NORWAY — The president of the Norway-Paris Solid Waste board of directors called for a special meeting Friday to see if the board will remove one of the its members.

Al Atkinson said the meeting will question whether Janet Jamison should be removed from the board under a newly approved set of bylaws. Atkinson said that if Jamison is removed, director Joe Bracy will be asked to complete her two-year term and the Paris board of selectmen will be asked to appoint a new director for a one-year term.

“It’s the only way we can stop the harassment,” said Atkinson. “She’s a bully.”

The board previously sought to remove Jamison from the board through a 5-2 vote refusing to recognize her appointment. In that matter, Jamison was accused of “public innuendos and false accusations” against other board members and “unethical and extremely biased statements” against the employees of the Brown Street transfer station.

More recently, Atkinson asked the Paris selectmen to rescind their appointment of Jamison due to “unprofessional and unethical” behavior. He accused Jamison of exceeding her authority by discussing changes to the board’s bylaws with the Norway board of selectmen after he had motioned to have a joint meeting between the boards of selectmen and NPSW board of directors.

In both instances, the Paris selectmen voted to uphold their appointment of Jamison.

Jamison was the sole director on the seven-member board who voted against amending the bylaws at the board’s December meeting, as well as a new set of amendments at Friday’s meeting. Bruce Cook was absent from December’s meeting and abstained from the vote on Friday.

“I think this is in direct violation of the inter-local agreement,” Jamison said.

Both Norway and Paris passed an updated inter-local agreement between the towns and Norway-Paris Solid Waste in June. The changes came after concerns about fee hikes put into place by the quasi-municipal organization and included an expansion of the board from five members to seven and a more regular meeting schedule.

Atkinson said the amendments to the bylaws passed on Friday were mostly “housekeeping” to make the language consistent with the inter-local agreement. Under the new bylaws, the board must approve appointments from the towns by a majority vote, and if a member is not approved and the towns fail to appoint a replacement within 10 days, the board may nominate their own members.

The amended bylaws also allow for the removal of individual members of the entire board of directors at a special meeting called for that purpose. At such a meeting, a director could be removed if two-thirds of the attending directors approve it. A town would have 30 days to appoint a replacement, and the board would be allowed to nominate a replacement if the the deadline is not met.

Jamison contends that the board is attempting to act like a private organization, and Atkinson says the abilities set up under the amended bylaws are compliant with state law. Atkinson announced at the close of Friday’s meeting that he intends to call a special meeting to see if the board will remove Jamison, setting off a heated exchange between the two.

“What you think you know could fill the Empire State Building,” said Atkinson as Jamison criticized the new bylaws. “What you actually do know could fit on the head of a pin.”

“Do you think I’m going to go away, Al?” said Jamison.

Atkinson said the meeting will take place this week, but a date had not been set after the Friday meeting.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com