This week on Manch Talk, I am joined by Right-to-Know open government activist, Laurie Ortolano from Nashua. Laurie takes us through an in-depth look at her case to make sure Nashua City Hall and the tax assessors office are functioning properly in an open, accessible, accountable and responsive way. (Psst: Guess what? They’re not, and she and other activists have been arrested to prove it!) (Double psst: What do you call it when the Mayor in a town gets special tax treatment?)
If you’re a #LIBERTARIAN, you should come to PorcFest 2021 (XVIII) because we’re about to enter into Totalitarian Empire Time, and the Free State of NH is well-positioned to become that one “cool little planet where everyone stops to trade, fix their space ship, and hire a mercenary.” You know the one, that free market, low-key spot where everyone gets along because they don’t give a shit beyond *trading* for what they want!
If you’re putting a village together for PorcFest (which is sort of the mini-version of this planet) please, invite me to speak to your peeps. I have a lot to say! Buy your $50 tickets for Dave Smith, Tom Woods, Dr Naomi Wolf, Matt Kibbe and more today! Get them soon, because we’ve sold a record amount of tickets and we may have to cap attendance! You. Have. Been. Warned.
A bit about me and my skills and 25+ years of experience as an author, activist, and attorney. My mantra is #LiveFreeAndThrive! My subjects:
* Independence/secession/”Yankee Hong Kong”
* ReOpen/ReBuild NH activities/critic of lockdown and Covid response
* Free State Project: I have been actively involved since I first organized PorcFest in 2009 and am the only person to have done it x3 including in 2020 like a mofo libertarian HERO!!! 
, I was the president from 2010-2016, got Edward Snowden, triggered the move, and now serve as Chair of the board
* Police accountability/qualified immunity, including a deep understanding of NH’s secret Laurie’s List, I’m an active and outspoken critic of police militarization, incl. BEARCATS, police radio encryption, drones, and unlawful surveillance cameras (lost my 2019 lawsuit, boo!)
* First Amendment/free speech, including winning my 2014 landmark and well-cited 1st Circuit First Amendment case affirming the right to film police encounters in public, Gericke vs. Begin et al
* Right-to-Know/NH Open Government, incl. court cases like Brady, Fenniman, Keene 5, etc. Suggested getting redacted Laurie’s List printed in the newspaper for Sunshine Week 2021
* “Art as Activism,” including teaching writing skills (I have an MFA in creative writing in addition to my law degree) and my book The Ecstatic Pessimist (which everyone should buy on Amazon!!! It includes 13 essays about my NH activism and the FSP)
* Politics and running for NH Senate x3 as an unabashed Free Stater and getting 45% in 2020, see Carla Gericke for New Hampshire
* “Liberty as a Lifestyle,” so how to improve your health, diet, fasting, keto, yoga, sleep, cooking from scratch, and my own transformation including losing and keeping off 65 lbs and living alcohol-free.
Learn more: https://www.carlagericke.com/about/
As the government asserts more and more control over every aspect of your life, going so far as to unlawfully claim they have the right to tell you what face coverings to wear in public, our NH police become less and less transparent.
They spy on us with ill-gotten surveillance cameras, but hide their actions from us. Does this sound right to you?
Traditionally, in Manchester, we had access to the police scanners. This was a simple way for the press and public to exercise some oversight over police actions on our streets, and to know when militarized tools like the BEARCAT was deployed. Around 2016, Chief Willard, in a backroom deal with the City, simply encrypted the scanners. NO PUBLIC INPUT/HEARING WAS HELD.
Today, since it is #SunshineWeek, and I serve on Right-to-Know NH, a statewide nonpartisan coalition of open government advocates, I asked Chief Aldenberg about how he will approach MPD transparency.
The Chief refused to answer whether any active MPD are on the current redacted Laurie’s List/EES. The NH Supreme Court overruled Fenniman last year, and the “personnel record” exception no longer applies. Nor, frankly, should it ever be permissible, in a functioning open society, for state agents, especially those permitted to use lethal force, to hide their own bad behavior from citizens. Watch this week’s episode of Manch Talk for a primer on the Laurie’s List, the court cases, and where we currently stand.
