Just how vindictive and manipulative can this woman get? There is no room for personal agendas on town boards and as an employee of the town, she's an embarrassment to her position and the town as well.
Accusations are flying on the town’s planning board.
One member has received a vote of no confidence in the wake of the board’s decision to allow the owner of a town gravel pit to run an asphalt plant at the same location.
Now, it’s up to the town’s selectmen to decided if they will consider removing planning board member Kim Gordon from office.
Gordon was the sole member to vote against Mitchell Sand and Gravel’s asphalt plant application when it was approved Jan. 3., because it was an incomplete application and many questions about this plant had not been answered.
She is under fire for her decision to submit a sworn statement as part of a lawsuit filed by abutters to the planned plant against the town. She was contacted by the attorney representing the abutters and was asked to answer several questions or be subpoenaed to do so. Rather than be subpoenaed she agreed to answer questions in general but not to divulge any confidential information she had received as a Planning Board member. Other members of the board had also been contacted and spoke with the abutter's attorney; yet only Ms. Gordon has received Sharra's ire over this, how come?
In the affidavit, Gordon states board Chairman Margaret Sharra was incorrect when, on Feb. 7, she rejected an abutter’s motion to reconsider the vote, saying the board’s rules prohibited a reconsideration.
Gordon’s statement also suggests Sharra acted in bad faith.
“I believe that, as our Chairman, Margaret Sharra knew that our rules allow for reconsideration. She created our rules of procedure in 2009,” Gordon wrote in the affidavit.
In a letter to board members dated April 25, Sharra wrote she believes Gordon’s statement “is apparent of her thorough dislike for me. ... this dislike has created a toxic environment which has affected the board’s integrity and the functioning of the board.”
In the letter, Sharra also accuses Gordon of sharing confidential information with opponents of the asphalt plant, yet she provides no proof as the accusations are baseless.
At the end of the letter, Sharra moves for a vote of no confidence in Gordon.
The board passed the motion at its May 2 meeting. Members voted 3-yes ( Sharra, Beaman and Blodgett) one-no and one member abstained ( Jack Marsh was not in attendance )
Gordon was then asked to appear in non-public session at a meeting of of the selectmen this past Wednesday, May 11.
In a letter submitted to the selectmen at that meeting, Gordon’s lawyer, Joseph S. Hoppock of Keene, wrote that the board should “reject and dismiss what is nothing more than a foundationless, personal attack on Ms. Gordon by Ms. Sharra.”
But if the board does not dismiss the charges, he wrote, Gordon requests a public hearing under state law.
The lawsuit attempting to overturn the board’s decision on the asphalt plant, filed by Mary Ryan and James Will in Cheshire County Superior Court, was dismissed by Judge Marguerite L. Wageling on April 20 on the grounds that it was filed too long after the plant was approved.
This is just another attempt by Margaret Sharra to get her own way and to force her will on the board.She is upset with Ms. Gordon for other personal reasons as well regarding the Historical Distric Commision's ruling on her proposed Dollar Store on Main Street in the Historic District to which Ms. Gordon is a member.
If anyone needs to be removed from the Planning Board, it is our opinion that it be Ms. Sharra for her well documented conduct and malfeasance while acting as chairman which has resulted in the many lawsuits the town has faced in the past and will in the future if she remains on the board attempting to control decisions.
