Select Board Member David Grishman is calling for Member Mary Ellen Fletcher’s resignation following what he calls an “egregious” act and “abuse of power.”

At the April 8 Select Board meeting, Fletcher issued a formal apology to “Grishman, the Select Board and the town” for violating the code of conduct by “inserting herself inappropriately into a police matter” as well as displaying a “lack of professional respect” toward Grishman, according to the investigation reviewed by the Swampscott Tides. The matter was later discussed in executive session, where the board determined Fletcher should issue a public apology.

“I firmly believe the Select Board needs to hold Mary Ellen Fletcher accountable for her actions,” Grishman told the Swampscott Tides. “I do not feel that a surface level apology for an offense like this even scratches the surface…Mary Ellen should be embarrassed. She should be more remorseful than she was.”

Select Board Chair Katie Phelan did not respond to questions from the Swampscott Tides around how she expects behavior to change going forward. 

According to the investigation, reviewed by the Swampscott Tides, on November 26, the Swampscott Police Department responded to a report of a motor vehicle hit-and-run at the Vinnin Liquors and Whole Foods parking lot. A man, whose name has been redacted from the report, also emailed Fletcher and Phelan “accusing Mr. Grishman of hitting (redacted name’s) car.”

“Just a heads up, one of your board members, David Grishman, is quite a character,” the email sent to Fletcher and Phelan at 5:56 p.m. read. “I was inside for 5 minutes and come out to this lovely scene of the front driver side of my car busted up and scrapped by a white car…By coincidence there’s a white car owned by Mr. Grishman parked right next to me on the same side when I came back outside from the store.”

In an interview as part of the investigation, which was conducted by Clifford & Kenny, LLP, Grishman was asked if he hit the car, to which he responded “No, I didn’t hit your (man who emailed) car” and left the parking lot.

The email sent to Fletcher and Phena continues, “Needless to say I contacted the police and Vinnin Liquors owners for their security camera footage…Waiting for the video footage to prove it. I’m going to get to the bottom of this and make sure whoever hit my car and ran will be accountable.”

After the investigation team asked Fletcher whether she replied to the email, she initially suggested she did not “but later acknowledged, through her attorney, that she did in fact reply,” according to the investigation. 

“I am so sorry you have to deal with this and I hope you are able to find the person who did this. Please keep us posted. Please send your phone number,” Fletcher wrote back at 7:11 p.m..

The man whose car was hit replied that the cameras did not capture the incident. 

“Give my regards to David and wish him a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope he’s having a wonderful holiday and it’s not getting ruined like mine,” the man replied. “He should be careful where he parks his nice Mercedes. Apparently, cars in the area are getting wrecked up in parking lots and it would be a shame if his fancy car got damaged.”

The investigation goes on to say that at 8:05 p.m., just over two hours after receiving the first email, Fletcher drove to the police station and had a conversation with the officer in the lobby, whose name has also been redacted from the report reviewed by the Swampscott Tides. 

Fletcher asked the officer whether he had received an email reporting the motor vehicle incident. The officer told the investigators into the incident that Fletcher requested that the police “send a cruiser to [Mr. Grishman’s] residence.” After the officer explained that the police department cannot search Grishman’s vehicle without a warrant or his consent, the investigation states that Fletcher said “I want to get this guy.”

“I said I made a mistake,” Fletcher told the Swampscott Tides. “I got an email from somebody. I don’t want to participate in any cover ups…I made a mistake. There’s no harm there.”

Later that night, the police officer wrote a memorandum to Police Chief Ruben Quesada about his encounter with Fletcher, according to the investigation reviewed by the Swampscott Tides. He said he wrote it “because it was ‘an incident involving a Select Board member that could lead to criminal charges.’”

On November 28, two days after the incident, after a Select Board meeting, Phelan told Grishman over the phone about the email and forwarded it to him, according to the investigation reviewed by the Swampscott Tides.

The next day, the man who sent Fletcher and Phelan the email wrote to Lt. Michael Frayler that the incident “is no longer an issue for him.” The email suggested that he could fix the dent himself and that the $250 would be “way less than my deductible.”

Grishman contacted Quesada on December 12 to share his concern about the email’s content. He filed a complaint against Fletcher on January 22 in a letter to Phelan and Town Administrator Nick Connors. He called Fletcher’s actions “remarkable and grossly inappropriate” in the letter, reviewed by the Swampscott Tides.

“The person involved was not a resident of Swampscott,” Grishman told the Swampscott Tides, questioning “why Mary Ellen had to get his phone number and involve herself and call him after the incident at the police department.”

The investigators questioned Fletcher about talking with the man who sent the email, which she “first denied” but then “later acknowledged having a brief ‘two-minute’ phone call with (redacted name) after she left the police station but did not recall specifics of her conversation.”

“I never looked into it again,” Fletcher told the Swampscott Tides.

After the phone conversation, which took place in her car in the Swampscott Police Department lot after Fletcher talked with the officer, the investigation does not indicate whether the person who reported the incident had interacted with Fletcher.

The investigation concluded that there is “sufficient credible evidence that Ms. Fletcher violated the Committee’s Code of Conduct by giving an instruction to the town police to take action” as well as “failing to treat another Select Board member with respect and failing to bring the concern to the town administrator.”

The investigation recommended that Fletcher issue a personal and public apology. It went on to say that the town should also censure “Fletcher through public or written notice that the official has violated the code of conduct, which may include the nature of the violation, and that, if the conduct is repeated in the future, it may be cause for a further sanction.”

“Not one person on the board hasn’t violated the code of conduct. It’s pretty hard. You do your best,” Fletcher said, adding that when she was chair she learned of violations but did not bring them up so that there would not be more drama in town. Fletcher also pointed to previous, recorded Select Board meetings wherein she alleged had violations.

Grishman told the Swampscott Tides that the idea that others have violated the code of conduct is “subjective” but the fact that there has only been one investigation into violations stands. 

“Everything else could be investigated, but the facts are what they are, and they can stand on their own,” Grishman told the Swampscott Tides.

Grishman also said there is a “long pattern of aggressive behavior” by Fletcher.

“It’s a pretty extensive list. There have been a number of residents that have been downright threatened by Mary Ellen. There have been developers who have been threatened by Mary Ellen. There have been town staff – both present and past – who have been threatened by Mary Ellen,” Grishman told the Swampscott Tides. “That is something that Swampscott is not about. It needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.”

For her part, Fletcher told the Swampscott Tides that she appreciates the accountability to the code of conduct.

“I am thrilled to know that people are going to be held accountable because that’s not what’s happened in the past,” Fletcher said.