Hooksett Town Councilor Patricia Rueppel is calling for the resignation of five of her fellow council members following the handling of a contract for the services of an interim town administrator.

The five town councilors, David Dickson, George Longfellow, Bill Gahara, James Gorton Sr. and Paul Loiselle signed a contract with Municipal Resources Inc. for an interim town administrator’s services without waiting for a discussion and vote on the contract.

“We had the Hooksett four, now we have the famous five. Is the stupid six next?” said Rueppel. “I want the famous five to resign, whoever the five are who signed. Their act was not only inappropriate, it’s illegal.”

Rueppel said she spoke to Don Juton of Muncipal Resources Inc., who confirmed the contract was stamped received on Dec. 16, a day before the Hooksett Town Council would have met to vote on it.

Carol Granfield has been doing the job of town administrator since Nov. 17, shortly after David Jodoin left to take the same job in Pembroke.

She came to Hooksett through Muncipal Resources Inc., or MRI, which assists state and local governments with planning, management and support services. She is being paid $70 per hour for two and half work days per week, said Hooksett Town Council Chairman David Dickson.

The contract for her services was presented at the Dec. 3 Town Council meeting, said Town Councilor Michael Pischetola, but no one had had a chance to review it beforehand. Dickson suggested members take the contract home to review, and it would be discussed and voted upon at the next meeting on Dec. 17.

When that meeting took place, said Pischetola, Dickson said the contract had already been signed by five members and there was no further need for discussion.

“When Dave said the contract’s been signed, everyone looked around, like who signed the contract?” said Pischetola. “To this day, I don’t know which five signed it. How can you do that? How can you have a meeting with five councilmen? Was it phone calls, all together?” Pischetola said he felt he did not get a chance to represent his constituency as the contract was approved without any of his input.

Town Councilor Nancy VanScoy echoed that sentiment. “Councilor Rueppel and I felt the contract should have been discuss in public so all councilors had an opportunity to addressed the terms of the contract as a voting body,” she said.

Dickson says he now realizes he should have waited to get everyone’s input.

“The disagreement was that I asked five councilors (a majority) sign the MRI agreement for Carol’s services. These were the councilors I saw over the period from Dec. 11 to Dec. 17, and when the vice chair told me he would not be at the meeting, I asked him to sign also,” said Dickson.

“The contract was in all councilors’ possession for review since our last meeting, Dec. 3. After I got five signatures, I had it forwarded back to MRI. My mistake was that I should have waited for the council meeting on the 17th and offered everyone a chance to discuss one more time and sign at the same time. In my rush to get one more thing off my plate I definitely should have waited til the meeting on Dec. 17th. Lesson learned.”

Rueppel had harsh words for the chairman’s handling of the contract.

“He felt it was OK because he had five councilors sign it without the benefit of a discussion or a vote,” she said. “Need I tell you, I was furious.”

Among the issues Pischetola and Rueppel are concerned with is a cap on the amount of money being spent on the interim town administrator, with no cap on spending. Pischetola said the council did agree to have a cap on spending, but wondered if this was passed on to MRI. Jutton told Rueppel he was unaware of the cap, said Rueppel.

“Pat explained to me the reasons she wanted a cap, which sounded extremely logical to me,” said Pischetola. “You don’t go and spend money you don’t have. We’re spending that money without discussing it.”

The Town Council agreed on Dec. 17 to place a $7,000 per month cap on the interim town adminstrator’s compensation.

Rueppel said the council also agreed to spend $12,000 on a search for a permanent replacement, with MRI handling that process. She was unable to explain why Assistant Town Administrator Elizabeth Dionne was not asked to handle things in the interim, despite having acted as interim in the past.

“Three times, Liz Dionne was acting town administrator,” said Rueppel. “She’s done an excellent job every time.”

Rueppel also wrote a letter to The Hooksett Banner, published on Dec. 4, asking voters to remove every town councilor who had anything to do with the so-called Hooksett Fired Four, four female Town Hall employees who were fired for gossiping about the town administrator.