CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A union representing firefighters is suing to see the financial records of the New Hampshire Local Government Center, an umbrella organization that represents towns, cities and school districts and runs insurance pools for public employees.
The Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire lawsuit says the center and its subsidiaries are defying a 2004 state Supreme Court ruling that said such groups are government agencies that must comply with the state Right-to-Know Law. The law guarantees public access to government meetings and records.
"The Local Government Center produces information for cities and towns on how to comply with the Right-to-Know Law, yet they refuse to comply themselves," union President David Lang said Wednesday. "It's like they've got their eyes closed and their fingers in their ears."
The center's executive director, John Andrews, said the group had not seen the lawsuit.
The center "has been trying to cooperate with the firefighters in responding to their requests for information while respectfully disagreeing, upon advice of legal counsel, that such information is subject to the Right-to-Know Law," Andrews said in a statement.
He referred further questions to the group's lawyer, Mark McCue, who did not return a message.
The union won a state Supreme Court ruling in 2004 requiring disclosure of records by HealthTrust Inc., a health and life insurance pool for municipal and school employees created by the New Hampshire Municipal Association.
Since then, the Municipal Association has reorganized itself as the Local Government Center and several subsidiaries that provide health insurance, workers compensation, and property liability coverage to local governments and their employees.
This time, the union is seeking information on the center's salaries, consulting fees and spending, as well as its reorganization plan. It also wants documents it says it still hasn't received in the earlier lawsuit.
"Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars are going through that building annually," Lang said. "The public has a right to know where the money is going."
The union's lawyer said the reorganization was intended to flout the Supreme Court ruling.
"Since our case came down ... the HealthTrust and the Municipal Association have shuffled their deck," lawyer Glenn Milner said. "They're now maintaining that since they've formed these corporations, even though they're still public entities, they're magically not subject to" the public meetings and records law.
"Now it's just a monster, corporate-wise, but we're confident the court will see what it really is," he said.
In the 2004 ruling, the court said HealthTrust had to disclose its records because it was made up of and run by government officials and employees and carried out an essential government function in providing health insurance for public workers. It also enjoyed the tax-exempt status of a public agency, the court said.
HealthTrust argued it was a private entity and that once wages leave the hands of a public employer and are paid to workers, they become private funds put into the trust.
The old lawsuit, in which the firefighters' union sought minutes of meetings and financial information about spending on health insurance, is still ongoing in Rockingham County Superior Court, Milner said. The new one was filed Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court.
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