WINDHAM – Citing rising tensions with council leadership and a new policy limiting councilors’ contact with town employees, long-serving Windham Town Councilor Carol Waig resigned Tuesday night, effective at the end of the meeting.

The policy, adopted Tuesday by a 6-1 vote, with Waig opposed, was inspired by a situation involving Waig. Windham police Detective Mike Denbow left the police department in early August after sending an e-mail to Waig, who was adamant in her support for Windham Dispatch during recent budget negotiations. The e-mail accused Council Chairman Bill Tracy of having a conflict of interest regarding the vote to merge Windham Dispatch with Cumberland County’s operation.

Waig, however, believes council contact with employees is essential to good governing, and “morally and ethically” said she can’t continue in her position as town councilor without being able to interact with employees.

“Many times employees may call us, or we may call employees because we’re doing research on some matter. We have to be able to do that in order to do our jobs. Now, with this new policy, we can no longer do that. We have to go through Tony (Plante, town manager). This basically puts a gag order on employees, which has everyone running scared, and I can’t abide by it,” Waig said Wednesday.

Waig says town employees have “un-friended” her on Facebook, the online social networking site, won’t return calls and will not socialize with her in recent weeks because of the development of the new policy limiting contact, which she said is unwarranted and misguided.

“We used to socialize, have dinner, have coffee, but now they are afraid to sit and chat. I think it’s nothing more than a power trip on the parts of Bill (Tracy) and Matt (Noel),” the council vice chairman, Waig said.

Waig is mostly concerned with the tenor of the new council, especially what she describes as Tracy’s and Noel’s “arrogance,” saying the “real reason” she resigned was “due to council leadership.”

Waig takes exception to what she described as Noel and Tracy’s dismissive attitude toward certain town employees and councilors, namely Donna Chapman. She said Chapman receives the brunt of the abuse, since she speaks her mind and grinds against the voting bloc of Tracy, Noel, Peter Busque and Scott Hayman.

“The way she is treated is wrong. They’re very dismissive of (Chapman). You can’t be on such a power trip, there’s such a thing as humanity and neither Matt nor Bill seem to have it,” Waig said.

Chapman, who sits next to Waig and witnessed Waig “tear up” as she announced her resignation, agrees with Waig’s summary of council leadership.

“Bill doesn’t want us to talk, and that’s not in my nature,” Chapman said. “On former councils, we would banter things back and forth, but he doesn’t want that. He has an agenda. He wants all six votes and if it doesn’t go his way, he gets upset.”

Chapman says she, Waig and John McKinnon are usually the ones to “slow things up and ask some questions.” Chapman said other councilors (Busque, Scott Hayman, Noel and Tracy) seem to be in lockstep on each vote.

“So I’ll miss her. I can tell you, Carol’s resignation has floored a lot of people,” Chapman said.

Tracy, who was once an employee in Windham serving as the economic development director, said Waig’s resignation is “terribly unfortunate.” However, he declined to elaborate saying he didn’t want to respond to her charges in the newspaper. He did say, “there’s an ungraciousness there that’s probably uncalled for.”

Regarding Denbow’s removal, Tracy said Waig is wrong to blame him for Denbow’s investigation into Tracy’s alleged conflict of interest regarding the dispatch merger.

“She accepts an e-mail which accuses me, and somehow she’s the victim?” Tracy said Wednesday. “What you need to know is that we’re moving on. There are issues we need to take care of, and we’re going to deal with them.”

Councilor Noel was likewise sorry to see Waig resign. He said he appreciated her “willingness to do battle for her beliefs and convictions.” Noel denied the existence of a “boy’s club” and said instead that the councilors elected last year are merely “similar-minded.” Noel also said Waig shouldn’t have taken it personally when she was outvoted on dispatch, the recent communications policy or other issues.

“She was completely disappointed after the dispatch vote. And she made it clear she would by no means relax or release the pressure that she disagreed with the vote. That’s where it started to get cold,” Noel said.

After five years and four months on the council, Waig’s resignation took effect at the end of Tuesday’s meeting. Her term as an at-large member of the board runs through November 2011. As was the case when former Councilor Kaile Warren resigned due to health problems in 2008, the council can appoint a new member to fulfill Waig’s term. If councilors can’t agree on an appointee or choose to leave the seat open, the seat would remain vacant until the next election, which in this case would be Nov. 2.

Carol Waig