AG seeks to promote county attorney as his division head
Jul. 17—CONCORD — Longtime Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi of Dover is Attorney General John Formella's choice to be the next director of his Public Protection Division in the Department of Justice.
If the Executive Council confirms Formella's pick at its next meeting Wednesday as expected, Velardi will enter state government as an associate attorney general earning $125,000 a year.
Velardi is being promoted to replace 22-year AG office veteran Jeffery Strelzin, who retired and has since joined U.S. Attorney Jane Young's staff as a federal prosecutor.
A University of New Hampshire and Marquette University Law School graduate, Velardi has served 24 years as a career prosecutor, joining the Strafford County Attorney's office in 1999 to handle felony cases.
He became the office deputy in 2005, and county officials appointed him as acting county attorney in 2008.
In every election since, he has held onto that post.
Velardi served as president of the New Hampshire Association of County Attorneys from 2014 until this past January.
Velardi is a member of the Women's Correctional Facility Citizens Advisory Board, the Opioid Abatement Committee and the Governor's Advisory Commission on Mental Illness and the Corrections System.
The three Strafford County commissioners could name someone as acting county attorney until the voters elect a permanent replacement in November 2024.
In an unrelated action, Formella is asking the council to provide salary increases to lawyers other than himself and his deputy, James Boffetti.
The requested pay raises range from 10% to 14.4%. Even after the upgrade, Formella said, many of the lawyers will be paid below a "market anchor" for the position.
"The people of New Hampshire are exceptionally well-served by the dedicated attorneys who work in this office," Formella wrote.
"The proposed salary increases provide a means to recognize their hard work, address disparities with salaries earned by other public and private sector attorneys, and retain a talented work force of stalwart public servants."
The two-year budget Sununu signed included pay raises of 10% and 2% for all state workers over the next two years.
