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| Scool Superintendent Salah E. Khelfaoui, left, listens to proceedings during a meeting of the Board of Selectmen Wednesday night. (T&G Staff/CHRISTINE PETERSON) |
WINCHENDON — Selectman C. Jackson Blair resigned Wednesday night, effective immediately, right before the other four selectmen went into executive session to discuss contract negotiations with Town Manager James M. Kreidler Jr.
Mr. Blair was ousted from the chairmanship earlier in the public portion of the meeting. Selectman Fedor Berndt, who voted for Mr. Kreidler's resignation at a meeting a few weeks ago, was voted in as chairman. Selectmen Beth Hunt and Mr. Blair also voted in favor of Mr. Kreidler's resignation at that meeting. However, Mr. Berndt changed his mind and voted in favor of rescinding the vote for Mr. Kreidler's resignation, along with Selectmen Robert O'Keefe and Keith Barrows. As part of his contract, a four-fifths vote is needed for termination.
Though not saying directly if selectmen were planning to renew Mr. Kreidler's contract, which is not up until June 30, Mr. Blair said during the executive session that he was moving in a different direction than his colleagues.
Discussion of Mr. Kreidler's contract has been on the agenda for executive session the last three meetings, though selectmen are not required to enter contract negotiations with Mr. Kreidler until after Jan. 1.
"The board is going in a direction I'm not comfortable in supporting," Mr. Blair said while the others met in executive session.
If they can work together as cohesive unit with the current town manager then he wishes them the best moving forward, said Mr. Blair, a former Wall Street executive and director of external affairs for the Winchendon School.
"There is no way with my business experience I could work with the current town manager," he said. "This is unheard of. Someone needs be held accountable. I would be a thorn in their side. I hope they are right and I am wrong, but my gut tells me I'm right.
"You can't have this kind of situation and not hold someone responsible," he said of the town's $5.7 million deficit. "The other selectmen were deflecting and holding me responsible, I guess. The man (Mr. Berndt) who replaced me asked for the town manager's resignation a week ago. Something happened to get him into the chair."
He said it would have been useless for him to go into executive session and not give his resignation.
"I would not have supported him," he said. "If they voted for his contract, I wouldn't have been able to stop it. The votes are there. This is a nice little town that is in big trouble. I see the way out is with new people and the other selectmen see the way out is to keep the same people managing the town who were there when the town got into trouble."
In his resignation letter, Mr. Blair said he has no confidence in the current town management and is at odds with the other selectmen.
"I believe division and lack of an agreed-upon approach to our considerable financial problems is not in the best interests of the town," he wrote.
Earlier in the meeting, School Committee members said Mr. Berndt as chair blatantly censored them when he would not allow them participate in a joint meeting to discuss an audit that uncovered deficits in the town's budget. The state Department of Revenue now estimates the shortfall at $5.7 million.
Mr. Blair had requested a joint meeting with the School Committee, but that was not honored, School Committee Chairman Michael Niles said. The School Committee also voted last week to meet jointly with selectmen to be part of the discussion with town auditors who gave a presentation on the deficit, he said.
Superintendent Salah E. Khelfaoui, said he would not put himself in the position of not being able to address the town's financial team during the meeting. The team includes the town accountant; the school department pays 52 percent of her salary.
"This is blatant censorship," Mr. Khelfaoui, said in the small area where people wait for the elevator outside Town Hall's auditorium, where the School Committee was forced to hold its meeting.
Members asked to have Mr. Niles send letters to the offices of the inspector general and attorney general to requesting they investigate what has happened to money they allege is missing in the school's revolving accounts.
He said according to the School Department's report, there was $447,000 in the special education funds at the end of fiscal 2013, but the town accountant said that account was approximately $160,000 in the red. Around $460,000 was allegedly missing from an educational trust fund, he said.
"They have given us no explanation to where that money is," he said.
Contact Paula Owen at powen@telegram.com.
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