The Concord School District Charter Commission got a big surprise in a June 3 letter from the NH Attorney General’s office, that it was illegal for them to add a charter provision requiring campaign finance disclosure for School Board candidates to the district charter because there was no law specifically allowing it. Never mind that the District has a larger budget than hundreds of municipalities that allow it, or that the Attorney General’s office had 10 years ago approved a charter provision requiring campaign finance disclosure for candidates for the Charter Commission which has a budget of a few thousand dollars.
The next big surprise was that the commission then voted to remove the disclosure for Charter Commission candidates. The requirements for City Council candidates are both too strict and too lenient. Someone who spends nothing still needs to file three notarized statements, free services are not included, there is no financial penalty, and those who receive or disburse money more than 2 weeks after the election may never need to report it. The School Board and City Council should work together on a better ordinance, and one of Concord’s multitudinous state legislators should sponsor a bill to authorize it.
Roy Schweiker
Concord