BY SUSAN WARE
They claim that people outside Town Hall started the rumor that their boss, Town Administrator David Jodoin, was unusually close with a female subordinate employee, and that they were simply discussing it with co-workers.
Jon Meyer, attorney for former code enforcement officer Michelle Bonsteel and former tax assessor Sandra Piper told the Hooksett Town Council that people with business in Town Hall started the rumors about Jodoin, not his clients.
But when Chairman Paul Loiselle asked for the names of these outside people, Meyers declined.
The Town Council heard a termination appeal from Bonsteel and Piper on July 18, who they fired with two other employees on April 11 for gossiping about Jodoin.
According to Lauren Irwin, the attorney who investigated the rumors at Jodoin’s and the Town Council’s request, the four women admit to circulating a rumor they later said they believed was untrue. This, Irwin felt, spoke to dishonest behavior.
According to Irwin, Jessica Skorupski called another Town Hall employee at home on March 14. This employee was out on medical leave and Skorupski told her that the temporary employee filling in for her was likely to get her job because there were rumors floating around Town Hall about an affair between her and Jodoin.
After Skorupski spoke to the employee, she transferred the call to Piper, who repeated the rumor.
Irwin said that Skorupski explained to her that she was calling the employee back and answering questions about rumors that the employee had already heard. Irwin was only able to verify the outgoing call from Town Hall.
After the phone calls, the employee on medical leave fired off an e-mail to Jodoin, who in turn asked Irwin to investigate.
“David Jodoin was incredibly upset. So was the employee who wrote the letter about a suggested romantic relationship,” said Irwin.
Irwin said that Jodoin feared what these women would do next to undermine him and that these allegations could damage his marriage, career and reputation in the community.
By the end of March, Irwin had sat down with every employee at Town Hall, and the investigation closed around Bonsteel, Piper, Drewniak and Skorupski. and she presented her findings to Town Council.
The investigation had became a tangled, finger-pointing maze of she said-she said. Irwin said that Piper had an attorney present at her interview.
From that point on, the four women have all pointed to each other as either the fabricators or spreaders of the rumors. At one point, Irwin said that she told Piper and Bonsteel that they were in conflict on their points, as each said the other
started it.
Meyers debunked this, saying that his clients were simply repeating what they had heard and that Piper had even told people to “ stay away, stand back from this rumor and if there is any truth, it will come out,” said Meyers.
Irwin said that all four women told her that they did not believe that there was a sexual relationship between Jodoin and the employee, just an unusual closeness. Irwin said that she felt this spoke to dishonesty, as they still choose to spread the rumor.
After the appeals hearing, Town Council announced that they plan to meet in non-public to render their decision.
Meyer called the appeals hearing a proceeding because it was based on second-hand evidence without sworn testimony or cross examination, and had called for the ability to question each council member on their objectivity, but was denied.
When asked if they would like to make a statement, Meyers said that Piper and Bonsteel will testify under oath when all of the other witnesses in the case do the same.
Absent from the appeals hearing was Patricia Rueppel, William Gahara and David Dickson.
Drewniak and Skorupski appealed their firings on May 15 but the council denied their requests 10 days later.