Emotions boil over at Newport selectmen's meeting
3/18/09 | 10 comments

Emotions boil over at Newport selectmen's meeting


By Sharon Kiley Mack
BDN Staff

NEWPORT, Maine — An undercurrent of tension that has been simmering for months boiled over this week, both at Saturday’s annual town meeting and at Wednesday night’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

Accusations were so unpleasant back and forth Wednesday night between the public and board members that newly elected Chairman Richard Parlee cut off public access.

Those lodging complaints included:

ä Blanche Ricker, former wife of Town Manager James Ricker, claimed she had been “harassed, intimidated and slandered” by election wardens and Town Clerk Paula Scott when she attempted to vote last Friday. She said Scott’s actions were because Scott and Town Manager Ricker have a relationship.

ä Dale Thistle, who is representing Scott in her intent to sue the town over alleged slanderous comments made by a selectman during an executive session earlier this year. At Wednesday’s meeting, Thistle interrogated Selectman Christopher Dow and said Dow “is using the local newspaper to slander a town employee.” He also called Dow a bully and said Dow was “misconstruing his authority.”

Last month, the Board of Selectmen voted to ask for Dow’s resignation but Dow refused and was re-elected last Friday.

ä Al Worden, a Newport selectman for more than 20 years until he was defeated in Friday’s elections by Roger Carr and Dow, said there is an unwarranted “organized attempt” under way within the community to “make Jim Ricker look bad.”

After more than a half-hour of such discussion, resident Kevin Hall appealed for unity.

“This town should be working together,” Hall said, speaking to the selectmen. “You are spending way too much time back and forth at each other. You guys work for us. It is time you started acting like it.”

He appealed to the board to put all personal issues aside and get down to town business.

“If you feel you can’t serve in an unbiased manner, please step down now,” Hall said.

Resident Dana Hartford also commented on the dissension, asking Thistle if he was at the meeting as an attorney when Thistle repeatedly quizzed Dow about statements Dow made in the past that questioned the integrity of the town’s bid process.

Thistle said no.

“Well it sounds like it,” Hartford said. “I object to your tone.”

The only comment board members made about the complaints was to approve a state police investigation of Blanche Ricker’s accusation that her voting rights had been violated.

In her complaint to the board, Ricker said she did not want to step inside a voting booth to fill out her ballot. “I do not like confined spaces,” she said. Once she refused, she said an election warden harassed her and Scott followed her to her vehicle. She said Scott then went back inside the polling place and told others that Ricker was impaired.

Scott disputed Ricker’s version of events, saying that she was told by others that Ricker was impaired. “It is my duty to act upon a citizen’s complaint,” Scott said. “I was told she was intoxicated. This was a polling place. I was following all of my duties under the law.”

Because the two versions of the event were so disparate, the board unanimously voted to have the Maine State Police conduct an investigation of the incident.

After the meeting, Town Manager James Ricker said that the town’s involvement in the eminent domain issue at Murray Road, which was heavily defeated at town meeting, was over. He said the only option left for residents that use the road to access their homes is for their title insurance company to file a lawsuit against the town for approving a lakeside subdivision without legal access.

Two abutting landowners, Carl Norris and Lauris Boylan, claim to own the land that the road crosses.

Not registered? Click here
E-mail this
Print this
Guidelines for posting on bangordailynews.com

Bangordailynews.com is pleased to offer a forum for readers to react to our stories, discuss them and provide additional information. We are reluctant to delete comments, but do reserve that right for those who abuse our forum. For more on using this site, please see our terms of service.

The primary rule here is pretty simple: Treat others with the same respect you'd want for yourself. What does that mean specifically? Here are some guidelines (see more):

Comments
10 comments on this item
On 3/19/09 at 3:43 AM, JSawyer wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

it's a tipical good old boys club,you the tax payers of the town of Newport should vote them (the good old boys out of office in the next election) !

