PORTSMOUTH — Members of the Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center will head to the polls Monday to elect five members to the organization's board of directors, but the election arrives amid controversy surrounding an anonymous mailer that endorsed half of the candidates on the ballot.

Voting will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, June 22, at the senior center, 112 Bristol Ferry Road. Eligible members will choose five directors from a field of 10 candidates: Ray Davis, Fred Faerber, Karen Gleason, Mark J. Katzman, Paul Frank Kesson, Sharlene Patton, Marge Rattay, Frank Rego, J. Mark Ryan and Conley Wake Zani.

The debate centers on a mailed flyer that was recently received by some residents and promoted five candidates: Gleason, Patton, Rattay, Kesson and Rego.

Under the headings, “PORTSMOUTH MULTIPURPOSE SENIOR CENTER ‘PMPSC’” and “Your Vote Matters,” the flyer urged members to support candidates committed to “transparency,” “accountability” and “protecting the PMPSC’s interests.”

Much of the document focused on ongoing discussions between the senior center and Church Community Housing Corporation (CCHC), which plans to develop affordable housing on property adjacent to the center.

Who sent it?

What has generated the most discussion, however, is not the content of the flyer but its origin.

Several residents who received the mailing said it initially appeared to come from the senior center itself because of its formatting and references to the organization. Senior center officials have publicly denied any involvement.

In a discussion on the All Things Portsmouth Facebook page, former town council member Linda Ujifusa, now a state senator, said she and board candidate Mark Ryan received the letter and later confirmed it had not been sent by the senior center.

“We're concerned this letter is misleading people into thinking the Sr. Center endorsed these five candidates,” Ujifusa wrote.

Helen Mathieu, a former board chair, also stated online that “The Senior Center DID NOT send this letter and has NEVER endorsed candidates for its board.”

Jim Seveney, the acting chairman of the senior center board, also distanced the organization from the mailing.

“I can confirm that the Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center staff had nothing to do with the funding, creation or mailing of this endorsement letter,” Seveney said in an email to The Portsmouth Times.

Seveney said he shared concerns raised by residents on social media, noting that the mailing was unsigned and lacked a return address.

“So, barring the unlikely event that the author(s) step forward and identify themselves, there’s no way to know for sure where it came from,” he said.

The controversy quickly sparked dozens of comments, with critics questioning whether the mailing was designed to resemble an official communication from the organization and asking who paid for it.

Several commenters also questioned how the sender obtained the names and addresses of recipients if the mailing did not originate from the senior center.

Others defended the flyer as a routine campaign-style communication and argued that candidates or their supporters have a right to advocate for preferred board members.

The dispute has also taken on a political dimension, with some residents alleging connections to Portsmouth Concerned Citizens (PCC), a local taxpayer advocacy group whose members have frequently weighed in on town issues involving the senior center and the proposed housing development. Others rejected those claims as speculation.

Few responses

Seeking answers, The Portsmouth Times contacted the five candidates featured in the mailer — using their e-mail addresses listed on the document — as well as the PCC.

As of 1 p.m. Monday, only three responses had been received — two from members of the PCC and one from Seveney.

Seveney described the flyer as a last-minute effort to sway voters.

“From my perspective, this unsigned letter is exactly what it appears to be, a last minute misleading attempt to influence our membership for today’s Board election,” he wrote.

Larry Fitzmorris, president of PCC, said the organization had no involvement.

“The Portsmouth Concerned Citizens did not send or fund the mailer,” Fitzmorris wrote in an email Sunday.

Tom Grieb, another PCC member, likewise denied any connection between the group and the document, which he described as a “flyer.”

After hearing back from both members of the PCC, however, The Portsmouth Times received a copy of an e-mail sent out June 15 by Fitzmorris to an undisclosed group of recipients. The e-mail included an identical copy of the flyer and stated the PCC had voted June 2 to endorse those five candidates.

We reached out again to Fitzmorris Sunday afternoon, and he replied Monday afternoon:

“The PCC neither drafted, funded or mailed that mailer,” Fitzmorris stated in the e-mail. “What you have sent is an internal email from the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens, sent only to our membership, that has been leaked to you.  I do not discuss internal documents outside of the PCC.”

None of the five candidates named in the mailing had responded to requests for comment as of 1 p.m. Monday. We’ll update this story if we hear back from any of them.

With the source of the mailer still unknown, the questions surrounding it may remain unanswered even after votes are cast Monday. For now, senior center members will decide whether the controversy influences their choices in an election that will shape the organization's leadership for the next two years.