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.
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40 comments:
If the planning board or town of winchester is involved in a lawsuit would there have been a gag rule on planning board members not to discuss any of this to anyone especially a lawyer for the other side. I don't know what this woman was thinking, she must of known the legal troubles this was going to bring her.the only good thing to come of this is we don't have to worry about her ever running for selectman board
The select board would have to be crazy to pursue this matter.If they decide to back Margaret and Co. they just may be paying for three lawyers, two for the town and one for Mrs Gordon when she wins. She was elected by the voters so that one or two people would not control the board and anyone that doesn't like her can vote for someone else next year.
Please understand people that the problem is not with any of the boards. Both of these women are very competent and we need them in our corner. Having said that let me please tell you what the issue is:
Kim does her homework and Margaret is threatened. For many years Margaret was the one with the answers and now someone else is "raining on her parade". My take on this issue is yes it is personality; however if Margaret was as smart as she thought she was she would engage Kim in a program to help the planning board be the best in the county. Funny thing about this as we get older we perceive anyone with a different idea as a threat.
So I say to Margaret, as I have said before, play nice in the sandbox and you will be a winner. If you don't we will bring you down and it will not be pretty. So, honey bunch screw in the dimples and smile it may save your butt.
There was no lawyer representing Mary Ryan and Mr. Will in their appeal. They filed this appeal with the assistance of an attorney... however the attorney was not representing their interest. The fact that she was compelled to produce an affidavit or face a deposition is a lie. She was assisting Ms. Ryan along with Mr. Towne and this is what they got. Of course you probably won't print this WI as this attacks some of your own.
Winchester Ed
Well Winchester Ed, as someone has already pointed out before, your so-called facts and knowledge about everything under the sun is so inept that it's downright funny. Beth Fernald Esq. was the attorney of record for Mary Ryan and Will who brought the suit against the town. For your information, I was not part of this lawsuit, did not meet with their attorney, nor did I file any paperwork ..yet. So to mention my name makes your so-called facts a joke. You really need to get your s%it together, you're beginning to sound like a broken record that just keeps playing the same old song.
Just how long are the Selectmen going to allow this conduct to continue? Margaret has been teetering on the edge for quite some time now with her rudeness to the other members of the board, her bullying during meetings where she has been known to scream at people giving testimony or asking questions she doesn't feel require answers and her attitude has led to more than several lawsuits in just the past two years. Why haven't the BOS acted on requests to remove her from the planning board well before this fiasco. It looks to me like her days are numbered or the town is looking at a very big and expensive lawsuit again.
Kim Gordon has heard too much, seen too much and knows too much. She has integrity, follows the rules and doesn’t manipulate them for her own personal gain and she has a sense of fair play. Have we heard this before? Just what we need, more lawsuits. At this rate, before the summer is out there will likely be a half dozen new lawsuits filed against this town.
Much like the fact that the Mississippi flooding it’s banks can’t be stopped, neither can those with the courage and integrity to fight these incompetents be stopped.
Kim has a lot of support around town, and Margaret needs to face that fact. The planning board needs to spend their time working for the benifit of the people in the community. Stepping across the line to remove elected members is a taboo that few officials have dared involve themselves in. The selectmen need to close the book on this and gracefully back away. An anger management class might be a more appropriate response.
So the vote was 3 for removing Kim, Margaret, Dean Beaman and Princess Blodgett. That in itself should tell us all something about what is really going on here. This obviously is a personality clash, nothing else and the three of them should be removed for bringing their personal feelings against Kim to the BOS in the guise of her doing something wrong. It's obvious Margaret does not like how Kim votes, raises questions, or that she points out flaws in the opinions on law, all to protect the integrity of the board and in her quest to perform her duties diligently. Someone has egg on her face and is looking to pass blame and take the spotlight off of herself for this latest suit. The other two are simply clones following her direction as is Larry Hill who also wrote a letter to the BOS condemning Kim, he too should find something else to do with his time on Monday nights, the people have spoken and he was voted out. Looks to me Like Margaret, Dean, Princess and Larry are attempting to manipulate who's on the board for their own self serving interests and not for anything Kim has done wrong and the selectman should be looking at them and their representative on the board who is also involved in this fiasco. There's lots more going on here than what meets the eye and we the people should demand a full accounting and swift removal of those who conspire to hurt others by bearing false witness.
Re: "Time to clean house"
Powerful thoughts, and succinctly said. Well done.
Last wed, night at the selectmen's meeting the Kim Gordon thing was introduced Last by the chairman and i would imagine it was intentional. I've heard Sherm say on more than one occasion that we cant do town business in a personal way.
Speaking of Sherm and the rest of our BOD, why did they appoint someone to the ZBA that has been found guilty of serving booze to minors, running illegal, underage drinking parties at his place of business and who has expressed his desire to bring business to town no matter who, what or where or under what circumstances? You gotta be kidding! What were they smoking when they made that decision? John Pasquarelli? Really Sherm? There were certainly more qualified and better choices available, not personal my arse !
