A group of residents called on the Andover Select Board to fire Town Manager Andrew Flanagan for his role in a 2019 town of Chelmsford Labor dispute.
Steve Walther and Kathleen Grant blasted Flanagan during the public input portion of Monday’s select board meeting, while a third, Mike Myers, sent a letter to the select board earlier in the day calling for Flanagan’s firing.
Myers, who founded Andover Citizens for Transparency and led the petition drive to call a special town meeting earlier this year, outlined eight instances he said illustrated Flanagan’s “patterns of deception and dishonesty,” including a state ruling saying he had participated in unlawful communication with Chelmsford officials while volunteering on an arbitration board in 2019.
“It is simply untenable to ask the hard-working residents of Andover to endure this malfeasance any longer,” Myers wrote. “We can no longer idly sit by and ignore what is happening to our wonderful community. We need to demand Flanagan accountability. His unlawful and unethical behavior has consequences.”
Flanagan did not address the comments or the letter at Monday’s meeting. He has previously said he had no role in the Chelmsford special town meeting vote in 2019 and that the Department of Labor Relations decision did not find “cause for disciplinary action.”
The calls for Flanagan’s removal came on the same day Chelmsford special town meeting approved paying more than $420,000 to close the labor dispute. Grant shared a 2019 letter from Chelmsford’s insurer suggesting the police union could seek damages from Flanagan, the town of Chelmsford and the Chelmsford officials he colluded with.
“The time for a pro-active, remorseful and contrite response has long passed: The unrepentant fraud of Andrew Flanagan cannot be permitted to remain as the face of Andover Town Government,” Walther (photo) said. “The Andover Select Board must take their responsibilities seriously, as the Chelmsford Select Board is doing.”
The select board did not address the letter at Monday’s meeting. The only board member to acknowledge Walther and Grant at Monday’s meeting was Chair Alex Vispoli, who had to gavel down Grant when her comments extended beyond the three-minute time limit. Vispoli and Annie Gilbert are the only two members who have publicly voiced support for Flanagan.
Letter from Mike Myers to Andover Select Board:
I appreciate that Andover News covers the Select Board meetings, in contrast to other news sources. I’d like to point out that the “pressure” on Andover Town Manager Andrew Flanagan is not based on an allegation or an opinion, it is based on ‘findings of fact’ of a State Hearing Officer and Flanagan’s own testimony during the Hearing. That Flanagan was a co-conspirator in a fraudulent arbitration scheme, destroyed evidence, and plagiarized ‘his’ dissenting arbitration opinion, comes from publicly available primary sources, such as the State Hearing Officer decision and the Hearing transcript of testimony. I hope the Andover News can publish all or some of the relevant testimony from Mr. Flanagan to illustrate his repeated perjury in sworn testimony. The State Hearing Officer’s decision is linked to in an earlier Andover News story, or find it here ( https://pubinfo.dlr.state.ma.us/ViewDocument.aspx?view=P:%5CTM%20Documents%5CCase%20Docs%5CULP%5CMUP-19-7227%5CHO%20Decision%20Issued.PDF ) and read it for yourself. His actions are more than simply atrocious behavior, they have victims, and those victims could include the Town of Andover, which may have liability if the Chelmsford Police choose to sue for damages. Andover Town servers were involved in the conspiracy, Andover Town devices were used to destroy evidence, and the Andover Town Clerk’s office was used to obstruct public records requests from the Chelmsford Police – that seems like a lot of liability.