Yvette Mason, a Morristown resident campaigning as a write-in candidate for the town selectboard, had some choice words for the board’s chair following the abrupt departure of a board member who criticized the chair’s leadership.
Mason, in a June 29 email to board chair Judy Bickford, accused Bickford of being the reason for the resignation of Travis Sabataso from the board. Sabataso had tendered his resignation earlier that day.
Sabataso was elected to the selectboard in March after heavily criticizing the previous board’s original budget and what he characterized as town officials’ lack of transparency.
In one email, Mason, a member of the Morristown Democratic Party, told Bickford she was “not acting as a Democrat in this town.”
“In my opinion, you need to resign. I was a huge fan of you and PUT YOU IN OFFICE. Placed you there and then you did not even think to appoint me to the office?” Mason wrote.
Mason's emails were included in a packet of correspondence sent to the News & Citizen last month as part of a public records request related to Sabataso's departure.
Mason was one of a dozen people who applied for an appointment to the selectboard in April to fill the seat vacated a month earlier by longtime chair Bob Beeman, who cited, in part, the “toxic” political environment in town.
The board instead appointed Chris Palermo, who is up for re-election on a special Aug. 29 ballot — Mason is challenging him as a write-in candidate.
In another email to Bickford, with the subject line “Bring back Travis / or no budget,” Mason wrote, “Mark my words and I don’t care if you try to take my little JOP job away from me.”
Mason was presumably referring to her post as an elected justice of the peace for Morristown.
Both Mason and Bickford declined to comment Tuesday, but Bickford’s husband, David, writes in a letter to the editor this week that Mason had “attacked” his and his wife’s patriotism in a different email.
Updated Aug. 23 to clarify that Mason's emails were received as a result of a previous public records request.
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