When asked about the dark scanners, the Chief suggested “that’s just how it is.” Chief, you have an opportunity to reverse course on this issue, and be more open and transparent. Please consider this.
The Chief also incorrectly stated the police log is updated every 30 minutes. It’s not. AND, not all calls are logged. Why’s that?
If the police log online is now the public’s sole “check and balance,” what reassurances do we have about the veracity or timeliness of the information on the log? How can we exercise any oversight? Is this how you establish trust? I think we can do better…
Please consider your duty and oath to the NH Constitution:
[Art.] 8. [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted. The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government…
ACCOUNTABLE AND RESPONSIVE.
Thanks for doing the Q&A, Manchester NH Police. I look forward to seeing us make progress on these issues to improve citizens’ oversight of your department.
In honor of Sunshine Week, this Sunday, the Union Leader printed the entire redacted Laurie’s List to show Granite Staters the shocking number cops with “sustained findings of misconduct” being hidden from public view. We discuss your Constitutionally-protected Right-to-Know, recent court successes, and suspicious rollbacks being attempted at the State House. Tune in to learn more!
Learn more about this issue:
Open government
Government accountability
Vicky Ayer of Gillsum is fighting back! She is a member of Right-to-Know NH, a nonpartisan group of concerned open government advocates. See links below to get involved.
From today’s Union Leader:
“Gilsum is a town of about 800 people with an annual operating budget of about $600,000, but according to resident Vicky Ayer, a good portion of that budget is shrouded in mystery.
‘We have no clue where some of our money goes,’ Ayer said.
The town spends about $200,000 a year in salaries, and another $80,000 for employee health insurance. Ayer has been trying for years to get the board to include details on the expenditures in the annual town report to no avail. The money spent is taxpayer money, and ought to be public, she said.
‘We don’t know who gets what and where it goes,’ Ayer said.
For example, Ayer said the town refuses to disclose how much it pays to the part-time administrative assistant, Robin Cantara, Cantara’s assistant, or the new assistant who also joined the town this year.
‘We have 826 people in town. We don’t need three assistants,’ Ayer said.
Cantara did not answer the phone listed on the town website on Tuesday. Cantara is also the town’s clerk and tax collector.
Selectmen have claimed they legally do not have to disclose the salary information for town employees under the state’s Right-to-Know Law, according to Ayer’s lawsuit. That’s in contradiction with the Attorney General’s most recent memoranda on the Right-to-Know Law, which clearly lists salary for public employees as a public matter. Ayer claims she was told by selectmen they had a legal opinion advising them not to disclose the information in the town’s annual report.
Ayer filed a Right-to-Know lawsuit against the town seeking to get a copy of that opinion along with other information. The town’s attorney, Gary Kinyon, argues in court documents that selectmen do not have to hand over any opinion received from town counsel. Kinyon did not respond to a request for comment. Select Board Chair Timothy May could not be reached.
Ayer said Cheshire County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff is now giving board members 10 days to come up with the legal opinion they claim allows them not to disclose all of the town’s finances.
‘It will be interesting to see what they produce,’ Ayer said.”
Learn more about Right-to-Know NH. We meet on the third Saturday of every month, and welcome new members to join our ranks. Get involved!
Interested in filing your own RTK request? It’s surprisingly easy! Follow this handy guide!
This week, we discuss the novel concept of self-ownership, whether the necessary systemic reform of government is possible, the wind down of Covid, and more!
Dear Honorable Committee Members:
My name is Carla Gericke, former Republican state Senate candidate in District 20. I live in Manchester, NH, am an author and attorney, and serve on several nonprofit boards, including Right-to-Know NH, a nonpartisan citizens’ coalition that works to improve government transparency, a crucial component to maintaining public trust in our institutions.
RTKNH supports this bill, and I believe another representative will be testifying on the organization’s behalf, so I am testifying today in my personal capacity as a voter, political candidate, and reformer. I will also submit this testimony in written form to the Committee via email afterwards, and ask that it form part of the permanent hearing record for the bill.
