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Resident asks PDA to release April 18 nonpublic minutes after director Marconi indictment
Summary
A resident urged the Pease Development Authority to release April 18 nonpublic meeting minutes and to have legal counsel re‑review the authority's reasons for confidentiality, citing RSA 91:8–3 and the subsequent indictment of Director Marconi; the board said it will review the request and said counsel found the prior actions compliant.
A resident who identified himself as Jim Fernald asked the Pease Development Authority board to release the minutes of the April 18 nonpublic session and to have counsel confirm that the authority’s stated reasons for keeping the minutes confidential comply with RSA 91:8–3(III).
Fernald told the board that the minutes’ stated rationale — that releasing them would likely benefit a party with interests adverse to the general community — does not match the statutory language he cited and argued that withholding the minutes could have been unlawful. He also pointed out that Director Marconi was later indicted on charges including witness tampering and falsifying fiscal evidence and said that fact undercuts some reasons to keep minutes private.
"I recommend that the PDA consult legal to ensure that the reason that any non public meeting, minute confidentiality, make sure it's in accordance with, 91 8 colon 3 paragraph 3," Fernald said.
Board response: the chair said the authority had sought and received an opinion from the attorney general and from inside counsel that the PDA was compliant with the law and committed to reviewing Mr. Fernald’s letter. "Yes, we did have the opinion from the attorney general as well as our own inside counsel that we are compliant with the law," the chair said, and asked that the resident provide his written concerns for further review.
Why it matters: open‑meetings minutes and the legal bases for confidentiality are matters of public oversight; residents and watchdogs use minutes to check governmental actions taken in closed session. The resident requested both release of the April 18 minutes and that the board ensure any confidentiality determinations conform precisely to RSA 91:8–3(III).
Next steps: the chair asked the resident to submit a written letter to the executive director and said the board will review the objections and the relevant legal opinions again; no immediate vote or motion to unseal minutes occurred at the meeting.
