The new administrator overseeing settlements with people abused at the state’s former youth detention center says his predecessor significantly overpaid two consultants.
Facing a budget shortfall, retired Judge Gerard Boyle will tell state officials Wednesday at an Executive Council meeting that he intends to cut the $200 hourly pay for the consultants by more than half and eliminate their $100 hourly travel stipend.
The two consultants, Paula Booth, the state’s former director of its employee assistance program, and Jennifer Adams, a certified mediator and former sexual assault police investigator, were hired in 2023 to help develop the state’s landmark Youth Development Center Settlement Fund. They were tasked with designing a sensitive, trauma-informed approach to settlement discussions with survivors and help question survivors during often emotionally grueling hearings.
Their contracts, which NHPR obtained via a public records request, were initially approved by the fund’s former administrator, retired Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick, and Dianne Martin, an administrator for the Judicial Branch. The contracts were renewed multiple times by Broderick and the Judicial Branch.
In addition to the $200 hourly pay and $100 hourly travel stipend, in some cases, Booth and Adams also receive mileage reimbursement, currently about 72 cents a mile. According to their contracts, Adams’s total payments are capped at $593,000, and Booth’s total payments are capped at $677,700.
“I told them they're both doing a very good job and that I’m very impressed with them and would love to keep them on board,” Boyle said in an interview. “But I cannot justify paying someone $200 an hour. That’s double what judges get paid and more than [state agency] commissioners get paid.”
Boyle said he will ask both to stay on when their contracts expire in December for more than a 50% pay cut. He intends to eliminate their $100 hourly travel stipend and only reimburse for mileage.
Broderick resigned in 2024 amid criticisms about his spending decisions, though a state audit cleared him of any wrongdoing. He did not return a request for comment.
Broderick defended Booth and Adams’s compensation in an interview Tuesday, saying both are uniquely qualified to interview survivors in the trauma-informed manner the law requires. “They were worth every single penny that they were paid,” he said. “They’re the reason [the fund] is successful.”
He said the Attorney General’s office paid the lawyers it hired to evaluate claims far more. That firm has been paid nearly $7 million in the past three years, according to a recent report.
Booth did not return requests for comment. Adams said, “I just look forward to the opportunity to get back to work with the fund.” She declined to say whether she will renew her contract at a reduced rate. Hearings resume this summer.
The settlement fund currently has nearly 1,700 claims pending and limited state funding. Lawmakers cut Boyle’s $55 million request to $20 million two weeks ago, citing tight state revenues. Boyle is anticipating tough budget questions Wednesday when he asks the Executive Council to approve that $20 million investment.
Lawmakers established the fund in 2022 to encourage the nearly 2,000 former residents of the youth detention center to settle their lawsuits with the state rather than pursue them in court. Survivors who’ve used the fund have said they felt respected, believed, and heard by Broderick and his team, many of them for the first time.
As of May, the state had awarded more than $239 million in settlements to 425 individuals. The highest award is capped at $2.5 million and the average award is between $500,000 and $600,000, Boyle said. He told lawmakers resolving the remaining almost 1,700 claims could cost the state $1 billion.
The youth facility at the center of the fund, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center, has come under new scrutiny for allegations of illegal restraints and neglect made by the state Office of the Child Advocate, an independent watchdog, and the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire.
