Freedom of the Press be damned: Not a citizen of New Hampshire? No RTK docs

Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series focusing on The Rochester Voice v. City of Rochester complaint over the city's refusal to honor digital Right to Know requests made by The Rochester Voice. The city of Rochester contends it doesn't have to comply with such requests, because Rochester Voice editor Harrison Thorp is not a New Hampshire citizen.

ROCHESTER - In a sad but ironic twist, The Rochester Voice learned on Election Day, a day that celebrates our democracy, that the state's newly formed Right to Know Ombudsman's Office declined to make a ruling on the digital daily's complaint that the City of Rochester had violated 91-A, the state statute that governs Right to Know policy.
In an eight-page decision written by RTK Ombudsman Attr. Thomas Kehr, he concluded that "A host of legal questions, some of potentially constitutional magnitude, underly (sic) the core issued identified in this case. As a matter of institutional authority and the sound structure of government, the RKO (Right to Know Ombudsman) believes that his agency is not the suitable forum in which to address such matters."
In conclusion Kehr deferred the issue of resolving the case to either judicial or legislative review, but opined that The Rochester Voice should have standing to receive Right to Know documents by saying this in conclusion:
"(The RTK Ombudsaan) is nonetheless charged with speedily resolving such cases presented to him. On the facts of this particular case, where an individual residing in a Maine municipality neighboring Rochester operates a local 'online newspaper' under a registered New Hampshire trade name and who, in that capacity, possesses a Milton, NH, mailing address, the RKO concludes that (whatever the word 'citizen' might ultimately be declared to mean by those with the definitive authority to make such a multi-faceted determination) the term would likely be viewed as sufficiently expansive to encompass the enterprise undertaken by Mr. Thorp in this case."
The above graph appears to support Rochester Voice editor Harrison Thorp's position that his "enterprise" to cover Rochester news is "sufficient" to allow him to be granted Right to Know requests from the city of Rochester, but Rochester City Attorney Terence O'Rourke said on Wednesday that the city's position has not changed: Not a citizen of New Hampshire, no digital access to Right to Know documents (as had been supplied to The Rochester Voice since 2017).
"The Decision states that the RKO is without authority to decide the issue of the definition of "citizen" in RSA 91-A:4 and that the issue can only be decided by the judicial and legislative courts," O'Rourke wrote in an email sent The Rochester Voice. "Anything he said after that is merely his personal opinion and, as he noted in the final paragraph of the Decision, his opinion on the issue does not carry the weight of law. As such, nothing has changed between you and the City regarding requests for governmental records."
The RKO's eight-page decision can be viewed in its entirety below:

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