NARRAGANSETT — For anyone who stayed until the end, last night’s Town Council meeting was an event that won’t soon be forgotten.

It started out tense and grew more so, ending in shouts that led the council president to cut off discussion and end the meeting. A closed-door session that was supposed to follow the regular meeting was promptly canceled.

And then there was the action outside. One council member read a statement, following up on what was said during the meeting. Two others told the police that their cars had been spray-painted with yellow graffiti — some of it not printable — attacking their politics and other matters, including, in one case a member’s claim to live in town. Standing around were more than a dozen residents and town officials, many of them saying they had never seen anything like it.

Underlying everything was the raging, won’t-go-away controversy over the position of tax collector, a post the town manager was going to fill this past spring until he decided, he has said, that the town could save money by having the finance director take on the role.

Councilman George F. Lenihan Jr., supported by Councilman James P. Durkin, has led the charge in questioning Town Manager Jeffry Ceasrine about the decision, suggesting that Councilwoman Krista J. Garrett interfered because her daughter had applied for the post.

Garrett fired back last night, reading a statement at the end of the meeting in which she said her daughter never filled out an application and never had an interview. She said the attacks are personally and politically motivated during an election year, referring at one point to the recent flap over Lenihan’s allowing after-hours drinking at his restaurant, a violation for which his license is being suspended for three days.

She introduced her statement as a response to “rumors, suppositions and outright lies” that Lenihan, Durkin, other Democrats and “friends of Democrats” have spread in recent weeks.

When she finished, Lenihan said that he was told Garrett’s daughter had applied. He also said he was trying to determine if Garrett had stopped someone else from getting the job. Garrett replied that Lenihan was “bordering on slander” and then council President T. Brian Handrigan cut off the discussion. He was challenged by Lenihan and Durkin, but a subsequent vote to end the discussion passed 3 to 2, with Lenihan and Durkin dissenting.

Many of the questions about Ceasrine’s decision not to fill the tax collector’s position center on the sequence of events on April 21. As of that afternoon, Christine Beck, a clerk in the tax collector’s office, was told she was getting the job. Then, at that night’s council meeting, she was told the appointment had fallen through.

The council voted that night to delay the appointment, and Ceasrine has since said he decided the town could save money by having Finance Director Robert J. Uyttebroek serve a dual role. For doing so, Uyttebroek is receiving an additional $6,500 on top of his $87,357 salary as finance director.

Not everyone has bought that explanation, and the answers have been slow in coming. When asked directly at the Aug. 18 council meeting if Garrett had approached him about the appointment, Ceasrine objected to the line of questioning, saying it resembled an inquisition.

Adding to the debate is the fact that tax bills went out late this summer, causing the town to lose more than $10,000 in interest on its accounts. Partly in response, the council voted 4 to 0 last night — with Garrett recusing — to have Ceasrine prepare a report detailing any savings from the new staffing setup. The report, requested by Handrigan, will also explain the job functions of the tax collector and whether they are being accomplished, and as well an assessment of the risk of not having a full-time tax collector.

The risk analysis was suggested by Glenna Hagopian, one of several council candidates to speak last night on the tax collector’s post. In fact, the whole discussion takes place against the backdrop of a Sept. 9 primary in which 15 people are running for the five-seat council. The field includes all five incumbents and 10 challengers.

Garrett referred to the election during the meeting and later read another statement outside Town Hall in which she questioned the political motives of Lenihan and Durkin. Moments later, Lenihan and Durkin were showing police officers the graffiti on their cars.

redgar@projo.com