TROUBLE AHEAD: New Hampshire received $43 million in the national mortgage foreclosure settlement with five major banks, and the Executive Council wants to see some of the money used to go after companies that potentially committed fraud when they foreclosed on properties in New Hampshire.

At the council's breakfast meeting in Manchester last week, Executive Councilor David Wheeler, R-Milford, who has led the charge on the council, pushed Attorney General Michael Delaney to aggressively prosecute these companies “so this doesn't happen again.”

Delaney outlined his plan for an investigation and litigation unit that would seek criminal charges against some of the mortgage writers and holders who used shortcuts — if not illegal transactions — to force people from their homes.

Before the new unit can begin running, however, Delaney needs to have the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee approve three temporary, full-time positions. The money to pay for them would come from the settlement funds, not state coffers.

And that could be a problem because the fiscal committee has had an unwritten policy not to approve temporary full-time positions at the request of state agencies.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, said departments have added temporary full-time positions under grants that eventually go away while the positions remain.

“That's how they add new employees, and when they come in to do their budget, suddenly you've got all these employees listed,” Weyler said.

“It's a game. ... If you need somebody, put them in the budget and justify it.”

He said the policy is a way for legislative budget writers to “finally keep track and not see this creeping increase in employees.”

Another reason for the policy, he said, is the tight constraints on the current budget.

“We will listen, it's not cut and dried,” Weyler said. “But we do think it is a responsible way of looking forward to the next budget and not increasing it with inflation from additional employees.”

Weyler said he read about Delaney's plan and is waiting for the attorney general to present it to the committee.

“(Delaney) has been very reluctant to provide us with any information about how effective any of these lawyers are,” Weyler said. “I've asked what their batting averages are, but I've never gotten it.”

He said he would be more willing to discuss the new positions if the investigators' work would help bring money into the state.

But he said there is a lack of trust. “This (attorney general) is singularly the most uncooperative of all the attorney generals I've worked with,” Weyler said. “He's not forthcoming with all the information he's asked for.”

Weyler and Delaney have not seen eye to eye on a number of occasions beginning with a legislative study committee looking into the Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of tens of millions of dollars.

Last year, Weyler was the prime sponsor of a bill directing the attorney general to join the Florida lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. Delaney told a House committee he would legally challenge the bill if it became law because it violated to separation of powers provision of the constitution.

Eventually the Senate asked the state Supreme Court if the bill was constitutional and the court ruled it was not.

Delaney's opposition to the bill prompted Weyler to say he would introduce legislation to make the attorney general job an elected position instead of a gubernatorial appointment.

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Warned there might be some reluctance on the fiscal committee's part to move forward with the new positions, the councilors decided to draft a letter urging committee members to approve the new positions post haste so the investigation into the practices of some of the national financial firms could begin as soon as possible.

There is time to arrive at a compromise. The next fiscal committee meeting is not scheduled until Sept. 14.

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KEYES' PORTRAIT: Next week, the Joint Legislative Historical Committee is expected to decide the fate of former Gov. Henry Wilder Keyes' portrait, which hangs in the second-floor hallway of the State House along with those of other governors.

Questions have been raised about the authenticity of the pencil-and-charcoal-on-paper portrait, which was discovered in the basement of the Legislative Office Building in 2005.

The portrait had a plaque saying, “Presented to the state by Henry W. Keyes.”

Former state curator Russell Bastedo believes the portrait is of Keyes and not one of his relatives, but acknowledges that Keyes' visage in this portrait is different from how it appears in portraits done earlier in his life.

“He gave it to the state because there wasn't an official portrait, but that's speculation on my part,” Bastedo said.

The historical committee meets Aug. 21 at 10 a.m. in Room 100 of the State House, and the question of the authenticity of the portrait is on the agenda.

Committee Chairman Rep. Robert Rowe, R-Amherst, said he asked Carey Johnson of the Department of Cultural Resources, who serves as the state's unofficial curator, to research the issue and present a written report to committee members.

