House Redistricting Committee: Public Hearing Schedule

by: Zandra Rice Hawkins

Wed Oct 05, 2011 at 15:00:58 PM EDT

All meetings start at 7:00 p.m. I'm posting the full list here along with the chair or vice chair who will be running it. If you can make it, please let us know. We'd love to send you information on back channels to assist with good questions to ask and points to make in your respective area(s).

Thursday, October 13th at 7:00 p.m.
Carroll County - Mountain View Community Nursing Home, Ossipee (Rep. Mirski)
Hillsborough County - Nashua Public Library, Theatre Room, Nashua (Rep. Bates)

Tuesday, October 18th at 7:00 p.m.
Belknap County - Belknap Mill, 25 Beacon Street East, Laconia (Rep. Mirski)
Cheshire County - Keene Public Library Auditorium, Keene (Rep. Bates)

Thursday, October 20th at 7:00 p.m.
Grafton County - UNH Cooperative Extension, 3855 Dartmouth College Highway, N. Haverhill (Rep. Mirski)
Rockingham County - Hilton Auditorium, Rockingham County Nursing Home, Brentwood (Rep. Bates)

Tuesday, October 25th at 7:00 p.m.
Coos County - Lancaster Town Hall, Lancaster (Rep. Mirski)
Strafford County - Strafford County Superior Court, Court Room 1, Dover (Rep. Bates)

Thursday, October 27th at 7:00 p.m.
Sullivan County - Probate Court, 3rd floor, Sullivan County Administrative Building, Newport (Rep. Mirski)
Merrimack County - Merrimack County Administration Building, Basement Conference Room, Concord (Rep. Bates)

Additionally, if you have points or questions to consider (keeping in mind that this is a public forum), post them here or email them to us on the link provided above and we'll help re-circulate. Thanks, all.

House Republican PR Alert: Redistricting

by: Zandra Rice Hawkins

Fri Sep 30, 2011 at 17:59:00 PM EDT

These poor House Republican leaders just can't seem to get it right.

Last week, the Chair of the Special Committee on Redistricting, Rep. Paul Mirski (R- Enfield), took heat during a committee hearing for the obvious lack of transparency and public input in the redistricting process this year. The criticism so bothered Rep. Mirski that, even though he had recused himself from the committee at that particular point to introduce and lobby for a bill he was introducing, he retook his seat specifically to negate the charges.

Disagreeing with the criticism levied by America Votes NH, Chair Mirski told committee members that the public did not need to be involved in the redistricting process because:

"It's a very complicated problem and quite frankly because it is a mathematical problem it doesn't lend itself to the sort of give and take with the public that may have been the case in the previous redistricting ... We have been holding off on this because we really have no way to utilize the public forum to get those answers. I just want to make that point." - Rep. Mirski, Redistricting Committee, 9.20.11

Never mind that public input sessions are a common and expected practice of past redistricting committees.

Just over a week later, though, Rep. Mirski is changing his tune and has announced a press conference for this coming Tuesday morning to release details on a series of 10 public hearings across the state related to redistricting. (Perhaps our poking around State House archives and the several inquiries to committee members past and present to determine the public input process and timeline for past redistricting committees caught his attention?)

(More below the fold)

NH House Leadership Continues to Hide from Public: "We don't need to hear them again."

by: Zandra Rice Hawkins

Thu Jun 09, 2011 at 23:50:04 PM EDT

House Rule 43 and RSA 91:A both call for such. But the leadership of the NH House and Senate moved forward today despite little to no public notice about legislative meetings that will ultimately shape the future of our state. A meeting about one bill this afternoon still did not have an official posting by the time the committee had wrapped up business for the day.

Committees of conference, of course, are seen by many as inside baseball. But for consumer advocacy groups and any Granite Stater seeking to be involved in setting (and protecting) strong public policy, they are a critical piece of the legislative process.

THE committee of conference - the one to hash out HB 1 and HB 2, New Hampshire's state budget - was among those that convened today even though notification was only given mere hours before it began.

Rep. Ken Weyler opened the hearing with a little speech that nicely summed up the lack of notice:

"We all had many hours of public testimony. We heard many of the travails of the public. We don't need to hear them again."

Weyler also gave direction that the common practice of standing against the wall when seats are all filled would not be allowed, and took a pre-emptive blow against any activity from the crowd:

"Our chief of security is going to make sure we don't have any disturbances and any, anything that's going to interrupt. We also appreciate the state troopers for being here to keep order because we don't have the time for any disturbances or any demonstrations."

Weyler, of course, is the same legislator who presided over a cowboy amendment to the budget bill earlier this spring that would have made workers at-will employees at the close of their contract. When hundreds turned out for the committee vote, Weyler and House Leadership refused to move to a larger room and instead forced people to line the halls and staircases in crowded masses.

It's hard to decide whether its shame or uncaring that most drives Speaker O'Brien and his extreme leadership team to avoid public transparency.

From moving the original House vote on the budget in hopes of circumventing the 5,000 strong public rally to ignoring their own House rules, this session has been an incredible display of secret meetings, misguided policy priorities and questionable ethics.

Ironically, just a day earlier thousands of petitions were delivered to the Speaker's office, calling on him to give at least 48 hours advance notice before the House veto vote on the right to work for less bill. If O'Brien can't manage 24 hours public notice, 48 must seem like an eternity to him. All the same, the petition can be found here.

Granite State Progress got word early in the day that something was amiss and began to print periodic, time-stamped listings from the General Court website as well as actual photos of the "official" board of announcements in the Clerk's office concerning the committees of conference. More information can be found in our press statement, located here.

Let the Sunshine In....Or Not.

by: Lucy Weber

Mon Feb 14, 2011 at 19:10:52 PM EST

First, some background.  Early last week, the Judiciary Committee held an executive session on HB 199, which had to do with medical screening panels.  The committee voted the bill Ought to Pass with Amendment by a very strong bipartisan vote of 14-3.  As the person who made the motion, I wrote the blurb, and was surprised to see that the bill was not included in the calendar for this week.

Late last week, in the discussion of another bill also on medical screening panels, our Chair stated that we had been asked to retain both screening panel bills in committee, and that a motion for reconsideration had been made on HB 199.  Despite this announcement, the division voted 6-3 to recommend OTP to the full committee on the second bill, as well.

This morning, the reconsideration of HB 199 came up in committee.  Our Chair told us that we had been asked "as a courtesy" to retain both of the screening panel bills.  One of our Republican members made a very eloquent speech, arguing against reconsideration.  He stated that this was exactly the kind of behind the scenes "business as usual" in Concord that he had run against, that the committee had considered the issue and had voted, and in the absence of new information, the committee should stand by its vote.   He deplored the playing of games with the division process set up by the Speaker.  Several other people on the committee, including myself, also objected to this "do-over."  The reconsideration vote was 10 in favor of reconsideration, and 5 against.

Thoughts on Municipal Voting Day: Right to Know Laws

by: elwood

Tue Nov 06, 2007 at 08:53:09 AM EST

You will occasionally see someone taking a couple of local officials to court, claiming that they had a private telephone or person-to-person conversation about a pending vote. Right to Know laws generally make that illegal.  (Often it is a newspaper going to court: they are the strongest advocates of Right to Know.)