Geno Marconi, the former longtime head of New Hampshire’s ports, is demanding that the five-member Executive Council vote on his request to have his legal bills paid for by the state.
Marconi alleges that Gov. Kelly Ayotte unilaterally denied his request without the council’s input, in violation of state law. The governor’s office contends that she is not required to present the issue to the full council.
In January 2025, Marconi was sued in his official capacity as then head of the New Hampshire Port Authority by the owners of the Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, a popular seafood shack that alleges it was unfairly targeted by port leadership. In addition to Marconi, the lawsuit also named Paul Brean, the head of the Pease Development Authority, as well as two government entities.
While the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office typically provides legal defense for top state employees in similar cases, Marconi’s situation was unique: the Attorney General was simultaneously prosecuting Marconi on unrelated criminal charges. In October 2024, Marconi was indicted on allegations he improperly shared the confidential motor vehicle and boat records of a Pease board member. He would later plead guilty and resign from his position.
Given the parallel prosecution of Marconi on criminal charges, and the unrelated civil case, the Attorney General denied Marconi’s request to indemnify him and cover the costs of a private lawyer to represent him in the lobster pound case.
Marconi appealed that decision in April 2025. For 12 months, he waited for a response, according to his new court filing. Then in April of this year, he received notification from the governor’s office that it was denying his request. His lawyers contend that state law requires both the governor “and” the Executive Council to consider the appeal, not one or the other.
“Neither may avoid this ministerial duty,” Marconi wrote in a legal filing this week.
The governor’s office disputes the need for the council to weigh in.
“As I have indicated to you previously, the Governor controls the agenda of items considered by the Executive Council,” Myles Matteson, Ayotte’s legal counsel, wrote in the April denial letter to Marconi.
Marconi’s request has been scheduled for an initial hearing in Merrimack Superior Court in August.
The suit by Rye Harbor Lobster Pound alleges that the Pease Development Authority imposed an illegal “concessions fee” of 10% on their sales. The lawsuit also accused Marconi of targeting the business with a stream of regulatory burdens ranging from parking disputes to the placement of the lobster pound’s propane tanks.
The case has dragged on through a dismissal and then an amended complaint. While there is a hearing scheduled for July 2 in the civil suit, there is still no trial date. It isn’t clear how much Marconi has spent on legal fees during the past 18 months.
Last October, Marconi pleaded guilty to a single count of sharing confidential records. He was accused of sharing boating and motor vehicle records in an act of retaliation against Pease Development Authority board member Neil Levesque, with whom he had an acrimonious relationship, and then deleting voicemails while he was being investigated.
Under the terms of the plea deal, Marconi was sentenced to 30 days in jail, all suspended pending good behavior, and he was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, as well as resign from his job overseeing the state’s ports.
Marconi’s wife is former New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi. She pled guilty to separate criminal allegations that she attempted to meddle into her husband’s investigation, and paid a small fine, while denying she crossed any ethical lines in her conduct.
Hantz Marconi reached the court’s mandatory retirement age of 70 years old earlier this year.
