State House Dome: Exec Councilor pushes for more input on PDIP

THE BATTLE over bringing more sunshine to the Public Deposit Investment Pool is heating up and the clock is ticking. As we first reported, a clear majority on the Republican-led Executive Council have been pushing for answers from Treasurer Monica Mezzapelle about PDIP operations. Their goal and that of a bipartisan group of lawmakers is to make it accountable to the council and Legislature as all other state agencies are.

Created in 1993, the PDIP is a financial instrument for all units of government in New Hampshire to gather public deposits and collectively invest them to get the best return. The pool has at least $750 million in it. The council wants to have a say over the seven-figure contract for the investment adviser to the PDIP when it comes up this summer.



They have asked Attorney General John Formella whether the PDIP would have to come to the council for approval of that contract. Formella hasn’t answered, but councilors fear he’ll opine there is nothing in state law or procedure that requires the PDIP to seek their OK. That’s why this past week Executive Councilor David Wheeler , R-Milford, brought to the council table an amendment to the Department of Administrative Services Manual of Procedures (MOP) to require council approval for any “contracts, MOUs (memorandums of understanding) or other agreements.

” At the close of the meeting, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she’d review it. With time a-wasting, Councilor John Stephen , R-Manchester, who has been leading the effort, is working other avenues.

The Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee will hold a public hearing next Wednesday morning on a House-passed bill on the topic and it’s expected to discuss putting the Executive Council caveat over PDIP business into state statute. Committee Chairman Howard Pearl , R-Loudon, is on board and has joined a group of legislators who wrote Mezzapelle advocating that some PDIP money be set aside for New Hampshire banks. It’s possible a few bank executives could be on hand to testify for this council contract change.

The current criteria for New Hampshire banks to play in the PDIP pool — at least $2 billion in assets — leaves nearly all of them on the outside peering through the glass. We’re told James Geary , Ayotte’s budget director, has shared his opposition to any New Hampshire bank set aside, warning it could affect the fund rating and thus returns earned on the invested monies. Stephen is ready to share the experiences of other states with flush funds like Minnesota, which has a 40% in-state set aside and does just fine financially.

Stay tuned. When you’ve got two commissioners of Health and Human Services at the Executive Council table, there’s bound to be tension. There’s incumbent Commissioner Lori Weaver and Stephen, who ran the agency when Republican Craig Benson was governor.

The pair have been circling around each another for the past few months, and last week it got a little hot. When Weaver saw the real prospect of losing a five-year, $18.5 million contract for a child welfare tracking system, she pulled out the Harmony Montgomery card.

She’s right. The fact the state was reduced to keeping tabs on the most at-risk children in the system with a paper files — not a real time, state-of-the-art network — came up during the murder trial of Adam Montgomery , who was convicted of killing his daughter while their case was being handled by state child protection services. Despite their crossed paths, Weaver has worked to give Stephen access such as the private demonstration her staff gave to Stephen and Councilor Joe Kenney , R-Wakefield, on what a new system could do.

But Stephen not only has the experience of being commissioner; he has spent nearly two decades as a consultant advising states about “smart” contracting in human services. He’ll keep pushing and asking questions. Ultimately, Kenney dropped his opposition to back the contract that cleared the council, 3-2.

Put one in the win column for Weaver. Tang Williams Lily Tang Williams kicked off her third Republican primary campaign in the 2nd Congressional District during the middle of last week, and vowed this one will be different if it’s a rematch with Democratic Rep. Maggie Goodlander , D-N.

H. The former college professor and émigré from Communist China tried hard but failed to get many exchanges with her better-financed opponent — just a single encounter on WMUR. “And I’m calling her out right now,” Tang Williams said.

“Maggie better not hide, because we’re not going to have just one debate on a Halloween night like last time.” Goodlander has not ruled out her own bid for the U.S.

Senate in 2026. “I want to usher in a new renaissance for the country I love — and to serve with integrity, honesty, and transparency,” Williams said. “It would be the honor of a lifetime to represent the people of New Hampshire’s 2nd District, who have welcomed me with open arms.

” Ayotte said there’s no need to panic about the Trump administration threat to claw back $80 million in unspent COVID-19 money. She also insisted, and state prosecutors backed up, that a Rhode Island judge’s order that suspended taking the money from 23 states and the District of Columbia applied to all others including New Hampshire’s plea. “We believe the court opinion will apply to us,” Ayotte said.

