Select Board cites state guidance as it reviews right-to-know concerns

Chairman Hoby Harmon said the Board would follow legal guidance after attendees raised concerns about communications and quorum rules. The meeting began with routine approvals, then shifted to a review of notes and emails from the July 28 meeting that prompted questions about compliance with New Hampshire's Right-to-Know Law (RSA 91-A).

Select Board member Mark Kasper read aloud a passage from the New Hampshire Department of Justice memorandum on RSA 91-A, noting the memo's warning that when a quorum of a public body convenes in a public room and engages in substantive discussion without a posted meeting, the gathering can violate the Right-to-Know Law. As Kasper read, he called out the memorandum's guidance that "attending another board’s meeting and offering input or participating in discussions without proper advance public notice converts that attendance into an un-noticed, illegal meeting of a Select Board quorum under RSA 91-A:2-a, I." The reading framed the Board's subsequent discussion about transparency and communications.

Harmon emphasized the Board would rely on the Town Attorney for legal interpretation and said he had addressed earlier allegations in prepared remarks. Several participants urged clearer written procedures and training so residents and officials better understand meeting notice rules and how liaisons and board members should communicate. "The State Memorandum explicitly directs that public bodies must deliberate on matters... only in public meetings held in strict compliance with the Right-to-Know Law," Kasper added, urging adherence to the Attorney General's guidance.