I ask you to SUPPORT HB480 in order to ensure the utmost transparency in the election process by allowing ballots to become part of the public record, subject to RSA 91-A, open to inspection by interested parties, and available to anyone who wishes to set their minds at ease.
Election integrity is a crucial part of any functioning government. More transparency leads to more accountability which in turn instills trust. Without transparency and accountability, Granite Staters will lose the last vestiges of trust in the system.
The NH Constitution says our government shall be “open, accessible, transparent, and responsive” to the people. In 1977, the legislature added a preamble:
“Openness in the conduct of public business is essential to a democratic society. The purpose of this chapter is to ensure both the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussions and records of all public bodies, and their accountability to the people.”
HB480 increases accountability by increasing checks and balances.
In 2018, I was the Republican candidate for state Senate in District 20. During the primary, the Libertarian Party launched a write-in campaign, meaning, if I got 30 write-ins, I would appear as a fusion candidate as both the Republican and Libertarian candidate on the general election ballot.
District 20 has 6 wards, and I picked up twenty-something write-ins in five of the wards, but only 1 write-in in Ward 11 (my home ward, where I know many voters, and where I could easily have expected at least 30 write-ins). It was clear when the Ward 11 results were read that something was amiss. I filed for a recount, and yes, something was amiss. The moderators failed to record the write-ins correctly, and I did in fact, receive enough votes to qualify as a fusion candidate.
Why were the write-in votes recorded incorrectly? I’m sure it was, as everyone claims, a mistake, an oversight, something “went wrong,” and that the checks and balances put in place “worked” to “fix it.” But the question also begs to be asked: Why did the system fail in the first place? Why was the original tally wrongly recorded? How often does this happen? Where?
Everyone here is aware of the current investigation of the Windham Incident, where 300+ votes were found for EACH 3 Republican candidates during a recount. Much like my case, this raises more questions than it answers.
HB480 will help address these sorts of troubling scenarios by allowing follow-up audits BY ORDINARY CONCERNED CITIZENS who are registered New Hampshire voters to ensure we have the most unimpeachable and solid election process.
This would also help identify, say, if there is an isolated polling station where there are identifiable problems and repeat “offenders.” Part of the goal of the bill is to ensure the accuracy of the vote count and *evaluate the performance of election officials.* In other words, it is the check and balance on the check and balance, and given the strange occurrences we are now seeing with increasing regularity, the time to pass this bill is NOW.
Increasing transparency serves to increase accountability and trust. Let’s empower Granite Staters to be able to exercise their own audits to ensure the trust remains. Please support HB480 to increase election transparency, accountability, and trust.
Thank you for your time!
Sincerely,
Carla Gericke
West Manchester
Secretary of State testifies IN OPPOSITION TO BILL!
I received this response from Heidi Hamer (D), Ward 10 Representative. I wonder why she thinks transparency is “dangerous”?
My sign from two years ago today says: “Why protect bad apples?!?” Why, indeed…
Two years ago, I attended the Superior Court hearing about making PUBLIC the “Laurie’s List,” a secret list of bad cops. The NH AG’s office, headed by Gordon MacDonald, who was recently appointed as Chief Justice of the NH Supreme Court (read my testimony against his appointment here), was arguing that there is NO PUBLIC INTEREST in knowing which NH law enforcement officers have been found by their own police chief after a 20-page procedure to be so untrustworthy that they cannot testify in court.
You have to lie, cheat, steal or beat people up to get on the list. At that time, the “Laurie’s List” had about 270 officers on the list. I believe that’s about 10% of the full-time NH force.
Judge Temple rightly sided with Granite Staters, and in April 2019, issued an order saying the list must be released, stating there was a COMPELLING PUBLIC INTEREST for us to know who these law enforcement officers are. Doh!
The NH AG APPEALED this decision (yes, the same guy who is now in charge of the NH SC), making NH taxpayers again PAY to support an argument that the list should be kept secret from us. Rude!
I remind you the NH Constitution says: “All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted. The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government.”
You’d have to be a statist to think keeping a secret list of bad cops hidden from the public they purport to serve is in any way OK.
