GILFORD — The Belknap County Delegation accepted two resignations from the Gunstock Area Commission on August 1 before naming a new commissioner and accepting a third conditional resignation that had been given verbally. With those votes, Gunstock’s senior management team, which had resigned on July 20, returned to work in preparation for the upcoming SoulFest event.
The legality of those decisions, however, is in dispute.
Belknap County Attorney Andrew Livernois acknowledged that Monday’s emergency meeting falls in a legal gray area, but said he believed the meeting would be legal under the provisions of both RSA 91-A, the so-called Right-To-Know law, and RSA 24:9, which addresses the meetings of county conventions.
Even if the meeting were improper, Livernois noted that the New Hampshire Supreme Court “has made it clear that in situations where the County Convention mistakenly holds a meeting that was improperly noticed, the defect can later be cured by simply posting another meeting within the statutory deadlines, and then having the members ratify their prior decision.”
Representative Michael Sylvia (R-Belmont), chair of the delegation, maintained that the meeting would be illegal, based on regular notification requirements that call for a week’s notice, and he argued that only he could schedule a meeting. Representative Harry Bean (R-Gilford) and nine other representatives called for the meeting on 24 hours’ notice, following a special meeting of the Gunstock Area Commission on July 31.
Several members of the delegation, including Sylvia and Clerk Barbara Comtois (R-Center Barnstead) did not attend the meeting, which took place at Gunstock Mountain Resort’s main lodge. (Vice-Chair Raymond Howard Jr. (R-Alton) has moved out of state, so is no longer a member of the delegation.) Nine members did attend, with a 10th participating remotely. The meeting would need nine participants to ensure a quorum to conduct business.
Representative Juliet Harvey-Bolia (R-Tilton) served as secretary pro-tem to record the votes, and the delegation members present named Bean as chair pro-tem and Representative Gregg Hough (R-Laconia) as vice-chair pro-tem.
The first order of business once the housekeeping items had been taken care of was to accept the resignations of Gunstock commissioners Gary Kiedaisch and Peter Ness. Kiedaisch had resigned on July 20 in a show of solidarity with the departing management team, but he later tried to withdraw his resignation. Ness resigned under pressure on July 29.
With the mountain largely shut down in the wake of their resignations, the management team had agreed to return if Ness, who was serving as chair of the Gunstock Area Commission, and Dr. David Strang, who was vice-chair, would resign or be dismissed by the delegation. While Ness initially resisted the call for his resignation, he did agree to leave during a non-public session on July 29.
Strang still had not resigned by Sunday’s commission meeting. He said that to resign and leave only two commissioners in place would cripple the GAC because it would no longer have a quorum. He finally said he would leave if the county delegation, which has appointment and dismissal authority for the commission, should appoint another member so the GAC could continue to conduct business.
That is what the delegation did on Monday. They had received letters of interest from nine potential appointees and they interviewed the applicants who attended Monday evening’s meeting, as well as allowing anyone in the audience to express a willingness to serve.
Among the latter was Bob Durfee, who had served as a Gunstock commissioner from 2004 to 2019. An employee of DuBois & King, Durfee is engaged in the engineering work for an upgrade of Gunstock’s parking lot. He assured the representatives that he would abstain from any votes involving the use of his firm if he were to serve on the commission.
Several members gave Durfee their votes, but Denise Conroy of Alton, whose husband is a ski instructor at Gunstock, received more votes and ultimately won the position, which runs to November 2023.
Conroy touted her skills as a business executive of 26 years, including a seasonal business with 10,000 employees, and her success as chief marketing officer at HGTV, where she took the network from $750 million in annual revenue to $1 billion. She also is a hunting, fishing, and shooting enthusiast.
She said that “good boards” do not treat the staff as badly as the Gunstock commission has treated its employees. “We oversee, we advise, and we partner with management,” she said. “We ask management what they need, how we can support them, and we have to be the cooler heads in the room.”
Once Conroy was sworn in, the delegation returned to the question of Strang’s verbal resignation. Hough made the motion to accept it, and several other members rushed to offer a second, prompting the audience to shout with extended applause.
“In the Gunstock Area Commission meeting held here yesterday, on July 31, Commissioner Strang gave his conditions for resignation,” Hough said. “He stated that if the GAC had a quorum to do business, he would tender his resignation. Today, we have appointed a commissioner that will fulfill the commissioner strength requirements, and now we should accept his word and his integrity and vote to accept his resignation.”
All of those present, with the exception of Thomas Ploszaj (R-Center Harbor), voted to accept the resignation.
Tom Day, in returning as president and general manager of Gunstock, said the team was ready to get to work.