A Tisbury planning official has been placed on administrative leave for what she claims is retaliation for speaking out against alleged improper permitting practices in the down-Island government.
The town put Amy Upton, the planning board administrator since 2022, on paid leave Tuesday pending an investigation into allegations of infractions of town policies and misconduct, according to a letter from town administrator Jay Grande.
“Your leave will continue until further notice as the Town reviews this matter,” the letter, shared with the Gazette by Ms. Upton’s attorney, reads. “Your leave does not constitute a disciplinary action against you.”
Mr. Grande confirmed that Ms. Upton was put on leave, but did not respond to requests on the potential infractions.
Ms. Upton said she was escorted from her office on Tuesday by Tisbury police chief Chris Habekost.
The leave follows accusations from Xerxes Aghassipour, the developer of a controversial property at 97 Spring street, that Ms. Upton and a planning board member were falsely claiming Mr. Aghassipour was colluding with other town officials.
Mr. Aghassipour has demolished a four-bedroom home at the Spring street property and proceeded with building a new nine-bedroom residence.
Ms. Upton contended that the project should have gone to the zoning board of appeals for a special permit, while town building inspector Greg Monka had already issued a building permit.
In a public records request, Mr. Aghassipour obtained text messages and emails from Ms. Upton to planning board member Ben Robinson and other officials, in which Ms. Upton questioned the proceedings of the town. The message appeared for the first time publicly last week when Mr. Aghassipour attached them to documents sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
In texts sent to Mr. Robinson in May, Ms. Upton wrote that “the meeting of the olds boys club” would “ramrod ahead” with the project.
Ms. Upton went on to say that the project would end up in the lap of the select board.
“They have a rogue and seemingly incompetent building inspector and a lame duck town administrator,” she wrote.
On June 7, Ms. Upton sent another text to Mr. Robinson saying it appeared Mr. Grande, Mr. Monka and Mr. Aghassipour were “all in a big circle jerk.”
Ms. Upton’s attorney on Tuesday said she believed the town was using the private texts as grounds to suspend her. Ms. Upton said she was shocked when Chief Habekost was sent to her office with the letter from Mr. Grande asking her to leave.
“As for the texts themselves, Ms. Upton used the term ‘circle jerk’ as it is defined by multiple dictionaries: she intended to indicate that the meeting was an echo chamber, where people who are already in agreement meet to discuss their views,” said Casey Dobel, Ms. Upton’s attorney.
“From pages and pages of documents that Ms. Upton turned over in response to Mr. Aghassipour’s [public records request], one phrase was cherry picked to attempt to discredit the tireless work she has been doing to attempt to protect the Town of Tisbury from unregulated development,” she added.
The 97 Spring street development has been debated for months, and the Tisbury planning board and board of health have asked that the project be reviewed by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
At the heart of the issue is whether the project needed a special permit. Mr. Robinson said the building was a pre-existing nonconforming structure that needed a special permit to be changed. There have also been questions about if the building was old enough to trigger review from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission under the commission’s historic building rules.
The potential use of the building as workforce housing has also been raised. Mr. Aghassipour has said he envisions leasing the home to Vineyard Wind employees. Neighbors have questioned that plan because Tisbury has a bylaw that prohibits more than five unrelated people from renting rooms together in the same home.
Mr. Grande previously said that the rooming house bylaw is generally unenforced, and Mr. Aghassipour said he would make a final decision on the use of the home based on what Tisbury officials allow.
Ms. Dobel said the town had issued a reprimand letter to Ms. Upton following the records request, but Ms. Upton wanted to issue a rebuttal and hadn’t yet signed the paperwork. Ms. Upton had also planned to file a union grievance against Mr. Monka, saying he had refused to work with her.
“I am now being hung out to dry by my own town administration and I’ve done nothing but do my job,” Ms. Upton said.
Ms. Dobel said she and her client are looking into potential legal avenues to move forward.
Mr. Robinson, a member of both the planning board and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, said the scrutiny of Ms. Upton’s communications was unfortunate and drew away from the potentially improper permitting going on in town.
“All of this is very unfortunate and it distracts from the issues,” he said.
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