The matter ended up in the Supreme Court last summer, where the Court finally overturned the wrongly-decided Fenniman decision from the Nineties, finding that, after almost 30 years, state agents cannot claim information placing officers on the “Laurie’s List” falls under “confidential personnel matters.” Doh!
In the meantime, cities across America burned with people protesting the profound lack of police accountability nationwide. Even here in NH, we saw marches and confrontations.
Sununu cleverly convened a “Look! We’re Doing Something!” task force called the LEACT, stacked with… you guessed it, 50% law enforcement. The commission made a few good recommendations, most of which, if I have to bet money, won’t be implemented. But, “Look! It Looks Like We’re Doing Something!”
At the start of the 2021 legislative session, along comes Senator Carson, who gallingly introduces SB39, which basically aims to REVERSE the transparency and accountability progress that took us TWENTY SEVEN YEARS TO FIX.
This horrendous bill did not have any other co-sponsors when it was introduced, but, after pro-transparency and pro-accountability activists testified to stop SB39 (me, RTKNH, ACLU-NH, etc.) several law enforcement officers jumped on the Zoom call to give, let me be polite here, very conflicting testimony about whether this bill would implement any of the LEACT Commission’s recommendations. (It doesn’t).
This bill must die if transparency is to live.
Granite Staters have the right-to-know what our government is doing in our names. Granite Staters have a right-to-know who the bad cops are. Granite Staters have a right-to-know everything and anything about our government, because if we don’t, then who do they serve and work for if it is not us?
You can follow my RTK work and other open government issues on my blog, The Art of Independence:
https://www.carlagericke.com/tag/government-accountability/
https://www.carlagericke.com/tag/open-government/
Due to technical difficulties in the studio, I only have the Facebook Live link for this week’s Manch Talk. Tune in while you still can!
This week, we delve into the election recount that took place in Windham, NH, where, strangely, 300 votes for all four the Republican candidates were picked up. An anomaly? A suspicious anomaly? I think so…
Senator Bob Guida has been covering this issue quite closely. This is what he had to say earlier today:
As the Windham Incident gains notoriety, I’ve received hundreds more emails, text messages and phone calls from you – our People – than for any other issue I’ve encountered in my 10+ years in the State House.Do not be discouraged because we’re having to fight this fight. It must be our legacy to our children and future generations. To those of you who are upset, please channel that energy into taking back your towns, your cities, your state, your nation from the special interests that are slowly destroying it, from the liars that antagonize us for their own political gain, from the treachery and retribution that threaten the Republic. Government cannot save it. Only we can. Only you can.Our fight today is right here in New Hampshire, and I will continue the fight to find out what happened in Windham. If it turns out not to be the machines, I am good with that. But we cannot relent because unless we can prove it was NOT the machines, there’s no way to be sure none of the 200 or so towns that use these machines weren’t compromised as well. This is not conspiracy theory. These machines are old and tired, and could well be having software issues. Some of you have shared that you are discouraged and losing faith in our electoral system. To be sure, there are forces in government that are supposed to work for us that are using every tactic at their disposal to make you quit, to make this go away. But I offer the following for your consideration. We need to realize that WE are the political system, unless we cede that right and responsibility to those in “government.” Many have, much to our detriment. Whenever I get discouraged, I hearken to George Washington at Valley Forge. His only encouragement was his faith, as he and his ragtag army had lost every battle they had fought, he was out of money to pay his men, they had no shelter other than tents against the bitter cold, and food, blankets and firewood were in desperately short supply. But he BELIEVED in a free America, and never gave up on it, and never gave up fighting for it until the Revolutionaries prevailed. He fought for me, for us – and we must do the same for every future generation, who won’t know our names but will be free because we took a stand and refused to lose. Washington once said, “Government, like fire, is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.” Thanks for staying in the fight.
Here’s the Union Leader’s coverage.
UPDATE 2/18/21: Listen to this insightful take on the Windham situation… which appears to have happened statewide… 6% flip from Republican to Democrat… guess how much I lost my race by? Dundunduuuuuuuun!