WINDHAM – Councilor Donna Chapman quits council race, leveling

abuse-of-power charges against Windham chairman.

WINDHAM – After a meeting punctuated with bitter accusations directed toward Windham Council Chairman Bill Tracy, Councilor Donna Chapman said she would withdrawal from Nov. 2’s council election.

Chapman was the incumbent in a three-way race with Patrick Corey and Kevin Call. In an emotional voice, Chapman announced her withdrawal at the end of the meeting, saying her work life and personal life were being harmed by her political foes, namely Tracy, whom she charged with sending anonymous letters with accompanying newspaper articles to her employer critical of her work as a councilor.

“This is hard,” Chapman said. “Due to the events that are happening currently, I’m withdrawing from the race. I wish my opponents the best of luck.”

Chapman then went on to criticize Tracy, whose actions as council chairman were also cited in the resignation last month of Councilor Carol Waig.

“There’s dirty, nasty politics going on in town and Mr. Chairman, you can say all that you want, but you have been deceitful and I wish you the best of luck in this next year coming, and I hope you will not treat any other council members as you have treated us two women councilors sitting here. You have lied and you have misled, and the truth will come out,” Chapman said.

To that charge, leveled at the end of an hours-long meeting, Tracy, who had not responded previously to Chapman and others, said, “I hope it does,” and made a motion to adjourn.

With many in attendance, the most heated exchange came not between councilors but between the public and Tracy, who refused to grant their request for public comment.

Tracy did not comment when contacted Wednesday. However, Councilor Peter Busque offered the following statement on what was the council’s most heated meetings in years.

“The council was in a very uncomfortable position last night. I have enjoyed working with Bill and Donna and Carol this past year and we have accomplished many things in the last year. Last night’s event were very unfortunate as the events preceding this event have been. Opening up the hearing to the public would not have accomplished a thing as nothing positive would have come of it.

“I think in the near future I have great optimism that everything will work out just fine. Working together in harmony and governing our community correctly is so important to the taxpayers and that is what I will continue to strive for,” Busque wrote.

With many voters having already submitted absentee ballots, Chapman said she would serve if she receives enough votes. She is not asking people to refrain from voting for her and would serve if elected. She also said re-election would prove to her employer that she is respected in town.

“If elected, I’d take my rightful place on the council,” she said Wednesday morning.

Accusations fly

Throughout Tuesday’s tense meeting, charges flew among Chapman, Waig, residents in attendance and even former councilors Liz Wisecup and Kaile Warren, who were there to support Chapman. Tracy took the brunt of the invective, including accusations by Chapman and Waig that he targeted those who disagreed with him and was abusive toward female councilors.

Waig charged Tracy with lying and swearing at her repeatedly, and calling unwarranted executive sessions to chastise and intimidate her. Chapman, who argued successfully against an executive session last week during which she feared she would been treated poorly, said Tracy’s behavior behind closed doors and political maneuvering behind the scenes is an abuse of power.

“Bill Tracy is using his position as chairman to intimidate, get people like Officer Denbow fired and it’s wrong,” Chapman said after the meeting, referring to the June firing of Windham police Officer Mike Denbow, who had conducted an unauthorized investigation of Tracy. “His abuse of power and intimidation on the council is inexcusable,” Chapman added.

During initial public participation at the beginning of the meeting, Waig clarified what she thought had been an underreported facet of the Denbow investigation: that Denbow had paid a severe price for leveling charges of conflict of interest and that Tracy had overstepped his ethical bounds by calling for Denbow’s resignation for what she believes is a minor offense not deserving of firing.

Denbow used a town computer to seek information that he told Waig proved Tracy would directly benefit from the merging of Windham Dispatch and Cumberland County.

“At no point did Sgt. Denbow violate the law,” Waig said. “This investigation was not to Councilor Tracy’s liking … If Councilor Tracy is bothered by and feels he was wronged by these allegations, perhaps he needs thicker skin or he should step down as he is a public official…Would his reaction have been the same if this was a resident who had brought this allegation to light rather than a town employee? And if so what does he have to hide?”

In addition to Waig and Chapman’s allegations of Tracy’s abuse of power, the residents who had assembled were upset with Tracy’s unwillingness to take public comment. As the meeting was a carryover from an aborted executive session Oct. 19 – a special meeting that had to be postponed since it was not properly advertised – Tracy didn’t allow public comment since residents had already been given a chance to speak at the initial meeting.

That irked many in attendance, who used colorful language to show their dissatisfaction. Many requested Tracy suspend council rules to allow public discussion of Chapman, but Tracy refused, receiving loud taunts from those in attendance.

Some of the comments were : “You’re our servants.” “Shame on you!” “Election’s coming.” “Unbelievable.” “Gutless, someone needs to step up to the plate.”

And then Waig, who resigned partly because of a new communications policy limiting councilor/town employee contact concerning public matters, scolded councilors for putting a “gag order” on residents who wanted to comment on the Chapman affair, just as the council had done with town employees with the recently adopted policy, she said.

Chapman also leveled the serious charge against Tracy during open discussion that Tracy had tried to tamper with her job as the New England director of Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit organization that helps wounded soldiers and their families. She revealed that two letters have recently been sent to the organization’s headquarters criticizing her behavior as a town councilor. While she can’t prove it, Chapman said she feels Tracy is behind the intimidation.

“Do you find it acceptable that a council person will attack personally and professionally another council member? I can’t prove it and he (Tracy) can’t disprove it but when somebody attacks my job, sends letters out with these newspaper articles and when someone directly directed someone else to try to attempt to do a smear campaign against a council member, that’s unethical. Deny, deny deny, you’ll have your day in court,” Chapman said at the meeting.

Chapman, who was expected to file a complaint with the Maine Civil Liberties Union on Thursday citing Tracy’s abuse of power, is also planning to sue Tracy in small claims court for $510, the amount she paid a lawyer to determine whether a secretly recorded conversation between Chapman and Denbow was public information under Maine’s Freedom of Access law, as she says Tracy requested.