PARIS — The Board of Selectmen will hold an emergency meeting Thursday to name an interim town manager. The board voted 3-2 Monday night to fire Sharon Jackson.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the Town Office.
Jackson was terminated without cause after a public discussion of her contract with the board. The contract, which allows for her termination without cause if proper compensation is given, was to be renewed through June 2014.

Selectmen David Ivey, Glen Young and newly elected Troy Ripley voted to fire Jackson, saying they believed she was taking the town in the wrong direction.

Selectmen Raymond Glover and Lloyd “Skip” Herrick, as well as Jackson herself, said she was a capable town manager who had helped improve the town’s financial situation.

Attempts to reach Jackson for comment on Tuesday were not successful.

Jackson said Monday that the contract stipulates that the town must pay her $40,000 after termination, which was effective immediately.

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Town Clerk Anne Pastore said Jackson served the town in other capacities, including as treasurer and tax collector. Pastore would have to consult with the town attorney to see if the town could continue to collect payments, she said.

Pastore said the town was able to continue regular business after being advised that it needed approval from the chairman of the Board of Selectmen to do so.

Ivey was elected chairman on Monday in a 3-2 vote, replacing Glover.

Pastore said she had been offered the job as interim town manager, but had not given an answer. “I’m not sure if one person can do the duties of the town clerk and the town manager,” she said.

Pastore said she did not expect the board to fire Jackson on Monday, and that the employees at the Town Office were saddened by the decision.

“My reaction was shock, because I always thought she did a very good job,” Pastore said. “The only way to describe it is it feels like there’s been a death in the family.”

Prior to being hired as the Paris town manager in December 2004, Jackson worked as a finance clerk in Oxford for eight years.

She was passed over for the town manager position in that town in September 2004, but served as an interim town manager there on two occasions. She is a resident of Oxford.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com


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