Windham Town Councilor Blaine Davis announced at the Dec. 18 town council meeting that he had uploaded footage from the previous meeting, one marked by a shouting match between councilors Kaile Warren and Bob Muir, onto the popular Web site YouTube.com.

Click on the video link below to view footage of the meeting. The argument occurs around three minutes and thirty seconds into the clip.

Meetings are televised and tapes of the meetings are available for viewing at the Windham Public Library. Davis said he was motivated to post the council discussion on YouTube after an angry resident chastised him at the supermarket.

“She said, ‘You (expletive) you (expletive) you (expletive)!'” Davis said. He said at the meeting the council disagreed about purchasing a specific plow truck, and the resident had heard through the grapevine that there would be no snow plowing in Windham this winter.

“I told her to watch the video, and she said ‘I can’t watch the video, there’s a waiting list (to rent the council meeting video) at the library,'” said Davis. He said that’s what motivated him to upload the entire meeting, which is in the public domain and can be freely distributed, under the user name “Windhamcouncil.”

Before posting the meeting, however, Davis posted a clip about a minute in duration that showed Muir and Warren in a heated argument. Davis said it took him some time to digitize the entire meeting and the clip was there temporarily as a preview.

Former town councilor Michael Shaughnessy disagreed with Davis’ decision to post the exchange.

“It was a form of an attack,” said Shaughnessy. He left the council in June when Blaine Davis, Kaile Warren and Donna Chapman were elected, about the same time town council meetings showed a sharp increase in animosity.

“When you take things totally out of context, it’s a form of media manipulation,” said Shaughnessy. He said Davis chose that clip to make Muir look bad, but did give him credit for taking it down when the entire meeting went up.

“The intention was not to make Bob or Kaile look bad. I like them both,” said Davis. “I tried to choose a portion of the argument that wasn’t as nasty.”

Both Davis and Shaughnessy said they both think the town should begin to upload all meetings onto the Web site to make it easier for residents to view local government.

A different tone

Shaughnessy said he remembers the way Windham town council meetings used to be run.

“There was a great deal of respect, even though we didn’t always agree,” he said.

The video of the Dec. 11 meeting shows a much different tone than the one Shaughnessy described. In the seventh clip, councilors Muir and Warren argue who said what about the price of a snow plow truck over the loud bang of a gavel.

“I didn’t want to use this,” said Councilor Liz Wisecup in reference to the gavel.

“I will not tolerate arguments while I’m chair,” said Wisecup, who was filling in for Chairman John MacKinnon. “Everybody needs to respect each person’s point of view, no matter what it is. They do not have to agree with it.”

“This is something we have to deal with ourselves. I don’t want to comment right now,” said Chairman John MacKinnon, who agreed there is a noticeable amount of hostility at council meetings. Councilors Bob Muir, Carol Waig and Liz Wisecup also declined to comment.

“I’m getting quite frustrated with the whole thing,” said Councilor Donna Chapman. She said the council is divided between those who joined this June and those who have been on for several years.

“I think there’s room for change and ways to save money, and they don’t want to hear it,” she said.

“I think it’s a matter of the old versus the new,” added Blaine Davis. “I would say you have three new councilors who would like to see things done differently, and that things in the past could have been done better.”

Davis said he thinks there is tension coming from the other councilors who view new methods as an attack on the way things have been done in the past. These methods include Warren’s focus on a cost-benefit analysis and looking closer at large purchases.

“Some of the councilors who have been there for a while are taking that personally,” said Davis. “People need to let go of personal matters and focus on the town.”

Councilors Muir, Wisecup, McKinnon and Carol Waig declined to comment for this story.

Warren, who is the chief executive officer and founder of the Rent-A-Husband handyman corporation, said he was elected to bring his business expertise to the town.

Warren said he learned in business about emotional quotient, or EQ, that leads to poor decisions based on feelings, not logic and reason.

“When one exhausts their IQ and has still not gotten where they want to be with an issue, their EQ then takes over and they become agitated and emotional, which is exactly what you saw with Councilor Muir,” said Warren.

However, people on both sides of the issue say emotion is driving the feuds.

“They’re taking things very personal,” said former town councilor David Tobin. He is credited with calming down past animosity when he was on the council. He said the problem may be due to the specific blend of personalities or inexperience.

“I think that the councilors that are there now like each other,” said Tobin. “I think it’s going to come around.”

He pointed out that the three new councilors are all in the business world. In addition to Warren, Chapman is a real estate agent and Davis is an advertising manager at a newspaper and helps run a cleaning service.

“You have to have a lot of patience to be in any sort of government, town, county or state. It takes forever to get anything done. And people who work in the business climate aren’t used to that, they make a decision and it gets done,” said Tobin.

He said experience should help mellow things in time.

“It’s too bad that councils have to go through this,” said Tobin.

WCouncil: Councilor Blaine Davis announces that a town council meeting is available for online viewing while councilors Bob Muir and Donna Chapman look on. The meeting included a heated argument between Muir and councilor Kaile Warren.Councilor Blaine Davis announces that a Windham Town Council meeting is available for online viewing while councilors Bob Muir, left, and Donna Chapman look on. The meeting included a heated argument between Muir and councilor Kaile Warren.