By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Hooksett Town Councilor Patricia Rueppel’s District I seat may be safe after a group investigating accusations filed against her recommended the charges be chalked out.

A three-member council subcommittee voted 2-1 to urge the council not to pursue five charges, which claimed political collusion and town charter violations, originally brought forth by another councilor, Michael DiBitetto, in July.

“I feel great,” Rueppel said after the subcommittee convened on Wednesday, Oct. 4. “This is the way justice works, and I think it’s good.”

Town Council Chairman George Longfellow and Councilor James Gorton voted against pursuing the charges. Councilor Paul Loiselle, representing the minority, argued the charges were valid.

DiBitetto’s charges stemmed from leaked e-mail correspondence and a Hooksett Banner letter to the editor penned by Rueppel.

DiBitetto claimed Rueppel, who was elected to the council at the time of the writings but had not yet begun her term, had undermined the council and the town administrator in negotiations with Nebraska-based retailer Cabela’s.

In May, Hooksett voters approved an $18 million bond for private and public infrastructure developments for the town’s tax increment financing, or TIF, district, off Interstate 93’s Exit 11. The warrant article specified that the sale of the bond was contingent upon successful negotiations with the retailer.

DiBitetto accused Rueppel of interfering with the sale of the land eyed by Cabela’s, of divulging nonpublic information Rueppel gleaned from her previous time on the council, and of conducting a “shadow administration” which undermined the town administrator’s efforts to negotiate with the realtor.

DiBitetto also suggested Rueppel alienated a majority of the council, and he called for her seat to be vacated.

Gorton suggested otherwise.

“Not getting along with other councilors shouldn’t be a reason for dismissal,” he said. “On all good boards, differences of opinion make for good decisions.”

As the three-member panel addressed each of the charges, Longfellow repeatedly suggested the correspondence shouldn’t incriminate Rueppel because of its timing.

“She was a private citizen at the time, entitled to do just as she pleased,” Longfellow said.

Later Longfellow said, “What’s next? Do we, as a council, go after any private citizen who does not agree with our decisions?”

Loiselle argued against the notion that Rueppel, who had been on the council for years prior to resigning last October, should be granted immunity.

“Her only defense was that she was not a seated councilor at the time,” he said. “Councilor Rueppel’s actions as a private citizen, councilor elect or seated councilor are one and the same.”

Rueppel has maintained her innocence during the investigation, and she’s described Di-Bitetto’s charges as being part of a political ploy to muzzle her.

DiBitetto left the town hall after the subcommittee voted on the first two charges.

“I didn’t see that I was going to hear anything more at that point,” he said later.

DiBitetto declined comment on the hearing, or the subcommittee’s investigation, until the group provides the council with a report of its findings.