North Hampton officials critical of LGC head [The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester]

June 10--NORTH HAMPTON -- The town Select Board late last month wrote a letter to the chairman of the New Hampshire Local Government Center board demanding a personal meeting and criticizing the abilities of interim Executive Director George Bald.

The letter, sent to Board Chairman Thomas Enright, stems from Bald's appearance at a May 6 Select Board meeting, at which he was unable to provide the board with answers to several questions, including when and how LGC planned to live up to parts of an order by hearings officer Donald Mitchell that call for the public insurance services administrator to return $53 million to member towns, cities and school districts.

"While he was very pleasant, even when questioned rigorously, his answers to questions the Select Board put to him were not reassuring," the May 28 letter reads.

Bald told the board at that meeting that he hoped to have answers "by August" as to how LGC would comply with the order, which in part calls for returning $17 million that was taken from members of the agency's health insurance risk pool and used to subsidize a workers' compensation program. The order determined that, because the members of the two risk pools didn't match, the transfers of money were improper.

However, the workers' compensation program has no cash reserves and LGC officials are struggling with how they will pay the money back. Bald, as of late last week, said he still didn't have an answer he was able to discuss publicly, but said LGC will comply with the order and isn't in contempt of its provisions. Payments of $33 million and $3 million in surplus funds are due Sept. 1 to members of the health insurance and property-liability risk pools, respectively. The $17 million payment is due Dec. 1.

"We are implementing all of the Mitchell order," Bald said.

The Select Board letter said LGC needed new leadership.

"Simply continuing to manage as in the past will not remedy the current situation; rather, it will either continue it or worsen it by perpetuating root causes of the LGC's problems, which most notably include lack of adequate expertise on the Board(s) of Directors and on the management team," the letter reads.

Bald spent decades in public service, including serving as mayor of Somersworth, executive director of the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth and last year retired as commissioner of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development.

But the Select Board wrote that LGC needs someone in charge who "is deeply knowledgeable and experienced -- at the most senior level -- in managing property and casualty insurance operations on a large scale."

"While obviously experienced in local government in New Hampshire, Mr. Bald did not appear to be well qualified on these dimensions," the letter reads.

Enright could not be reached for comment and Bald said he had little reaction to the letter.

"As far as my competence, it's their opinion," he said. "I'm not going to argue with them."

Bald was hired in February for a six-month term with a $90,000 salary. He said early in his term that he would not work beyond his six-month contract. However, last week, he said he would not confirm whether he was still planning to step down when his current contract expires.

"I want to do my best in my time here," he said recently. "I'll leave it at that and see where we are in another month."

[email protected]

------

___

(c)2013 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.)

Visit The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.) at www.unionleader.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services