“If it is not Gov. Keyes, the committee will take action,” Rowe said.

“I don't think it would be appropriate to have his portrait where governors are if it is not.”

He noted the committee could only make decisions on the information that it has, and in the Keyes case that information has only been available since the portrait was discovered in 2005.

“Actually, I'm delighted to have something like this come up,” Rowe said. “I'm certain we'll have a quorum on the 21st, which we have had difficulty getting in the past.”

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PAINTINGS TO BE RESTORED: Not only will the historical committee decide on the Keyes portrait, members will also be asked to approve a restoration project for seven of the 207 painting hanging in the State House.

Johnson has been working on what Rowe described as “an extensive, thorough inventory of the state assets, something we have not had done before.”

Eventually, digital copies of all the assets will be done and made available for use.

“There are paintings in the State House that have been neglected for some time,” Rowe noted, and about 50 are in need of some repair — from minor to major.

Two conservators reviewed the 50 art works and picked seven that needed work on both the paintings and the frames.

The committee has a budget of $10,000 annually, but it is non-lapsing, and the fund now holds about $70,000.

“There is adequate money in the budget without having to ask for more,” he said.

With the help of the New Hampshire Historical Society and the Currier Museum of Art, two conservators were identified, and Rowe would like the committee to pick one at its meeting Aug. 21.

The last major project the historical committee approved was the restoration of the Senate desks.

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CONSUMER ADVOCATE: The state has been without the consumer advocate for utility issues since Meredith Hatfield's term expired after a majority of the Executive Council blocked her reappointment in November.

While consumer and environmental groups believed she did a great job, some major utilities weren't happy with the positions she took on some controversial projects.

The Consumer Advocate Residential Ratepayers Advisory Board has been pushing Gov. John Lynch to nominate someone for the position. Last week, he nominated Susan Chamberlin of Portsmouth.

Chamberlin specializes in municipal law and worked as a staff attorney for the Public Utilities Commission some time ago.

She also worked as an attorney and a lobbyist for New England Electric System (NEES), so she has some experience in the utility field.

While the advisory board is glad Lynch put Chamberlin forward, she was not the board's first choice, and some members are working behind the scenes to have the first choice considered for the post.

In May, the advisory board voted to send two names to the governor, its first choice, Donald Kreis, an attorney who was general counsel to the PUC for years and is now on the Vermont Law School faculty, and Chamberlin.

While he was at the PUC, Kreis was instrumental in working on the state's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which may be one of the issues with his nomination.

There is some support on the council for Kreis.

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DRESSING DOWN: State commissioners and division heads are regular attendees at Executive Council meetings. They are there to answer any questions councilors have.

They come for the meeting, listen intently until their items are acted on, then go back to work.

Last week, District 3 Executive Councilor Chris Sununu, R-Newfields, said he couldn't keep quiet any longer and asked Education Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Leather to tell Commissioner Virginia Barry she needed to attend more council meetings.

He said while he knows she is on vacation, “we do not see Commissioner Barry here enough.”

Barry does not show up at many of the council's meetings, Sununu said, until there is a problem, while all the other commissioners are at the meetings.

Bet Barry is at the council's Aug. 22 meeting.

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BEST WISHES: Wishing a speedy recovery to 4-year-old Anthony Smith, the grandson of Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester.

Anthony, who is hearing impaired, made news in May when Marvel Comic artist Nelson Ribeiro, responding to the family's email requests for assistance, created Blue Ear, a superhero who uses a hearing aid similar to Anthony's. Ribeiro's gesture was the end result of an effort to persuade Anthony to wear his hearing aid, a “blue ear,'' to school.

Anthony underwent open heart surgery in Boston's Children Hospital last week and is recovering as expected, D'Allesandro reported.

“I need him for my reelection campaign,” he said.

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Garry Rayno may be reached at grayno@unionleader.com.