Better suited as an editorial

To the Editor:

After reading your incendiary headline on Paris Town Manager Phil Tarr, I believe it better suited to your editorial page, where opinions can be found.

This latest piece shows a stunning lack of context and research into the history of our situation in Paris. Anyone who has been around for a while understands Mr. Tarr was hired by a prior board of selectmen who were subsequently removed from office in the first recall elections ever held in Paris. Paris had a perfectly competent and honest manager in Sharon Jackson.

Apparently, some people in this community preferred a "good ol' boy" in that seat rather than a town manager who looked out for the community as whole over the narrow desires of a few.

After the recall elections and once the select board was reconstituted, no one seemed to have the intestinal fortitude to right the situation regarding Mrs. Jackson, so the "default" decision was made to leave Mr. Tarr in place.

I had spoken early on regarding his fitness as town manager after an internet search of newspaper articles describing Mr. Tarr's previous implements, and I advocated the town pay the 40 thousand plus dollars specified in Tarr's hideously crafted employment contract foisted upon the town by the deposed selectmen.

As a community, I believed we deserved better.

After watching Mr. Tarr for the last two and a half years, and my prior experience with Sharon Jackson, a consummate professional, I am certain Paris can do better.

Having been to numerous select board meetings, and as a member of the Budget Committee, I have seen Mr. Tarr's fumbling and bumbling in meeting after meeting and he would be lost without the extraordinary and heroic efforts of the office employees who answer the questions and keep this manager on the "straight and narrow."

For all his supposed experience, Mr. Tarr lacks rudimentary budget skills and were it not for astute employees and citizens, I believe major financial gaffes would have occurred over the last three budget cycles.

Under Mr. Tarr's leadership, the public has seemingly lost access to the town gravel pits and at every turn, he has imposed his will into town decisions even though he neither resides nor pays taxes in Paris.

In my experience with Mr. Tarr, it has been difficult to get a straight answer and frankly, I do not trust the man. In the last paragraph of the article, Mr. Tarr states, "We've really had some huge projects completed." Really? I wish Mr. Tarr had enumerated said projects because I for one do not know to what he is referring!

Janet Jamison

South Paris