The Conway Daily Sun December 10, 2009

By Nate Giarnese
Reporter
nate@conwaydailysun.com

JACKSON — A group of Jackson citizens is calling for the ouster of selectman Gino Funicella, after new details recently surfaced of his past troubles with employees.
After a year of mounting unrest and grumblings among loosely organized residents, the newly energized group is hitting the town with a petition urging Funicella to step down.
Funicella, according to a state employment review panel report, helped drive a former town administrator, Tracy Scranton, to resign by calling her “boo boo,” “honey” and “sweetie” after he was elected in 2003. The woman, the report said, once called police to say she was scared to be alone with him years later after he turned angry, The Conway Daily Sun reported recently.
“No one knew this gal called the police and had been scared,” said Larry Siebert, one the of group's leaders.
The state awarded Scranton unemployment benefits, concluding that she "left her employment for good cause attributable to her employer."
Siebert said four petitions are circulating, and he is urging citizens to call him (383-7021) or stop by his art shop next door to town hall. He said he has 18 names on his petition and that the others may have more.
“We are shooting for 200,” he said. “People have been showing up with pens.”
Funicella declined comment Tuesday. His wife, county Democratic party chair Beth Funicella, said, “We're sick of all this.”
While Funicella has at times seemed the face of the board, taking the brunt of criticism and blurting out the most controversial statements, the citizens' group says the board's other two members failed to curb the behaviors.
Only recently, Funicella and selectman Dave Mason had it out at a public meeting, with Funicella barking that he was tired of doing Mason's dirty work, Siebert said.
Mason, who has also been at odds with Seibert over building permits, declined comment.
Selectman Bea Davis has said next to nothing publicly and has gone quietly along with the others, critics said.
Some see it otherwise.  Planning board chair Betsy Harding in a letter the editor Wednesday, noting public service can be "thankless work," stated her "support" and "gratitude" to the three selectmen.
Siebert said while Funicella was accused of upsetting numerous employees, yelling and making threats against their jobs, the two others are complicit.
“They backed him 100 percent and covered this thing up for a year,” Seibert said.
According to a February police report, Scranton said Funicella once ripped up an interoffice memo she had written about employee safety, yelling and declaring angrily that the memo would foster public mistrust of selectmen.
Siebert said citizens are fed up with selectmen lashing out whenever they are criticized. When Scranton's assistant resigned last year, citing similar problems with selectmen, selectmen accused her of not being a “team player.”
“They vilified the victim.” Siebert said.
The group has made attempts to organize before, but until recently had yet to formalize its presence.