Interim Manager Rejects Offer

PARIS – Newly appointed interim Town Manager Anne Pastore has told selectmen and fellow co-workers she will not take the position after all.
She was appointed by selectmen on a 4-1 vote Thursday to replace Sharon Jackson, who was fired Monday. Jackson served as tax collector also.

Pastore remains as town clerk and deputy tax collector.
In a phone interview Friday, Pastore said she accepted the position believing it would involve financial responsibilities held by Jackson and she wanted to do what was best for the town.
“Without a tax collector we’d (the town) have to shut our doors,” Pastore said of the legal mandate for a town to deal with its finances. The Board of Selectmen offered that part of the former town manager’s responsibilities to Deputy Tax Collector Elizabeth Knox.
“I no longer have that reason to take the job,” she said. Additionally, Pastore said without the full support of the board she also made the decision “for my own best interests.”
Board Chairman David Ivey denied Friday that Pastore had decided not to take the position.
“She’s going to sleep on it over the weekend. She’ll let us know Monday,” he said.
But Pastore, who said she talked with Selectmen Troy Ripley at the Town Hall, Ray Glover by phone and left a phone message with Ivey about her decision, said that wasn’t true.
“I’ve already slept on it,” she said.
Glover said he received a call from Pastore Friday morning saying she was declining the offer.
Finance Clerk Sharon Gendreau, who was named interim treasurer, said she expects to discuss additional compensation for her extra work.
“They haven’t talked about compensation yet,” she said.
Additionally, the board must pay Jackson compensation for her termination. Ivey said that under the contract, the town must pay Jackson her weekly salary for the next four and one-half months but he did not have an exact figure available.
Both Ivey and Glover said they expect to discuss what additional compensation will be necessary for those employees that are taking on additional duties.
Ivey said the board will go into executive session at a future date to discuss the situation.
Jackson was unavailable for comment Friday.
Pastore said she supported the board’s decision to dole out different responsibilities of the former town manager as a “good move.”
“Each has experience in those fields,” she said of the other interim appointments.
In addition to changes in Gendreau’s responsibilities, the board unanimously voted Thursday night to divide Jackson’s other duties among town employees. Frank Danforth, Highway Department foreman, was named interim road commissioner. General assistance administrator Sheila Girous was named interim welfare director.
Pastore, who came into the office Friday to give her statement declining the interim job and to inform her co-workers, took the rest of the day off as a compensation day for the 16-hour day she worked on election day. Both Pastore and Ivey said the day off was preapproved by selectmen. She had also intended to take Thursday afternoon as a compensation day but stayed at work to prepare for the special selectmen’s meeting that night.
The next scheduled meeting of the Board of Selectmen is July 13, Glover said.
ldixon@sunjournal.com