N.H. high court orders group to open legal records

By The Associated Press

08.20.02

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NEWPORT, N.H. — The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled last week that the executive committee of the New Hampshire-Vermont Solid Waste Project must open its legal records.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a representative to the project who wanted access to unedited copies of the group's legal bills.

The committee, which is made up of representatives from New Hampshire and Vermont towns, will not appeal the Aug. 14 court ruling. Instead, the project will do away with the existing policy governing the legal records in order to comply with the ruling.

"Our energies are better spent trying to prepare for the future and deal with the issues facing the project," said Glenn Smith, the chair of the executive committee.

The committee met for less than an hour on Aug. 16 to discuss the situation.

"The real clear feeling is that we're happy this issue is behind us, because we really need to focus on the work that we've been appointed to do," Smith said.

The project's contract with the Wheelabrator incinerator in Claremont, N.H., expires in 2007, and the energies of the group will be better spent preparing for the changes that will occur at that time, including the possible dissolution of the project and liability issues at the Newport landfill.

In 1999, Peter Franklin — then a representative to the project from Newport — sued project leaders for unedited copies of legal bills from the group's law firm. Franklin had received copies with portions crossed out, but was unsatisfied with the limited information. He brought the case to Sullivan County Superior Court because he said the restricted access prevented him from effectively doing his job as a project member.

Last year, the court ruled against Franklin, who is now an alternate member of the project. That ruling was overturned Aug. 14 by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, which said the New Hampshire district had control of the documents and that in the past the district had favored full disclosure of the records.

Franklin, who argued the case himself before the New Hampshire Supreme Court, has said he is pleased with the court's decision.

The New Hampshire-Vermont Solid Waste Project is made up of 29 towns in Vermont and New Hampshire.