When Councilor Karen Liot Hill , D-Lebanon, asked Ayotte’s legal team if there was “still an opportunity” to avoid the $80 million cut, Christopher Bond , the AG’s general counsel, said there was. “First off, we don’t agree with the reading of the TRO (temporary restraining order) that the federal Justice Department has articulated. We think it actually does apply to all of the funds, not just the ones for the plaintiff states,” Bond said.

“We do expect, given the Department of Justice’s position on that, that there will be need for clarification moving forward at some point. But the short answer to your question is no, we have not missed our opportunity to avoid the clawback.” While Ayotte told reporters last month she didn’t think there was a way to get the Trump administration to reverse its demand, she instructed Formella’s team to file an administrative appeal of the decision that is still pending.

“Before you sue someone, you need to exhaust all your remedies,” said Ayotte, a former AG. Both Ayotte and Bond didn’t rule out the state taking the course of lodging its own lawsuit to get out from under this. “Whether we need to file in court, we are taking multiple ways to do this,” Ayotte said.

Bond added, “Going forward, all options would be on the table as we consider what we need to do.” Ayotte also confirmed Weaver at HHS has moved state workers affected by the cut if it happens into vacant positions. “No one has lost their job right now from within state government,” Ayotte said.

That’s what 1rst Congressional Democratic candidate Maura Sullivan of Portsmouth should be saying to herself after a campaign aide got just a little too eager on social media with her “I will run” announcement splash. “I’m a Marine Iraq veteran, a mother of three and a lifelong Granite Stater,” the post quoted Sullivan saying on both Facebook and X just before 8 a.m.

Thursday. Sullivan had only moved to the state only months before she launched her first bid for this 1st Congressional District seat in the fall of 2017, finishing second in the primary to eventual winner and four-term Rep. Chris Pappas .

The campaign deleted the post on both social media platforms. In 2018, Sullivan’s critics noted that of the $1.5 million she raised for that race, 96.

9% came from outside New Hampshire and only 2.3% came from within the district; about half of Pappas’s money was from donors in the 1st C.D.

In fairness, since that race Sullivan has paid her dues, worked hard for the party, and for Pappas, which makes her a more formidable candidate this time. Though the name of former Portsmouth Deputy Mayor Stefany Shaheen keeps popping up, there’s not a single sign that she’s mounting her own campaign. This nomination is too valuable in both parties to give away, so other prominent Democrats will take a look at it as well.

Consider former state Sen. Jon Morgan , D-Brentwood. He beat an incumbent Republican in the state Senate and last year raised significant money in his 55%-to-45% loss to popular Executive Councilor Janet Stevens , R-Rye, on the Seacoast.

A change in state law may be necessary, but Ayotte vowed to bring back a form that asks all applicants for state jobs if they have criminal convictions. The Department of Labor is taking steps to terminate one of its administrative judges after WMUR uncovered covered documents that Richard Brown had pled guilty in 2012 to money laundering, grand theft and filing false insurance claims. He was stripped of his law license, sentenced to 15 years in prison and released in January 2024.

“There was a legal change that we couldn’t ask the question on the form anymore,” Ayotte said. “I believe you should have to indicate that high on the form. I believe those practices need to change.

” Keep an eye out in the budget trailer bill ( HB 2 ) in the State Senate for some language cleaning up that mess on Aisle 5. Ayotte wasn’t about to say so beforehand, but she revealed she was not surprised at all that former Gov. Chris Sununu took a pass again on running for the U.

S. Senate in 2026. “I wasn’t surprised.

He’s got a managerial personality,” Ayotte said, alluding to the likelihood that the former, four-term chief executive might not be comfortable in the Club of 100, giving speeches and doing ribbon cuttings back home. It’s not often the husband of a ranking U.S.

senator is giving stock tips on Facebook, but there he was last Monday night, Bill Shaheen declaring, “I AM OUT OF THE MARKET — feeling better.” The move brought plenty of encouragement and some caution. Democratic fundraiser Jon Bresler : “Hey William we cashed out 20% two weeks ago.

