A Carroll County commissioner who has faced scrutiny over his role as a paid consultant for a county-level broadband committee says he will resign at the end of August, citing personal and medical reasons.
Matthew Plache originally announced his resignation in March, saying he would step down in mid-May. He said he decided to stay on after another commissioner stepped down, to ease the transition for the county.
“I am proud of what I have accomplished as a commissioner, however my efforts have come with great sacrifices in my personal life,” Plache told NHPR in an emailed statement. “I wish to refocus my efforts on my family, my health and my private life.”
He announced his resignation at a Carroll County Commissioners meeting July 20. At the meeting, Plache said his stepping down had nothing to do with his critics.
Plache was first elected to represent Carroll County in 2020. In 2022, he was awarded a consulting contract with the Carroll County Communications District Planning Committee. The committee isn’t officially part of Carroll County government, but it receives public funding.
In June, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office confirmed their Public Integrity Unit was looking into a complaint related to that contract. They told NHPR the investigation remains ongoing as of this week.
Plache, in his statement to NHPR, said he secured the contract through a legal bid process in which he disclosed his role as a county commissioner and “it was all above board.”
“I do not believe it was wrong for me to do the work,” Plache said. “The fact that the money came from the Federal Government to the County and then from the County to the [committee] does not make it wrong for me to bid on and win the work for the [committee] (a separate municipal entity from the County) through a legal RFP process.”
Separately, Plache is also facing a proceeding from the New Hampshire Attorney Discipline Office stemming from his work as a lawyer in a vaccine injury case. The office confirmed that disciplinary proceeding remains ongoing as of this week.
