Ellms Confirmed
Former Energy Department Official Named To PUC
Also on today’s menu at the News Café:
Ayotte ‘Unaware’ Of Child Advocate Nominee’s Conflicts
Resolution Would Investigate Alleged Ethical Breaches
Prior to the Executive Council confirming Governor Kelly Ayotte’s nomination of Christopher Ellms to serve as the new chair of the Public Utilities Commission, he was grilled about his suitability for the job.
Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, who ultimately became the only councilor to vote against the Ellms nomination, said, “I believe the Public Utilities Commission requires leadership with a strong legal background and a clearly nonpartisan regulatory posture to ensure rigorous independent decision-making.” She said she was concerned that Ellms’ work as former deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Energy, which has a role in Public Utilities Commission proceedings, would pose a conflict of interest.
Councilor John Stephen said the biggest concern he had heard from constituents was Ellms’ lack of background in engineering, law, or finance. “You’re coming into a role that, in the past, those are the chief areas of background that governors look for,” Stephen said. Ellms responded that the statute governing the Public Utilities Commission’s makeup requires one member to be a lawyer and one to have experience or expertise in engineering, economics, accounting, or finance, but it contains no requirement for the background of the third commissioner. “I think it’s exactly why the Legislature, when they constructed the PUC, left that opening for somebody who’s not a lawyer, not a finance expert,” Ellms said.
Discussion: Ellms had a harder time with Liot Hill’s questions about how he would maintain independence, considering his partisan Republican background. “It’s a difficult question,” Ellms said, “because me doing my job well means that I’m not going to, to buck, ah, the desires of my bosses. So what I can say is that I have consistently earned trust, and I’m being put into a position by a governor who’s a very, very smart governor, who understands the law better than me. … It’s my commitment to follow the law.”
Ayotte ‘Unaware’ Of Child Advocate Nominee’s Conflicts
After a contentious confirmation hearing that led Diana Fenton to withdraw her nomination to serve as New Hampshire’s child advocate, Governor Kelly Ayotte said she had been unaware of the conflicts. Fenton had worked with Ayotte two decades ago at the Department of Justice and currently serves with the NH Department of Education.
During the confirmation hearing, executive councilors questioned Fenton’s ability to be fair and unbiased in overseeing the state’s child welfare system, considering her work as a foster parent and her marriage to family law judge Todd Prevett, who had been sanctioned two years ago for trying to use his position to waive a records check in a guardianship case he and Fenton were pursuing.
“I've known Diana since my time going back to the Attorney-General's Office,” Ayotte said. “I know Diana and her background; I was unaware of her husband’s background.”
Discussion: The Executive Council is doing a good job at vetting candidates and companies doing business with the state, perhaps having learned from its blind endorsement of Legacy by Laconia’s plans for development of the Laconia State School property upon a recommendation by Administrative Services Commissioner Charlie Arlinghaus. The commissioner had not looked into the qualification of the woman behind Legacy by Laconia, Robynne Alexander, whose record of unfinished projects and litigation against her should have raised an alarm.
Resolution Would Investigate Alleged Ethical Breaches
Representative Kelly Potenza (R-Rochester) said during a hearing on a proposed resolution to open an inquiry into NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald and other justices, “The New Hampshire Supreme Court is facing a serious and ongoing crisis of public trust, one that this body has both the constitutional authority and the institutional responsibility to address.”
Those concerns revolve around actions behind the scenes, such as Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi’s attempts to get former governor Chris Sununu to intervene in the criminal investigation of her husband. Hantz Marconi told investigators she received permission to meet Sununu from MacDonald. MacDonald himself was implicated in a $50,000 payment to Dianne Martin, a longtime colleague he had brought along as a top court official, during a 48-hour layoff that allowed her to collect state benefits before being rehired into another lucrative job in the court system. A third issue is whether MacDonald has received preferential treatment during his own ongoing divorce proceedings.
The Judicial Branch’s general counsel, Jessica King, argued against the resolution, saying, “The Supreme Court is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, independence, and public trust. An independent judiciary is essential to our constitutional system of three co-equal branches of government.”
Discussion: The House Judiciary Committee recommended, 12-5, that the full House reject the resolution when it meets today. Supporters plan to introduce an amended version of the resolution.
Just an observation: Each of the photos above seems to have “product placement” in the bottled water that appears there: Dasani, a purified water product by Coca-Cola, and Poland Spring, originally a local Maine product that was acquired by Nestlé Waters North America and now is owned by Primo Brands. There is nothing to read into this; it just caught my eye.