Epsom selectmen are feeling the backlash after firing the town’s popular elected road agent, Gordon Ellis, who plans to appeal his dismissal.

Numerous ethics charges, a petition to dissolve the town’s Road Advisory Committee, suggestions of lawsuits and a rocky town history with the road agent post have surrounded the firing.

More than 50 people turned out to the board’s Monday, Nov. 13, meeting, several of whom asked selectmen to reinstate Ellis, who’s also a school board member.

S e l e c t - men, citing privacy laws related to personnel, were tightlipped about the specifics of the dismissal, which was announced in an Oct. 28 letter served to Ellis by selectmen Bob McKechnie and Don Weaver, who were accompanied by a county sheriff.

“There are two sides to every story,” selectmen’s Co-chairman Mary Frambach said. “Above and beyond that, I am not at liberty to discuss it.”

In the letter, selectmen say Ellis deliberately refused, or neglected to comply with, the board’s instructions, and failed to respond to written warnings related to his job performance.

Specific charges against Ellis include failure to obtain selectmen’s signatures for a work contract, failure to obtain permits for some bridge work, failure to provide selectmen with weekly work schedules and failure to submit a timely budget to the Road Advisory Committee.

Ellis has publicly apologized for past public references to the committee, commonly known as the RAC, as the “RAT.”

Ellis didn’t attend the selectmen’s meeting, and couldn’t be reached by press time. Selectmen will hear his appeal on Monday, Nov. 27.

Ellis has filed two ethics charges against McKechnie, who until recently was the selectmen’s liaison and a voting member of the RAC.

In his charges, Ellis claims McKechnie tried to get a highway department employee “to say things against Gordon.” Ellis also claims McKechnie put people with conflicts of interest, and who were “antihighway, against road projects,” on the RAC.

McKechnie, before the meeting, said the charges lack merit.

“This is just another way of Gordon trying to have me dismissed,” he said.

In September, Ellis presented the board with a petition signed by more than 110 people asking to abolish the RAC, and stating the committee is an obstacle to highway department projects.

Ellis has also written at least one letter to the editor published in a local newspaper criticizing selectmen for not signing off on proposals for highway department projects.

Several residents at the recent meeting said the town’s high turnover rate with recent road agents represents a systemic problem, and questioned the role of the RAC.

Former Selectman Jay Hickey said selectmen created the RAC, and RAC charter, in 2001 to assist road agents, who often excelled at road work but struggled with the paperwork associated with the job.

According to the charter, the road agent is a permanent member of the RAC.

Resident David Fiorentino drew a chart displaying what he saw as a “circle of command” where he said the RAC works against the road agent by reporting straight to selectmen, the body that signs off on the road agent’s highway department expenditures.

Fiorentino also suggested having two selectmen as voting members on the currently fourmember RAC leads to conflicts of interest.

“I’ve heard of a chain of command,” said Fiorentino. “I’ve never heard of the Epsom circle of command.”

McKechnie has repeatedly urged interested residents to join the RAC, which has lacked steady membership since it was formed.

“People will sit there and criticize and complain, but they won’t join up and try to make things better,” McKechnie said before the meeting. “I don’t mind complaints as long as someone wants to help with a solution to make things right.”

Other residents urged selectmen to consider altering or abolishing the RAC charter.

“The way this is set up is dysfunctional at best, and we are reaping what we have sowed,” said resident Cleon Riel.

Former school board member Tim Riel said he didn’t see any of the parties involved as clearly responsible for the situation, but urged told the board, “I’d like you to stop pointing fingers.”

“My plea to you is to look at this objectively,” he said. “It’s obvious we do have some problems.”

Weaver, one of two selectmen still with voting power and the RAC, and McKechnie have been temporary filling the fulltime road agent post without pay. The road agent’s salary is $43,500 annually.