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Selectwoman who helped push for chairman recall is censured by 3-2 vote

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Lebanon Selectwoman Corinna Cole holds her letter to the editor up to the camera during Thursday night meeting. (YouTube screen capture)

LEBANON, Maine - The Lebanon Board of Selectmen on Thursday voted to censure Selectperson Corinna Cole for remarks she made in a Letter to the Editor that was published in The Rochester Voice on Tuesday.

The letter, in part, criticized the selectboard's decision to not use former state senator Richard Nass of Acton as the moderator in an upcoming public hearing to discuss a recall election against Lebanon Selectboard Chair Charles Russell.

Cole also said in the letter she felt Adams showed bias favorable to Russell during a five-minute speech he made at the Sept. 10 meeting, which should have precluded him from choosing a moderator, a charge that Adams readily accepted and was OK'd by other members of the board, except Cole.

The censure motion was requested by town resident and former Cannabis Committee Chair James Dupuis, who also spoke in glowing terms about Russell's tenure on the board during the Sept. 10 meeting.

A few moments after Dupuis' request for censure, Adams made a motion to censure Cole. The motion was seconded by Russell and approved by Russell, Adams and Selectman Butch Lizotte; Selectboard Vice Chair Paul Philbrick and Cole voted against it.

During the censure discussion Dupuis called Cole's letter to the editor "slanderous" and said the letter made it look like she was writing for the entire board even though she clearly signed the letter: Corinna Cole, Selectwoman, Lebanon, Maine.

When Cole asked to read the letter that was the basis of the censure request, Russell denied her and Dupuis exclaimed, "No, I would not. Corinna, I have the table and I have the chair; you do not have the right. Sit down and shut up!"

"Excuse me," a shocked Cole replied incredulously, prompting Russell to say, "Keep it civil," though he never chastised Dupuis for his outburst.

Dupuis later said Cole's comments in the letter could "hurt my ability to earn a livelihood" as a executive consultant.

Adams said her comments "disparage me as a selectman."

Dupuis said he may very well sue her.

Cole, in her own defense, asked again to read the letter after the censure vote, but was denied by Russell, who said she could read it during the Selectmen's Items portion of the meeting.

"The letter has nothing to do with the vote," Russell said.

But when it came time for Selectmen's Items, Russell inexplicably changed his mind and again refused her the opportunity to read the letter.

To watch the meeting go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GvaAOsOF3k

At 1:45 Dupuis begins his plea for Cole's censure

At the 1:47 mark Dupuis tells Cole to "sit down and shut up."

At 1:54 Russell tells Cole twice she can't read the letter during the discussion on her censure but she can during her individual selectmen's items

At the 3:19 mark Russell reverses course and denies Cole the chance to read the letter that caused her censure.

To read Cole's letter go to The Rochester Voice opinion page.

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