented by state attorneys, Geno Marconi is self-funding his defense against accusations he harmed a Rye Harbor business.
Geno Marconi is suing the state in Merrimack Superior Court claiming the state is violating the law by not providing him with a lawyer, since the civil complaint pertains to his actions as a state employee.
“The denial of indemnification; especially in a case wherein the first complaint was dismissed entirely, of one defendant but not others wreaks of political sabotage,” Barton said.
Hantz Marconi is facing a Judicial Conduct Committee hearing on charges she violated ethics rules for her alleged conversation with former Gov. Chris Sununu. The retired justice maintains she did nothing wrong, but made a deal last year to plead no contest to a misdemeanor to avoid trial. She retired from the bench in February, and the JCC announced charges this summer based on the criminal case she already settled.
Hantz Marconi said soon after she was charged criminally that state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, her boss at the time, told her she had a right to speak with then-Gov. Sununu, but months later MacDonald denied it while being interviewed by investigators.
MacDonald has been on paid medical leave since July 31, although the court has provided no details as to why or when he will return.
“The continued pursuit of disciplinary proceedings against a retired justice by the JCC, after the related criminal matter has been resolved and after the justice has permanently left judicial office, serves little meaningful remedial purpose and has become duplicative, substantially moot, and disproportionate to any remaining public interest; and by all appearances is seemingly politically motivated,” Barton said.
The Marconi scandal consumed New Hampshire politics for the better part of a year starting when the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office began investigating Geno Marconi for alleged corruption. Marconi allegedly ran Rye Harbor as a criminal enterprise, according to Pease Development Authority Vice Chair Neil Levesque.
But months of investigation targeting Marconi did not find evidence of a vast criminal conspiracy. Instead, he was charged with violating the drivers privacy act by sharing vehicle registration submitted by Levesque on a mooring permit application. Like his wife, Marconi ended up taking a plea deal on a misdemeanor charge.
Hantz Marconi was charged with trying to get Sununu and PDA Chair Steve Duprey to intervene in the investigation of her husband, an accusation that Sununu and Duprey both denied. Court records indicate Attorney General John Formella personally initiated the criminal investigation into Hantz Marconi.
Barton’s third resolution on Hartley, comes soon after the PDA backed Hartley this summer following in the wake of a misconnection investigation. Hartley was accused of retaliation and harassment by employees, but cleared by a third-party investigation funded by the PDA.
“In keeping with the PDA’s commitment to transparency and accountability, the Board of Directors is releasing the unsealed minutes from its non-public meeting regarding this matter, which includes the findings of the independent investigation and the actions taken by the Board,” the board said in a statement released in July.
Barton was critical of the investigation and the PDA’s lack of transparency.
“Calling the review ‘independent’ does not make it so. Holland & Knight was selected, retained, and paid by the PDA—the same organization whose management and oversight practices were implicated by the complaints. However reputable the firm may be, an investigation commissioned by the entity facing potential liability is not structurally independent of that entity,” Barton said at the time. “The public has also been given conclusions, selected findings, and meeting minutes—not the complete investigative record necessary to evaluate how witnesses were selected, what evidence was considered, whether conflicting accounts were resolved fairly, and how the investigators reached their conclusions. The Board’s simultaneous declaration of complete confidence in Director Hartley further undermines the appearance of neutral oversight.”