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Milton selectmen grilled on languishing Right to Know requests

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From left Milton selectmen Andrew Rawson, Mike Beaulieu and Tom Gray discussing unprocessed Right to Know requests from more than a month ago at Monday's meeting. (Youtube image)

MILTON - The town's attorney will be at Milton Town Offices today to process several Right to Know requests from both The Lebanon Voice and town activist Les Elder that have languished more than a month in violation of state statute.

Elder took selectmen to task over the issue at Monday's regularly scheduled meeting, telling the board he had submitted five Right to Know requests in May and June that had still not been processed. By law, selectmen have five business days to either reject or comply with the requests.

Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray apologized for the delay, but said with no town administrator, selectmen were hard-pressed to find time to answer the requests.

"We can only do so much; there's only so many hours in a day and only so many people here," Gray said.

"Then there's no issue in discussing anything else, because obviously the board of selectmen it appears to me have no respect for the laws of the state you swore to uphold," Elder fired back.

"That's absolutely not true," Gray replied.
In the midst of the heated discussion Selectman Michael Beaulieu interjected, "I don't understand what you want," then adding, "We're working strictly underneath the eye of the town attorney."

Undeterred, Elder said, "There's three of you that could have answered those requests."

Selectman Andrew Rawson at that point said he wasn't aware of the requests, while Beaulieu said he knew about them but didn't look at them.

"I was taking care of other things that were going on," he said.

Selectmen agreed that once the new town administrator is in place Right to Know requests will be processed swiftly once again, but that did little to tamp down the disgust and frustration felt by Elder.

Meanwhile, Stan Nadeau reminded selectmen they can personally be fined for violating the statute, part of which is printed below.

NH RSA 91-A, Reads, in part , "After the completion of a meeting of a public body, every citizen, during the regular or business hours of such public body, and on the regular business premises of such public body, has the right to inspect all notes, materials, tapes, or other sources used for compiling the minutes of such meetings, and to make memoranda or abstracts or to copy such notes, materials, tapes, or sources inspected, except as otherwise prohibited by statute or RSA 91-A:5"

The conversation regarding Right to Know requests is the first agenda item. Click here to view the video.

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