“I very distressed that a Portsmouth Town Council person, David Gleason, used his position as a fiduciary of the Common Fence Point Trustees to block an effort by the League of Women Voters to have a candidate forum at the hall," says council member Charles Levesque.

Candidates to meet Thursday at middle school

The Portsmouth Town Council candidates’ forum will be held at Portsmouth Middle School from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26. The public is invited to attend.

The forum will be moderated by Scott Pickering, general manager of East Bay Media Group. It is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Newport County, Newport This Week, East Bay Media Group, AARP, Involved Newport, and The Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce.

NOTE: This story was edited Sept. 25 to include information on past political events held at the CFP Arts, Wellness and Community Center.

PORTSMOUTH — David Gleason is a member of the Town Council who’s running for reelection in November.

He’s also one of the five trustees for the Common Fence Point Improvement Association (CFPIA), which last week abruptly canceled a Town Council candidates’ forum that was to be held Thursday, Sept 26, by the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Newport County at the CFP Arts, Wellness and Community Center.

The LWV has since found a new location — Portsmouth Middle School — and the forum will be held on the same day and time: 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26. The public is invited to attend.

However, the cancelation of the original meeting by the CFP trustees has raised questions since a standing member of the council had a part in its decision-making process.

Council member Charles Levesque, who is also running for another term, accused Gleason of purposely acting to get the forum canceled altogether. (Levesque is a Democrat, while Gleason is a Republican.)

“I very distressed that a Portsmouth Town Council person, David Gleason, used his position as a fiduciary of the Common Fence Point Trustees to block an effort by the League of Women Voters to have a candidate forum at the hall,” Levesque stated in a letter to The Portsmouth Times. “The timing of this effort was evidently to prevent it from happening at all as the hall had been reserved more than a month before the subsequent refusal.”

Reached by phone on Tuesday, Gleason offered only a brief response to Levesque’s charges: “My only comment to that is that’s not true,” he said.

Gleason notified The Portsmouth Times by e-mail on Sept. 16 that the forum at the CFP hall had been canceled. “Due to a misunderstanding about the event, that was not in any way the fault of LWV, the CFPA Trustees had to cancel the scheduled event,” he stated in the e-mail.

When asked Tuesday about the misunderstanding and the reasons behind the trustees’ decision, Gleason declined to provide specifics. 

“All I can tell you is we discussed it at our last trustee meeting. The response to you, from the trustees, is a non-response,” Gleason said.

When asked why, the council member said there was no need for the trustees to explain themselves to a newspaper. 

“Basically because it’s none of your business,” Gleason said, adding he couldn’t speak for any of the other trustees and that “my statement will be there at the forum Thursday night.”

The other trustees are Marshall Hill, Melissa Santaniello, Leon Lesenski, and Mary Ellen Martin, according to the CFPIA website.

Non-profit status

After being pressed further, Gleason cited the CFPIA’s non-profit, 501c3 status as one reason for the trustees’ decision. “There will not be any political events at the CFP hall,” he said. 

Gleason noted that the president of the LWV-Newport, Christine Stenning, has told him that other venues, such as the local VFW just a walk away in Common Fence Point, have turned the League down for similar reasons.

Stenning took issue with Gleason’s remarks on Tuesday. 

“I do not believe that CFP being a 501c3 makes any difference about holding a non-partisan forum, as we have held forums in other places that are 501c3. The League is a 501c4, AARP is a 501c3, the Greater Chamber is a 502c3. His logic makes no sense,” she said.

Stenning also said Gleason told her that holding a candidates’ forum at the CFP hall was in direct violation of the CFPIA bylaws. “I have a copy of the bylaws and have read them. I see absolutely nothing that prevents us from holding a forum at CFP. We did so two years ago with no problem,” she said.

A section of the CFPIA bylaws reads, in part: “This Association is a non-partisan organization devoted to the improvement of this community for the mutual benefit of all its residents. This article does not deny the members, Officers or Trustees of this Association free choice of candidate or party but it does strongly stress that the Association is non-partisan and shall so remain.”

The LWV has always considered itself, as well as the events it sponsors, as non-partisan.

Past political events

The CFP community hall has been the site for past political events, including a September 2022 Democratic Town Committee fund-raiser that was the target of vandal(s) who spray-painted “Not welome (sic) Demon rats” and other messages on an outside fence shortly before the event. 

In May of this year, R.I. Rep. Patricia Morgan, a Republican challenging Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for his seat in November, held a “Whistle Stop” campaign kickoff tour aboard the Old Colony railroad. The last stop listed in the event’s marketing materials was an ice cream social at 933 Anthony Road — the CFP hall.

Gleason and his wife, Karen Gleason, are supporters of Morgan’s campaign. The latter touted the event on her Facebook page.

Missing candidates?

As for that October 2022 council candidates’ forum, only the seven Democrats running for office attended and fielded questions. All four Republican candidates, plus an independent, were absent.

“(Republicans) did try to suggest that the League of Women Voters had not adequately notified them,” Levesque stated in his letter, referring to the 2022 forum. “All the Democratic candidates were there and the notice was the same for each.”

Gleason said he plans to attend Thursday’s forum at the middle school. “As far as I know, everybody will be there,” he said.

Several Democrats may be absent, however. Stenning said Timothy Grissett has indicated he won’t be able to attend, and Sondra Blank and Tasha MacGibbon did not confirm their participation to the League by the Sunday night deadline.

Although the trustees don’t want political events held at the CFP hall, the Anthony Road building still serves as one of the town’s seven polling places. 

“CFP will be Precinct 2702 in November,” Registrar of Voters Jacqueline Schulz said in an e-mail on Tuesday. “No one has approached the Board of Canvassers with any concerns.”