WINDHAM – Frustration overflowed at Tuesday’s Windham Town Council meeting, with a divided council unable to move ahead with the traditional chairmanship appointments.
Needing four votes to elect council officers, the typically routine appointments that begin the council’s year didn’t take place Tuesday night, with the five councilors divided 3-2 on motions to elect Matthew Noel as chairman and Kevin Call as vice chairman.
Blocking the appointments were newly re-elected Councilor Tommy Gleason and newly elected Councilor Dennis Welch. Both cited their desire to include David Nadeau, also newly elected, in the appointment process. Nadeau was absent for the new council’s first meeting.
Welch made a motion to postpone the appointment of new officers until the Dec. 13 meeting, when Nadeau would be home from his annual vacation in Florida. In making his motion, Welch said it would be better to have the entire council present to elect new leaders and appoint a new councilor to replace the late Peter Busque. He also lobbied for keeping “council leadership status quo until that time,” meaning Scott Hayman would continue as chairman. (The council is without a vice chairman, since Busque served in that role this past year.) Gleason seconded Welch’s motion.
Public comment then ensued on Welch’s motion. Welch’s significant other and a former councilor, Carol Waig, rose to say postponing a vote would be a “professional courtesy” to Nadeau, who had scheduled his annual vacation prior to his win last week, and that Hayman had “proven to be a good chair” and could do so for the next two meetings.
During councilor comment on Welch’s motion, Gleason defended his stance, saying, “I want all the councilors here to make our decisions.”
While Welch, Gleason and the former councilors in the audience, including Donna Chapman, were arguing against a leadership or council appointee vote, Hayman, Call and Noel were just as adamant that the vote should take place.
Call said the council doesn’t have time to waste what would be three meetings before appointing a new councilor or to elect new officers.
“To postpone any of this, I think it’s to the detriment of the council. I think we need to move forward, get the ball rolling, and not wait around,” Call said.
Hayman added, “I don’t see where Mr. Nadeau, present or not present, would have…as it is, it’s going to be a tight vote to get four votes, whether he’s here or not. I don’t think he would be a deciding vote.”
Noel, who is entering his third year in office and served as vice chairman in his first year and has also served on the finance committee for two years, was dismayed that Nadeau would miss the important first meeting.
“It’s a scheduled meeting. Dave should have been here. We all made it. It’s unfortunate he couldn’t make it. I think we ought to move forward,” Noel said.
Noel went on to say, “(Nadeau) was running technically unopposed and it surprises me and he was absolutely a shoe-in and he couldn’t, again, make it. I know that I will run into meetings where I can’t make it either, and that’s unfortunate, but I wouldn’t ask, nor would I expect, the council to postpone votes until I returned.”
Gleason countered, saying electing leadership and appointment of a new councilor “are very important votes.”
After further comment from Noel lamenting the loss of another month of meetings before new leadership takes effect and a new councilor is seated, the council eventually rejected Welch’s motion to postpone the appointments 3-2, with Gleason and Welch dissenting.
Once the postponement failed, Call nominated Noel as chairman. Hayman seconded Call’s motion.
Chapman then rose during public comment on Call’s motion and alerted members that the town’s charter requires four yes votes to successfully appoint officers or other office holders such a council appointees, the town’s lawyer or town manager. She also said the council can’t revote if the first vote fails to achieve the four-vote minimum.
“So we better do it right the first time,” she said.
After Call joked that Hayman may be council chairman all year, Hayman said, “Where I have enjoyed my time as chairman of this council, I feel that Mr. Noel is more than qualified to do this job and sit in this seat. I don’t feel it is good for any body of government to have the same sitting leader year after year.”
Before the vote for Noel as chairman, Gleason again said, “I want the full council to vote.”
Because the minimum of four affirmative votes was not secured, the 3-2 vote for Noel as chairman failed with Gleason and Welch dissenting.
At that point, Hayman said he was probably “wasting my breath,” but went ahead and nominated Call as vice chairman.
During councilor comment on the motion, Noel commented on the larger implications of the night’s split voting saying it was a preview of things to come.
“I see this as a long process. Ultimately this is a bad way to start the year…We’re creating a stalemate at the get-go. I think it’s unfortunate after the work we’ve tried to do, but if that’s the way we’re going to move forward, it’s going to be 26 weeks of a busy signal on the TV, because I don’t think we’re going to get anything done.”
Hayman concurred, with Noel saying, “Three years ago, they had the same problem sitting in this same room at this same table. They had a divided council…that didn’t get, excuse my language, squat done. And this is where this is starting off on the first night. I think we’re in for a long road ahead of us,” Hayman said mentioning upcoming issues such as the annual budget, sewer plan and various other council initiatives.
Hayman concluded his comments saying, “We’re going to sit here and beat our heads against the wall, and if that’s what you guys want to do, I’ve got a hard head. I’m OK with it, and I’m OK with sitting in this seat and reading these orders that come up and saying, fail 3-3, fail 3-3, fail 3-3. It’ll be like a broken friggin’ record.”
With tensions running high, Welch then countered, “I just want to give courtesy to Councilor-elect Nadeau to be here. And I think we can get things done.”
Noel responded by saying, “I had a choice today to be here at this meeting, or to go away on company business, and I made the choice to be here. That was my livelihood, or this thing that I volunteer for. And I made the choice to be here.”
Again, by the same vote margin which blocked Noel’s chairmanship, the motion to elect Call as vice chairman failed 3-2 with Gleason and Welch providing the dissenting votes.
Once the two votes for chair and vice-chair failed, the remaining votes to elect a parliamentarian and appoint members of the finance and appointments committee were suspended until Dec. 13. Also postponed was the appointment of a new town councilor to replace Busque. Little discussion took place during the meeting regarding how that appointee would be chosen. The replacement, however, will serve until next November’s election.
Windham Town Clerk Linda Morrell swears in newly elected
Comments are no longer available on this story