Selectman Makes Another Controversial Comment, This Time Due to Halted Project

Things got tense Monday night during the Hampton Board of Selectmen's meeting when one board member's frustration with the handling of a town project led him to tell another selectman that he would force her to stop talking if she interrupted him.

Selectman Mike Pierce told Selectman Mary-Louise Woolsey, "I'll come over there and visit you with my hands," while telling her not to "say a word" during his critique of the Hampton Budget Committee's decision to cut $300,000 in road reconstruction funds during last fall's budget process.

Woolsey was the vice chair of the budget committee at that time. The cut inadvertently stalled the full reconstruction of Fairfield Drive, even though the road's drainage and sewer lines had already been overhauled last summer as part of a two-stage project designed to use some of the $300,000 this summer to lay down new pavement and finish the roadwork.

Pierce said during Monday night's meeting and in a subsequent conversation with Patch on Tuesday that he's "really upset" that residents on Fairfield Drive are left with a "lumpy, bumpy road" instead of a fulfilled "promise" because of the cut made by Woolsey and the budget committee.

"I wanted her to shut up and stop interrupting me," Pierce said on Tuesday. "That’s what I meant by that comment. If that means I had to go over and put my hand or a piece of tape over her mouth, that’s what I was prepared to do."

Selectman Phil Bean took offense to Monday night's remark — which came after Woolsey briefly talked over Pierce one time — and asked Chairman Dick Nichols for a point of order during the meeting.

"Could we please not have that kind of comment?" said Bean. "I don't feel comfortable with that. I'm sorry, Mike."

Nichols asked Pierce to "continue" on about Fairfield Drive, and Pierce told Bean that Bean's "entitled" to his opposition and is also entitled to make comments with which other selectmen may not agree. No other statements were made Monday night in reference to Pierce's remark.

Pierce said Tuesday that he stands by the remark, though, because the decision to cut the money wasn't "fair to the people on Fairfield" Drive.

"I was not thinking exactly [when I said] what I said there," said Pierce. "It maybe was not a well-advised remark. I was trying to say she should probably keep her mouth shut. If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. 

"I've heard people say it was kind of a ridiculous thing to say... [Past and present selectmen chairmen] couldn't shut her up, and I wasn’t going to stand for it. I used a different approach — maybe the wrong approach, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire… I didn’t call her a 'little Hitler,' if that’s what you're [saying]."

Pierce took heavy criticism a couple of years ago for publicly calling Budget Committee Chairwoman Eileen Latimer a "little Hitler" during the peak of heated bickering between the two boards. Video of that claim can be found here.

Woolsey and Pierce often disagree during meetings and have publicly bickered in the past, although Woolsey said Tuesday that she didn't "need to make a comment" in response to Pierce's latest remark because she doesn't see how getting bothered about it will help the town.

"He likes to get snippy," said Woolsey. "I ignore it. Whatever. It's OK. So what... When you're in office, either your fellow man or [elected officials] can get excited. Time goes on. I don't get excited. If he wants to get excited, he can have a great time doing it. To take things personally [while in elected office]... you'd never get anything done."

Woolsey said the cut was made because the budget committee felt there was money elsewhere in the budget to fund the road reconstruction due to the fact that money was being drawn from "all over the place" to fund other road projects.

She also claimed that selectmen at the time were drawing from the road capital reserve fund regularly. That was "frustrating" for her committee, said Woolsey, because a slow accumulation of interest was needed in the account to be able to cover even a portion of the "unrealistic" number of projects designated each year as recipients of that taxpayer money. 

"The whole situation seemed like it was going to hell in a hand basket," said Woolsey.

Both Pierce and Woolsey said, though, that Fairfield Drive and other road projects should be a priority as selectmen enter the budgeting process for the 2014 town meeting.

Both said infrastructure improvements will be on their minds as they pitch possible warrant articles and budget items. Pierce said he will not "let [Fairfield Drive] go by unnoticed" because he feels failing to complete the project would undermine the purpose of collecting money from taxpayers.

"In the grand scheme, it's small potatoes, but it's not the point," said Pierce.