Is it legal to hold office if you have a criminal record?
If the underage drinking party thing is true he will fit in rather nicely on the board.
It's evident that Margaret is still writing up the minutes in her slanted way as they are incomplete, verbatim on the one topic she wants everyone talking about and as usual more than a month behind. Just what if anything justifies keeping this woman on the town payroll, it is obvious she is not competent to do the job correctly in a lawful manner. No wonder Kim Gordon and Brian Moser and others don't agree with her and why this board finds itself in court constantly. Come on Sherm, your board has the power to do make the necessary change, just do it and show us we voted the right people into office.
There is a lot more going on in this little town than meets the eye and integrity seems to be a four-letter word to those who ineptly pretend to lead. Maybe a dictionary would be a wise purchase to fit into the next year’s budget.
This is typical, the couple that agree, vote the non agreeing member off, so they can keep power. Winchester has had a small click that runs things in the select board for several years now and we have to many "non land owners" that vote, or more rightly not enough owners that do vote. They don't pay taxes, they don't have or want real roots in town... So we'll most likely be tearing down a great old yellow house, one of the few still standing on main street, so we can have another store we really don't want or need, selling cheap crap we don;t want or need. And we as land owners and tax payers, foot the legal bills for all this bad and corrupt behavior.
Richard
The yellow house is a wreck and ugly probably not valued to high tax wise most people don't see it as historical at least a business dollar store or anything else will have more value and hire some of our town folks. I would like to see something other than a dollar store but anything helps right now
we really need more industry hiring hundreds of our tax payers, dont you agree.
Margaret should pay her taxes and use some of the rent money she collected to repair the building she was in such a hurry to buy so no one else interested in it could. can't help but wonder how she got an occupancy permit if this building is in such bad shape and why she hasn't been fined for not keeping it up to code. Let's turn downtown into a strip mall, dollar stores, maybe a couple of head shops and a good porn/xxx movie shop should really liven up main street, what do you say?
Dear Anonymous of May 16, 2011 8:02 PM...
I have been in that yellow house several years back with a realtor to look at to buy and yes it needs work, then again so many homes in Winchester do. That house has alot of the original detail missing on so many and could be make to be a show piece with a little work. We have so many empty lots that would be better places then to tear down yet another home. Heck they moved that Victorian on the corner across from Rite-Aid, so we could have yet another empty lot?
What we need, IMHO, is real businesses, manufacturing and careers, not j.o.b.'s (Just Over Broke) We need a main street more like Northampton Mass or Brat VT, not a strip mall of tat shops and 3rd hand junk shops. We need home owners, not slum lord rentals, we need people to put down roots and care for the town, not looking to make a fast buck at others expense and town people that support decent business's in town, keeping all the Federal Reserve Fiat Notes as local as possible.
What we need to do to accomplish this Richard is to get rid of people like Margaret who would rather hold court with a butt in her mouth and brag about her shadiness and gossip to anyone who will listen and get more of people like Kim who spends endless hours doing her homework, taking trips to Concord to learn laws and knowing what she is talking about. NOTHING will change on Main Street until people in the town hall change. When someone like Kim or others before her come along who want something positive for Winchester or want to prevent something negative like a Clean Power or an Asphalt Plant or a dumpy downtown of junk stores and chain stores, those people get treated like Kim and go away. The word is if you are smart you are too smart to run for office in Winchester ......... and that is the problem. We have a few good people serving on boards but it is time to roust out Margaret on the Planning Board and listen to people who are not self motivated and in it for the buck. Hang in Kim
I agree we need change and big change at town hall, it's to much like the old "boys" club, they are after their own interest's and not so much the towns best, long term interests. While I think we disagree about some things, like the wood fires electric plant, we agree on the asphalt plant and alot of other things. I hate seeing people with town credit cards filling up there private cars on OUR penny, the town dump wanting a truck, for ???, it's only open 3 days a week, why do they need a truck and so much more that there is just not space or time to get into.
how many times is kim going to post under anonymous patting herself on the back making it look like she has a lot of supporters? she and yourself are not fooling anyone, the people that matter know what we are dealing with and she will NEVER get elected for anything again. Kinda of the same thing that happened to Bob Davis
Unlike yourself and the other 3 village idiots who attack everyone who points out wrongs and seeks changes for the better, Kim Gordon will remain a central figure on the Planning Board long after those who only serve to better their own positions in life are long gong. Bob Davis is currently serving on the Budget Committee where he will work diligently with other members to curb the runaway spending that our BOS has promoted for years and new candidates are lining up to fill vacancies this coming March. Whether you and those currently in office like it or not, change is coming and those responsible for the mess the town is in are on their way out. The only one fooling themselves is you with your silly comments.
I am one of the anonymous posters and I can assure you I am not Kim, just someone who respects her hard work in what she believes and her efforts to bring some truth and justice to this town. She is tenacious and not to be reckoned with so I think Margaret ahs finally met her match!!!!