..he (Trump) can’t be forever can he?” Ted Smith : “Sold off stock that would be affected the most in a recession.

Kept the rest hoping it will ride through and come out ok. Who would think he would crash the market. I expected it to be bumpy.

But not a crash.” Democratic activist Sonia Prince who works for Primerica Financial Services: “All??? We need to chat. Now you will have to pay again to get back in and pay more because the share prices will be higher.

It’s good to stay in the market as long as you don’t need all the money for the next couple of years and you are not in aggressive funds.” Three days earlier, the Madbury Democrat Shaheen who amassed quite a nest egg with a profitable law firm and many affiliate businesses, tipped his hand about his thinking. “Since Inaguration Day ( less than 90 days) the stock Market dropped 9.

2 Trillion. And you haven’t seen anything , yet. The world smells “blood in the water”.

All American will suffer,” Bill Shaheen wrote. “He (Trump) lacks every quality one would want as our leader.” U.

S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen , D-N.

H, was part of a Senate delegation that visited the U.S. military base at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba where the Trump administration has flown hundreds of migrants for deportation.

After the March 29 visit the group wrote Trump calling on him to “immediately cease this misguided mission.” “After examining the migrant relocation activities at Guantanamo Bay, we are outraged by the scale and wastefulness of the Trump Administration’s misuse of our military,” the senators wrote. “It is obvious that Guantanamo Bay is a likely illegal and certainly illogical location to detain immigrants.

Its use is seemingly designed to undermine due process and evade legal scrutiny.” Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, didn’t put out a press release after the trip. The Los Angeles Times first reported on the trip after it interviewed Sen.

Alex Padilla , D-California, who was part of the delegation. Others included Sens. Jack Reed , D-R.

I. and the top Democrat on Armed Services Committee, Angus King , I-Maine, a senior member on Armed Services, Gary Peters , D-Michigan and the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The House version of the anti-sanctuary city bill ( HB 511 ) comfortably passed over to the Senate last week, but not before a lot of House Democrats had second thoughts.

On Feb. 6, the House passed it, 351-6 with a half dozen Democrats in opposition. On Thursday, the same bill passed the House, 211-161 with 155 more Democrats in opposition.

Rep. David Meuse , D-Portsmouth, said President Trump in the interim had revealed his intent when it came to those without legal paper to be in this country. “The administration in Washington has made it clear that regardless of what the law says, it believes all undocumented immigrants are criminals,” Meuse said.

The state is still reeling from the highly critical audit of the Human Rights Commission but a potential new member has come forward to help. He’s Ray Pinard of Concord who has 40 years of experience on boards and is a former military police investigator and police officer. “When I read about the questionable state of the Human Rights Commission I reached out to (Ayotte Chief of Staff) Chris Connelly and let him know I was interested in cleaning up the mess if the governor needed volunteers,” Pinard wrote in his application.

“I am retired and have the time to devote to this endeavor.” If confirmed, he would replace Christian Kim of Pembroke, who resigned from his five-year seat on the commission only two years after he’d been named to it. The House-passed budget gets rid of the commission and would name two more superior court judges to hear those cases and do the work of the state Board of Land and Tax Appeals.

Law enforcement from across the state joined Ayotte who broke ground on the state’s new 911 facility in Laconia that will serve as one of the state’s two Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP), where highly trained telecommunicators respond to all 911 calls from across New Hampshire and remain the training center for incoming 911 telecommunicators. “Our state has the best 911 professionals in the country. This new facility in Laconia will provide our dispatchers and emergency response personnel with state-of-the-art upgrades to help them continue their life-saving work,” Ayotte said.

Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn did a lot of heavy lifting to get the project to this launch point. They broke the mold with the late state Rep. Laura Pantelakos , D-Portsmouth, memorialized in the House of Representatives last week.

Pantelakos, 89, served 44 years in the New Hampshire House, mostly as ranking member of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee and in 2013 as the first chairwoman of the panel. A 16-year veteran on the Portsmouth City Council and longtime waitress at the local Bickford’s Restaurant, Pantelakos was a quiet, reserved force of nature who played nice until you tried to cross her or took her for granted. You left that exchange with a mark.

Her old school style also meant she wouldn’t think of trying to beat you on an issue without letting you know in advance that she was coming. She’s already sorely missed..