Sunapee’s winning French team visits the State Senate

My schedule for Friday shows three hours set aside for presentation of the House Bill of Address 1 (HA 1) by the sponsor and co-sponsors (I am a co-sponsor) to remove Superior Court Judge Priscilla Coffey from the bench. Three additional hours are set aside for the public to make their comments on HA 1 on Friday afternoon. Judge Coffey will have three hours to present her defense at a later date. This is an historic case as bills of address to remove office holders have come up only a couple of times. House sponsors of HA 1, including Representative Lucy Weber (Walpole), an attorney herself, have been putting in long hours of work researching and planning the presentation of the case for ousting Judge Coffey.

Last Friday the New Hampshire Supreme Court suspended Judge Coffey for three years without pay. Public officials from John Lynch on down want Judge Coffey removed from the bench. She has said the accusations against her are true. They dealt with helping her husband, who has been disbarred, to hide assets so they could not be recovered to pay for an investigation of charges against him.


Given Judge Coffey’s own acknowledgement of her wrongful acts, the fact the Supreme Court has found her unworthy to sit on the bench for the next three years, that major public officials have made up their minds on her guilt and thus the need for her to be removed from office, how responsible and helpful it would be for her to resign before Friday’s meeting. Her resignation would end the process and relieve the public and legislators from having to go through the facts and her complete ethical failure. If she does not resign by Friday, of course, the sponsor and co-sponsors will offer a convincing case why she should be removed from office.


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Several of the major bills of the session are still moving through the House and Senate. The House has passed two education funding bills based on recommendations of the House Education Committee. Now those bills face tough scrutiny in the House Finance Committee as together they contain nearly $1 billion of spending for the next biennium. On the Senate side, Senator Peter Burling (Cornish) chairs the Executive Departments and Administration which is holding a series of public hearings on proposed changes to the funding plan and organization of the New Hampshire Retirement System. Implications for state and municipal, school district and county levels of government are very serious. The goal is to take actions now that will cost less than if no action is taken.


On the environmental side, the House and Senate need to come to agreement on the date for implementation for changes in the Comprehensive Shoreline Protection Act. The changes legally went into effect on April 1, but the department and others feel more time is needed to apply the changes. The new date could be July 1 or October 1. And the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will be up for a second committee hearing this week. In my opinion, RGGI is going to pass but at what cost to ratepayers.


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Weekly sessions of the State Senate are usually scheduled for 10:00 a.m. but rarely begin anywhere close to the scheduled time. Part of the legislative process is last minute discussions, party caucuses and other negotiations on any of the 50 or more bills to be debated on the floor during a session day.


When the session formally gets under way we begin with a prayer led by our chaplain, Reverend Canon Timothy Rich. Next, a Senator leads the Pledge of Allegiance. The Senate President then says “Introduction of Guests” and Senators have the opportunity to introduce any friends, family members or constituents who may be present. Senators also have time to introduce and recognize individuals or groups who have achieved some special goal. Last Thursday, for example, several members of the Army Reserves were recognized by the Senate President to celebrate the 100th anniversary of reserves. Two state champion sports teams from Salem were recognized by Senator Downing (Salem).


I had the pleasure of introducing four members of the French III class at Sunapee Middle High School and their teacher Andrea Redican and to present them with a Senate resolution recognizing their achievements. The students, Jennifer Coverdale, Tasia Rechisky, Kathryn Milewski and Erik Skarin competed successfully in recent competitions between high school French teams to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City of Quebec in 1608. Jennifer led the Sunapee team and won first place in the competition and Erik received an honorable mention. It is important that Senators to see some of the many diverse success stories from around out state each week. It was an honor to have the Sunapee Middle High School French team with us on Thursday.


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Some New Hampshire weekends truly are memorable. Last weekend was one of those. To walk in the 5K Turning Points Network “Steppin up to End Violence” in perfect weather was a good, healthy way to get the weekend started while supporting an important local organization. And then to be able to putter a little repairing and painting fences and helping the gardener in the family get ready for the growing season was very enjoyable. It is a nice time of the year to call New Hampshire home.