CHAPTER 162-H ENERGY FACILITY EVALUATION, SITING, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION
Section 162-H:4-b
162-H:4-b Public Members. –
I. The governor, with the consent of the council, shall appoint 5 public members to serve on the committee or subcommittees as prescribed in this section. Such public members shall be residents of the state of New Hampshire with expertise or experience in one or more of the following areas: public deliberative or adjudicative proceedings; business management; environmental protection; natural resource protection; energy facility design, construction, operation, or management; community and regional planning or economic development; municipal or county government; or the governing of unincorporated places.
II. The public members shall serve 4-year terms and until their successors are appointed and qualified. Initial terms shall be staggered so that no more than 2/5 of the members' terms shall expire in the same year. Any public member chosen to fill a vacancy occurring other than by expiration of term shall be appointed for the unexpired term of the member who is succeeded.
III. At the time of appointment under paragraph I, 2 of the public members shall be designated as full committee members, as provided in RSA 162-H:3, I(f), at least one of whom shall be a member in good standing of the New Hampshire Bar Association. The terms of full members shall expire 2 years apart.
IV. All of the public members shall constitute a pool from which the chairperson of the committee shall draw for purposes of paragraphs V and VI. The chairperson may publish an impartial methodology that shall be used to determine when the chairperson may remove a public member from the pool for a particular draw based on criteria aimed at distributing the workload among public members. The development of such methodology shall not be subject to RSA 541-A.
V. When forming a subcommittee, the chairperson shall select from the pool, by a random draw, the one or 2 public members required to be on the subcommittee, as prescribed in RSA 162-H:4-a.
VI. If at any time a public member must recuse himself or herself from a matter before the committee or a subcommittee or is not otherwise available for good reason, the chairperson shall replace such member with another public member by means of a random draw from the pool of public members.
VII. No public member nor any member of his or her family shall receive income from energy facilities within the jurisdiction of the committee. The public members shall comply with RSA 15-A and RSA 15-B.
VIII. Any public member may be removed from office by the governor and council for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct or malfeasance in office, after being given a written statement of the charges and an opportunity to be heard.