MACHIAS – Town Clerk Donna-Jean Metta has resigned in the aftermath of an incident last month at the town office that she said left her feeling she did not have the support of town selectmen.

Metta, who has been town clerk since 1998, outlined the events leading to her resignation in a three-page letter to selectmen on April 30.

Her resignation was effective immediately and she released that letter to the news media and some area businesspeople Friday.

According to Metta’s letter, the town’s outgoing recreation director, Donna Cormier-Bickford, confronted her in the town office on April 18.

Metta said Cormier-Bickford used “very inappropriate language” and made veiled threats against Metta and a friend of Metta’s – the woman who held the position of town recreation director before Cormier-Bickford.

Metta said Monday that Cormier-Bickford accused her of passing information she gleaned from town office conversations to the former recreation director – a charge that Metta said was not true.

Cormier-Bickford did not return a phone message left at her home Monday.

According to Metta’s resignation letter, Town Manager Christine Therrien wasn’t in the office at the time of the confrontation but learned of it when she returned shortly afterward.

Metta said Therrien spoke with her and promised to speak to Cormier-Bickford about the incident. Cormier-Bickford, who had left the office after the confrontation, did not return that day, Metta said.

Metta said she was upset and, after she thought about the incident that night, decided to ask Therrien if she could take accumulated vacation time or sick time the next week so she could avoid any contact with Cormier-Bickford in the four days that were left before the recreation director’s resignation took effect.

Metta said she couldn’t reach Therrien, so she called Sandra Altmannsberger, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, who authorized time off but told her to contact the town manager.

Metta did not contact Therrien, but Therrien called Metta’s home on Easter Monday, telling her to report to work the next day. Metta said Therrien told her if there were further problems, she would direct Cormier-Bickford to leave before April 25, the date Cormier-Bickford’s resignation was effective.

On Tuesday, April 22, Metta’s husband called the town manager, saying his wife was sick. Therrien told him that Metta would have to have a doctor’s note on her return to work, according to Metta’s resignation letter.

Metta said she sent a doctor’s note by certified mail to the town office later that day. The note said Metta should not work until further notice due to emotional stress.

The next day – a Wednesday – Metta said she called Altmannsberger again and “was shocked” when Altmannsberger told her she needed to talk to the town manager and that she did not have the authority to give Metta the time off from work.

“At that point I realized that I was on my own and that the Board of Selectmen was not going to support me and that Sandra Altmannsberger wasn’t going to stand by her decision,” Metta wrote.

Altmannsberger said Monday that it is the town manager who is responsible for employees. Selectmen act as a board of appeals if there is a problem between the manager and other staff, she said.

“The town manager is the first stop,” Altmannsberger said. “In an emergency, any of the selectmen can be contacted, but, from the facts as I know them, Friday night [the night Metta called her] was not an emergency.”

Altmannsberger said she could hear real distress in Metta’s voice when she called her and she gave Metta her best advice.

“I told her it was imperative that she speak with Christine or, at the very least, write something out and show up on Tuesday morning,” she said.