WINDHAM – A Windham town councilor wants her critics to air their problems with her in public, not behind closed doors.

She’ll get her wish Tuesday, when town councilors will meet in a public session to discuss comments made by Councilor Donna Chapman regarding an ongoing legal matter that may have violated the town charter.

Councilors attempted, but ultimately decided against, entering executive session Tuesday night to talk about the matter involving Chapman. However, the council adjourned without discussing the matter since it had not given proper public notice of the executive session.

At issue is whether Chapman violated the town charter when she made recent statements in the press arguing for the reinstatement of recently fired Windham Sgt. Michael Denbow.

Chapman, who was furious with council leadership’s attempt to discuss her comments regarding Denbow in private, asked for the matter to be aired publicly, as is her right under the law. The council will now take it up at its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 26.

Chapman argued that the town lawyer, Ken Cole III, should have barred the executive session before it was put on the agenda.

“What kind of town lawyer would allow a woman to be verbally abused in executive session? I question his ethics in that. People in town need to be aware this is happening behind closed doors,” Chapman said.

Chairman Bill Tracy explained after the meeting he called for the executive session to notify Chapman her comments regarding Denbow violated the town charter, which bans councilors from commenting on ongoing legal matters. In arguing why he wanted to broach the topic behind closed doors, Tracy said he was trying to “protect Chapman’s reputation,” especially since Chapman is facing re-election Nov. 2.

Tracy’s sentiment was shared by Cole, who also defended the proposed use of the executive session to discuss the personnel matter.

“One of the reasons you (go into executive session) is to try to avoid embarrassment for the person being discussed. It’s entirely possible that this discussion may lead to embarrassment for her and since she was running for election, no one wanted to put that on the public record a week or two before an election. So it seemed appropriate to hold it in executive session. But if she wants it in public, that’s her right. The council was not trying to excoriate her, they were trying to protect her,” Cole said.

Tracy, in an interview on Wednesday, called it “ironic” that he is being painted as the villain, when he says he was the victim of an “illegal investigation” by Denbow. Denbow is currently appealing his firing as a police officer, so Tracy is limited in what he can say publicly on the matter, he said.

Denbow was released in June for conducting an unauthorized investigation of Tracy, supporting documents of which were distributed to the press by the town. In those documents, Denbow is accused of sending an e-mail to then-Councilor Carol Waig questioning Tracy’s role in the much-disputed merger of Windham Dispatch with the Cumberland County dispatch operation.

Denbow told Waig that Tracy should have recused himself due to conflict of interest since his employer, Gorham Savings Bank, could financially benefit from the town’s expanded relationship with county.

And, Tracy said, since Denbow’s attorney John Chapman (no relation to Donna Chapman) is currently appealing his client’s status with the town, no town employee should be commenting on the matter to the media.

Cole said he was first alerted to Chapman’s Denbow-related statements on Oct. 8 in the press by Town Manager Tony Plante. Since the Denbow appeal will likely reach arbitration, Cole said, Chapman’s statements might weaken the town’s stance that Denbow’s actions rose to the level of being released from employment.

“Tony called and asked if that would jeopardize the ongoing discipline of Officer Denbow and I said absolutely,” Cole said after the meeting. “This will eventually end up with an arbitrator and you can’t very well go to an arbitrator and say this person should have been fired then they can read public statements from one of the councilors saying, ‘He should be reinstated, it was an overreaction.’ So it jeopardizes Tony’s and the police chief’s ability to properly manage and run their own affairs and department.”

Waig defends Chapman

One former councilor who agrees with Chapman that the town shouldn’t have fired Denbow for his investigation of Tracy is Waig.

Waig, who says Denbow’s punishment wasn’t commensurate with the crime, came to Chapman’s defense prior to council debate on whether to enter executive session. Waig said publicly that Tracy had sworn at and intimidated her in a previous executive session regarding the Denbow matter, and that she “wasn’t going to let it happen to Donna as well.”

“Having been subjected to Councilor Tracy’s heated interrogation, cursing, name-calling, untruthful accusation and overall unethical behavior in an executive session regarding the former Sgt. Denbow, I understand why and support Councilor Chapman’s request to hold this special meeting in an open session,” Waig said.

After the meeting, Waig talked more about previous executive sessions in which she was involved with Tracy, saying she believes Tracy abuses his authority by trying to intimidate councilors who don’t agree with him.

“The person everybody thinks Bill Tracy is, is not who the real Bill Tracy is,” she said.

Tracy said Waig shouldn’t be revealing what has happened in past executive sessions. He also disputes Waig’s recollection of events behind closed doors and said he’s trying to follow proper procedure and the town charter.

“You had a police officer that was clearly investigating my history and perhaps the history of other councilors. He then chose to send an e-mail to Ms. Waig and she took that e-mail, amended it to remove his name as sender, and in the process, attempted to conceal his identity. That’s a violation of the charter,” Tracy said. “I don’t understand how I come out the bad guy when I was the one wronged in the first place. I don’t understand it.”

Donna Chapman