CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - In an April 30 email titled “Comments on reopening,” Robert Paul simply wrote: “Don’t.” Five hours later, Joe Condi sent a blank email with the subject line: “OPEN-OPEN-OPEN.”
The two messages were among the nearly 1,800 sent to Gov. Chris Sununu’s Economic Reopening Task Force between April 22 and May 1, when The Associated Press requested copies. The emails, which were turned over two and half months later, add up to nearly 3,000 pages of stark division over what should reopen and what should stay closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
In contrast to Paul and Condi’s brevity, some of the longest letters tackled what emerged as one of the most tangled topics: hair salons. Hundreds of salon owners and workers wrote in, many of them incensed by comments made by the head of the New Hampshire Cosmetology Association during one of the task force’s early meetings.
“I have never been so embarrassed in my 23 years as a stylist,” wrote Portsmouth salon owner Jami Barnes. “No one in our industry has ever heard of this organization.”
Sen. Sharon Carson, a member of the task force, said complaints about the presentation started rolling in before the meeting even ended, prompting the task force to turn to the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics instead.
“I figured the best thing to do was to go right to the professionals,” she said.
Salons were allowed to open May 11, with masks required for workers and customers and limits on the services allowed. In a phone interview earlier this month, Barnes said she reopened that day, and while she is satisfied with the current guidelines, she felt as if her industry was used as a guinea pig.
“The whole thing really came off as they weren’t taking us seriously or our profession seriously,” she said. “From the top down, from the governor to the task force to then getting the information to us, and then us relaying all this to our clients, it just seemed like there was something amiss.”
Many of the other emails called for opening specific industries, from tattoo shops to a business billing itself as the state’s only competitive and recreational aquatic training facility for dogs. There were lots of letters about campgrounds and golf, including a misdirected plea to open golf courses from a Massachusetts woman who included her children’s handwritten notes addressed to Gov. Charlie Baker.
Several other moms wrote expressing anxiety over their daughters’ upcoming weddings, while another complained that her daughter was two months overdue in having her braces removed. And then there was the email from a mom-to-be, expressing disgust that her “basic rights” had been taken away. “I am pregnant and have no clothes and THAT SHOULD BE ESSENTIAL RETAIL,” she wrote. “I don’t own anything that fits and it’s very unfair that someone can buy alcohol and I can’t buy clothes!”
Separately, The Associated Press also filed open-records requests in May seeking copies of communications between governors’ offices and health, business and local government organizations during a critical period when they were considering reopening plans. Thousands of pages of emails provided to the AP show that governors were inundated with reopening advice from a wide range of industries, and sometimes allowed businesses to help write the rules for their own operations.
The AP received records at no cost from at least 15 states, including New Hampshire. A few states sought to charge the AP hundreds or thousands of dollars. Many others still haven’t provided records, citing delays in complying with open-records laws because of the coronavirus.
Sununu’s office responded to the May 27 request three weeks later, providing 39 pages of emails, most of them from the New Hampshire Municipal Association, which raised concerns about the opening of campgrounds and sought greater representation on the reopening task force. But his attorney said the office isn’t subject to the right-to-know law, and communications with state public health officials fall under executive privilege.
At least 30 people who wrote to the task force invoked the New Hampshire state motto, including one who wrote, “I want to remind you that this is New Hampshire. Our motto is Live Free or Die NOT Live Free (sort of) and Be Afraid of Dying.” One writer addressed the task force as “gentlemen,” notwithstanding the participation of Carson and five other women.
“We had people on one side that said we need to shut down, and people on the other side that said we have to open up. And we walked a narrow road between the two, with the ultimate goal of opening safely and I think we’ve done that,” Carson said. “The people were heard, and the people were part of this process.”
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