RUMFORD – After a nearly two-hour closed-door session Thursday night, selectmen gave a public works employee his job back after he had been fired by the town’s acting manager.

Stacy Carter, the town’s police chief and acting town manager, said Friday that he fired the man on April 4 but declined to name the employee or say why he was fired.

But a review of town payroll records for the public works department shows that Robert Bradley Jr. was removed from the town’s payroll after April 5. While several town officials declined to name Bradley, others close to the incident confirmed the name and a locally operated Internet blog site, www.rumfordmaine.org, also identified the employee as Bradley.

Selectmen Greg Buccina, Arthur Boivin and Mark Belanger voted to overturn Carter’s decision. Selectman Jolene Lovejoy voted to uphold that decision, while board Chairman Jim Rinaldo did not vote.

When asked why he supported reinstating Bradley, Belanger declined comment.

Boivin confirmed his vote but said all the discussion on the decision was done in executive session. He declined further comment.

Bradley has also taken out nomination papers to be a candidate for the Board of Selectmen. He is the son of former Selectman Robert Bradley.

Under the town’s charter, only the manager can hire and fire employees, but firing decisions can be appealed to the selectmen.

Lovejoy declined to name the employee or to say why he had been fired or reinstated, but she did say she was very concerned that the board overturned the decision of the acting town manager, which she believed was justified.

“I have very strong feelings about what happened last night,” Lovejoy said. “I was furious, and while I don’t like it, that is the decision they made.”

Carter, of all people had the skills and experience, to conduct a fair review of the employee and determine whether the town should fire him, Lovejoy said. “Don’t you think somebody from the Police Department would be able to do a good investigation?” she asked.

“Really what this is about accepting what the town manager has done or overruling what the town manager has done,” she said. “To me we were saying, ‘Thanks a lot, top cop, but we don’t like your investigation, we don’t believe your investigation.’ That to me is the slap in the face right there.”

She said selectmen were undermining the authority of the manager and the town’s department heads with their decision. She said it was the second time in as many weeks that selectmen had second-guessed a decision by Carter, who was appointed to the post a few weeks after former Town Manager Stephen Eldridge resigned. Eldridge left after a judge ruled the town charter required him to be a Rumford resident. Eldridge, who lives in Monmouth, refused to move to Rumford. Ultimately the town agreed to pay him his full annual salary to avoid a legal dispute over his contract even though he served only a portion of the year at the post.

Thursday’s decision sends a terrible message to any future town manager, signaling any decisions made by the manager may be overturned by the board, Lovejoy said.

The town has found a finalist for the town manager post, a Maine native currently living in New York state, Lovejoy said.

“But how do you think he is going to do in this environment?” she asked.

Town attorney Jennifer Kreckel, the employee and Carter were all in Thursday’s closed session.

The session and the grievance procedure are part of the public works department’s union contract. Carter said the terms of that union contract prohibited him from saying why he decided to fire the employee in the first place.

The employee would not be paid for the time he was fired, Carter said.

Regional Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.