New Hampshire: Agency's problems not over

Source: The Telegraph

Kevin Landrigan

Aug 12th

With the latest controversy behind it, watch for the new one regarding the State Liquor Commission to emerge.

Last week we saw the highly unusual report from Attorney General Michael Delaney that concluded the SLC did not break the law by hiring a lobbyist, Clark Corson, to lobby for it.

Corson was hired by an SLC marketing firm, Rumbletree, to do a $30,000 study into the feasibility of selling beer in state liquor stores.

Since Corson has been a lobbyist for the beer wholesale industry for the past three decades, this didn't appear to be an "independent" analysis.

Clearly what this report revealed was that the finger-pointing and the infighting at the commission went well beyond former Commissioner Mark Bodi who resigned his seat in June to return to the private marketing/advertising field.

Enforcement Division Chief Eddie Edwards turned over that complaint about lobbying to Delaney's office.

The unusual part was it resulted in a public report that concluded the charges were "unfounded'" but that Bodi may have had a conflict of interest after Corson said Bodi invited him to seek the marketing contract and sought his resume.

Bodi denied he solicited Corson or asked for his resume.

And for his part, Bodi maintains he brought questions about this contract and other personnel practices to the two other commissioners months before the Executive Council, in nonpublic session, had asked him to resign.

Complaints are brought all the time about public officials to the AG's public integrity division. Many of them are unfounded. Nearly all of them are never made public. If the charges aren't fair or warranted, why give the issue any publicity?

Delaney no doubt decided this rumor about Corson had become so pervasive that the proper course was to release the results.

What's next?

The commission has been working for many months on awarding the next liquor warehouse contract.

Law Warehouse of Nashua has been doing the work for more than 15 years. About 18 months ago, the SLC decided to give Law another extension on that job but that term ends soon.

Privately, there's a lot of churn about this one, and given the dollars and the stakes involved, bidders have hired lawyers or lobbying firms to represent them.

Once the winner is announced, charges will fly. Count on it.