Tom Tardif files for Belknap County Commissioner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 13, 2008

Concord- On Thursday, former Laconia Mayor Thomas A. Tardif filed papers at the Secretary of State's office for the Republican nomination to the position of Commissioner of Belknap County. The position is one of three, and represents the 1st District of the county, which is a Laconia-only seat.


Following the official signing, Tardif remarked, "I felt as though I had no choice. After the events of the past year, including numerous and ongoing violations of the state's Right to Know laws, the budget mess, the firing of the Administrator/Finance Director, and the continued disregard of specific process laws, all capped with a significant rise in the amount of tax dollars collected from property tax payers, I believe the County needs somebody to provide a degree of oversight that is obviously very desperately needed.

Referring to his extensive study of the budget during the past cycle and his understanding of the various laws proscribing how the county's business is supposed to be conducted, Tardif promised, "I will be ready to serve in the position of County Commissioner from day one. The basic operation of the County is guided by a specific chain of events that must follow a legal timeline as contained in New Hampshire's laws. I promise that as long as I am a member of the County Commission, I will work to see that they are followed.  Those laws exist for a reason - - one that if you look at them and contemplate their meaning, is to provide meximum access by the public in the discharge of its county business.

"I believe that there is no person better qualified to right the wrongs that have been exposed. I will be the peoples' watchdog for both process and spending.  It is time that someone steps up on behalf of the regular people of this county..."

Tardif served as Laconia's Mayor from 1990 to 1992.