Access Channel Firing Angers North Andover Selectmen

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- Selectmen in North Andover are upset by a decision by North Andover Community Access and Media to fire its executive director of 10 years. Steve D'Onofrio, the selectmen's representative and chairman of NACAM's board of directors, told selectmen that the decision to fire Brian Fraser was made with guidance from a personnel attorney, but declined to provide further details at a meeting earlier this month.

While NACAM is a nonprofit, it receives about $500,000 a year in funding from North Andover town meeting, according to the Eagle Tribune, which first reported this story. "I think I performed above and beyond," Fraser told the newspaper. "I'm the executive director, but it's a company of four people ... I wear many hats, I do production, cover meetings, what not. It's not a 40 hour a week job."

Selectmen voted 4-1 to remove D'Onofrio from the board. They appointed Chris McClure, the town's information technology director, as an interim representative. "You terminated somebody who was the face of CAM for the past decade. This wasn't a temporary employee, this was a major decision as you're in the middle of a rebuild right now," Selectman Phil DeCologero said.

For more on this story, see the Eagle-Tribune. Subscribe to North Andover Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo of North Andover Selectman Phil DeCologero.