Solid Waste board looks to boot Jamison, again

NORWAY — Norway-Paris Solid Waste directors will hold a special meeting, at 6 p.m. on Monday, January 25, at the Norway town office, to remove Janet Jamison from its membership.

“It's the only way we can stop the harassment,” said NPSW President Al Atkinson.  “She's a bully.”

Tension has run high between Jamison and her fellow directors since 2008, when she began to show at NPSW meetings in support of Main Street Furniture, which objected to a proposed hike in dumping fees.

Jamison said NPSW treasurer Bruce Hanson couldn't prove the need for the increase and claimed the new price was a “vendetta” against the company.

Jamison later won a seat on a committee which wrote a new interlocal agreement, approved by voters last June, in which fee-setting power was transferred to selectmen in the two towns.

The agreement also eliminated alternate seats on the NPSW board.  When Paris selectmen appointed Jamison to the NPSW board in June, 2009, Atkinson claimed they erred by giving her a two-year post, while only offering Joe Bracy, a sitting alternate, a one-year term.

NPSW directors tried to have the terms swapped.  Then, after Jamison made derogatory comments about solid waste directors and employees, they sought to remove her.

On August 17, the NPSW board voted 5-2 to refuse her appointment. 

When Paris selectmen declined to appoint someone else, Atkinson called an emergency meeting to take unilateral action.  That prompted a letter from Paris town attorney Geoffrey Hole, who said, despite its status as a quasi-municipal operation, NPSW is wholly governed by the interlocal agreement.

Atkinson canceled the meeting pending consultation with NPSW attorney, Dana Hanley.  Matters seemed to die there, until December 28, when Atkinson sent a letter to Paris selectmen.

Again, he  asked selectmen to rescind Jamison's appointment, saying she'd, “increased her efforts to forward her personal agenda . . . contrary to the best interests of [NPSW].”

Atkinson said Jamison was “unprofessional and unethical” when she reported to Norway selectmen on NPSW's newly-adopted by-laws before he had a chance to do so.

Jamison says the by-laws conflict with the interlocal agreement, and are an attempt to take back power lost in the new contract.  Norway Town Manager David Holt seemed to agree, suggesting it may be time to dissolve NPSW and start fresh.

Atkinson says the upcoming  meeting was called only after Paris selectmen again refused to recall Jamison.  He is asserting the right of NPSW to remove her because it is governed by state law for nonprofit corporations, in addition to the interlocal agreement, he said.

Atkinson said once Jamison is removed, NPSW directors will assign the balance of her term to Bracy and ask Paris selectmen to send  someone to fill out Bracy's current term, to June.