Report abuse
On 3/19/09 at 7:21 AM, captain_obvious wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

How about this. As residents call for a special election, vote all parties out; elect Jon Coburn

All is fair in love and war.

Report abuse
On 3/19/09 at 10:08 AM, rockadvice wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Having spent all of my childhood in Newport, it's sad to read of the conflict, obvious individual agendas, and greed, of the group that was elected to manage the welfare of the Town of Newport. My father would take me to the Town Meeting every year, and I remember so well, how Paul Whitham managed the meeting and the Board, with sterness, teamwork, and a lot of humor. Yes, there were "discussions," but in the end, decisions were made for the good of the people of Newport.

Report abuse
On 3/19/09 at 12:44 PM, Jollyroger wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

NEWPORT! WAKE UP! The Town Manager is NOT elected - he's appointed by the Selectmen. Consider this, it's widely known that the Town Manager is having an intimate personal affair with the Town Clerk. The Town Clerk is supervised by the Town Manager...her job performance is evaluated by the Town Manager...hmmm - is this appropriate? Why haven't the Selectmen intervened? If anyone should be thrown out - it's the supervisor who's in a relationship with his subordinate. Back in the day this might have been acceptable, but in 2009 it's not!

Report abuse
On 3/19/09 at 2:56 PM, knightken69 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I just think it is great that they finally voted Worden out of office. As someone that he has slandered in the past it is long past time that the voters kicked his a** out of office.

Report abuse
On 3/19/09 at 5:03 PM, Jollyroger wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Amen, knightken69, AMEN! But Ricker needs to go next. He and Worden can cruise the lake and talk about the "good 'ol days."

Report abuse
On 3/19/09 at 5:11 PM, Jollyroger wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Amen, knightken69, AMEN! But Ricker needs to go next. He and Worden can cruise the lake and talk about the "good 'ol days."

Report abuse
On 3/20/09 at 5:32 PM, bud55bud wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

IT IS THE TOWN WITH THE INN AT THE CROSSROADS. HOW HISTORY HANGS ON.

Report abuse
On 3/20/09 at 9:48 PM, AmbroseBear wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Jerry Springer was never this interesting. Having an affair with your boss, an ex-husband, does not seem to be a credible basis for the Town Clerk exercising her perceived legal duties against her boss' ex-wife, however drunk you heard or hoped she was at the poll. Remove the Town Manager for breach of contract and, therefore, for cause. No severance required. Train or correct the Town Clerk, generally, and properly investigate the voter harassment complaint and, then, train or correct / terminate her as well, if warranted.

Report abuse
On 4/3/09 at 7:16 PM, cee9569 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Ricker definitely needs to go, talk about a conflict of interest. A TOWN MANAGER having intimate relationship with the TOWN CLERK, what a novel idea. And imagine a TOWN CLERK sueing the town for slanderous comments from an EXECUTIVE SESSION with the TOWN MANAGER and the board of selectmen, I guess I would have to wonder where she got her information from, pillow talk perhaps? At least the citizens of Newport had enough sense to finally get Al Worden off of the board. I imagine it must be kind of tough for Jim Ricker to get his way with the board now that all of his hand picked people are gone. Newport has had some outstanding town managers over the years, Paul Weston and Arthur Ellingwood come to mind immediately, please note Jim Ricker didn't make the short list. I always understood that executive sessions were private and confidential, guess that depends on who is intimate with the town manager. My instincts tell me that both the town manager and the town clerk should join the ranks of the millions currently that are unemployed in this country. I am sure that the other town employees would greatly appreciate this and over time the town managers hand picked people that he used for information from all town departments may find other jobs or just learn to mind their own business. Newport needs a real town manager, not someone intent on micromanaging everything or every employee, that is what department heads are for. Let them do their jobs, that is what they were hired for.

Report abuse
You must be logged in to post a comment. click here to log in.

Powered by: Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, Inc.