Why have all of the village idiots congregated in Winchester? Informer you are wasting your time and breath on these fools. They will not listen and it is obvious they are only commenting on the blog to be pains in the southern regions of our body, send them packing and let's not waste any more space or time putting up with their nonsense. I too post anonymously for reasons I care not to share and I am definitely NOT KIM GORDON and I too agree Margaret Sharra has become a blight on our town ever since she moved here. It is quite obvious by all of the information provided here and the conversations I have had with others that this woman has her own agenda and will stop at nothing to get her own way no matter what. It is time to let this woman know she does not run our town and remove her from her positions as the authority she has been given has most assuredly gone to her head.
Don't worry about Bob Davis there sister, Bob Davis is going to have one last Horah! Bob Davis is back on the budget committee.
As a budget committee member we have spent countless hours trying to come up with the town's budget that's fair to both the tax payers and the town's numerous dept while insuring we have a fair balance between what the tax payers pay and what they receive in services.
I for one (and I can not speak for everyone) is sick and tired paying out hard earned tax dollars in wages to someone like Margaret Sharra and get nothing for our tax dollars in return. She is sarcastic to the town's people has her own agenda and has cost the tax payers thousands of tax payer dollars.
This year as a budget committee member we have a great opportunity to shed some of our baggage of departments that do not work for the tax payers.
So Misinformer did you do your research and find Mr. Davis lost his election over a year ago? for both budget and selectboard. ha, and you call yourself the Informer when you cant even keep up with who wins and loses elections. Thank god there is a town web site with accurate information on it instead of this propaganda site
Wanna wipe the egg off your face dip___t ? It's you who are so misinformed and out of touch with your sorry arse propaganda promoting the town's website. All the information posted there is inaccurate and a month behind and censored to a point of ridiculousness that isn't even worth reading. Take a hike ED, no one believes a word you say.
How come there haven't been any planning board minutes posted on the town's website in over a month is the town site is so informative? I guess Margaret has been too busy pursuing other personal things and hasn't time to do what she's getting paid for, how nice. I for one believe we need someone with a more town oriented attitude working in that office and let Margaret go and do her thing on her time and stop wasting our tax dollars on someone who is seldom there on time, in the office doing the work she's suppose to be doing and who is more people friendly than the sarcastic, rude and in her own words "not sure" individual we have currently getting paid to stand outside in the parking lot smoking. If anyone needs to be removed from office and the town payroll it's her.
I heard through the grapevine that she recently persuaded the planning board to remove Kim as their representative on the Historic Commission, why? If the selectman have found no wrong doing on Kim's part how can the planning board remove her for no good cause other than Margaret's personal ego and feelings? This really smacks of bs and the whole bunch involved in this mess should be thrown off the board forever. This is just schoolyard bulling at it's worst.
I guess someone got their comeuppance, now if only the selectmen would do what's right and send the town's problem child packing and find someone well qualified to fill her position and we don't mean Kim.
Talk about a piece of work, Joan Morrel isn't much better. She's rude unsocial and downright hostile at times, she to needs a pink slip.
I think I can answer a few of the questions brought up here. As for the planning board minutes they are not posted on the web site until the board has approved them at the next meeting if a board meets once a month then it takes a month but if your that curious the draft minutes are posted in the town hall within 5 days of the meetings.
As far as Kim on the historical committee you cant be a planning board rep if you have been voted off the planning board. Last I heard the selectman were going to seek counsels advice but it was Bart Mayor who brought this situation to light and said he didn't want to give legal advice to the planning board while there was a advocate for the people suing the board on the board. so I believe the selectman will follow his advice.
There is no egg on my face, Bob ran for both selectboard and budget committee in 2010 and lost both races. If he somehow has got himself appointed to the budget committee recently then it was against the voters wishes, so if this is true you guys have another injustice to talk about.
To Anonymous who posted at 8:43am;
According to the RSA, "this draft is now a "governmental record" and SHOULD be retained permanently", so there is no reason other than to delay public information that these minutes are not posted on the town website. As part of the certified record, they are to be kept in their original form ( draft) and be made available in 5 days, regardless whether they have been approved or not. IF changes are made, both version should be posted for all to see as you have altered the original. Sharra does not do this, thus she violates the law.
As for your second statement, it's as ridiculous as the first. Ms. Gordon was not found guilty of anything; no proof has been submitted nor has the BOS made a decision. Barton Mayer made a very questionable comment, that has resulted in Margaret Sharra looking for a way to have Kim removed for personal reasons. Your supposition is irrelevant and without basis and bears no merit. The BOS would be very wise to drop this and reprimand those individuals responsible for bringing these unfounded claims forward. If not they will soon find themselves between a rock and a hard place with no way out.
Bob Davis did not run for any positions on the town last year. He was duly appointed to fill a position that had become vacant. Now go post your inaccurate comments someplace else.
Four days off and guess who can't get to work on time?
Sherm would say you are being picky.
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