Cole face censure over Facebook comments

Selectman candidate Robie Marsters, foreground, looks on as Selectwoman Karen Gerrish, back left, and Selectman Robert Frizzell, right, listen to complaints regarding the behavior of Selectman and Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole. (Harrison Thorp photo)

Editor's note: One of offending Facebook posts and excerpt of Rescue Dept. Internet policy below story.

Selectboard members Robert Frizzell and Karen Gerrish agreed last night that Selectman and Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole must be held accountable for slanderous remarks made on Facebook regarding Gilpatrick Property Services and its owner, Chris Gilpatrick Sr.

Gilpatrick went one step further, demanding the formal resignation of Cole, who set off a firestorm of controversy after saying in a post on The Lebanon Voice Facebook page that Gilpatrick was “fleecing” the town and its taxpayers as the contract mower for Forest Grove Cemetery on Cemetery Road.

 “We have no issue with how the cemetery association is doing, no issue with the cutting,” Gerrish said, refuting Cole’s Facebook posts.

Gilpatrick also said Cole was representing himself as speaking for the Board of Selectmen in social media, which drew the ire of Gerrish who added, “I’m not going to defend him (Cole). He doesn’t speak for me.”

Gilpatrick brought copies of Rescue Department handbook rules regarding specific Internet usage, including, “sending or posting discriminatory, harassing or threatening messages” and “sending or posting messages that defame or slander other individuals.”

The offending comments were posted in connection with a Memorial Day story published by The Lebanon Voice the day after the town held its official observance at Town Hall and on Lebanon Community News, another Facebook Page.  

In the posts mention is made of uncut grass at Forest Grove and Gilpatrick and his company are disparaged for disrespecting the departed. Gilpatrick said the heavy rains just prior to the holiday weekend hampered his company’s ability to cut the grass, and Gerrish and Frizzell agreed with Gilpatrick that neither he nor his company were at fault.

Gilpatrick said many of the posts that sided with Cole were extremely hurtful and defamatory to his family and business.

Gilpatrick said whether he was posting as Jason Cole or Selectman Cole or Assistant Rescue Chief Cole makes no difference: Everyone in town knows who he is.

Gerrish and Frizzell said they would tentatively schedule a meeting with Cole for 4:30 p.m. on Monday, the day before town elections. Whether that meeting would be open to the public or not is unclear.

Cole was not able to attend last night’s meeting due to health reasons, according to an email sent to Gerrish a little after 6 p.m., she said.

Gilpatrick said much of the defamatory and incendiary rhetoric coming from Cole is posted on the Lebanon Community News Facebook page, which many in town think is an official news outlet for the town of Lebanon, when, in fact, it is no more than just another Cole Facebook page promoting his interests and agenda.

It was pointed out by several meetinggoers that new residents to the town and the vast majority of residents who don’t closely follow town government are getting a distorted picture of Lebanon news on the Lebanon Community News.

Gerrish explained that the Lebanon Community News used to be a Town of Lebanon Facebook page but it was disbanded. Then it appears Cole apparently took over the page and all of its followers and continued it as his own platform.

“He’s creating a perception on Lebanon Community News, that he represents the Board of Selectmen, all three of you,” Gilpatrick said.

Several selectman candidates who were there said Cole’s behavior has become a growing liability for the town.

“Every issue always goes to Cole,” Robie Marsters said.

Bettie Harris-Howard added, “This behavior is not acceptable for a selectman or an assistant rescue chief.”

“I’m tired of being the laughingstock of York County,” one resident said.

This is not the first time Cole has gotten in hot water over “slanderous” Facebook posts. In October of last year he was accused of defamatory remarks, also made against Gilpatrick Sr., and told The Lebanon Voice he would try to rein in his Facebook vitriol.

The town, in fact, has a history of Facebook turmoil, so much so that they paid money to have town attorney Alan Shepard draft a town Facebook policy, which Cole violated as well last week, Gilpatrick Sr. said.

Also at the meeting were Chris Gilpatrick Jr., selectman candidate Corinna Cole, Dick Batchelder, Rosie Stadig and Budget Committee member Tony Bragg, who questioned why only certain items were on the so-called Lebanon Voter Guide 2013.

“Why just some, why not put them all,” he said.

The Voter Guide is being published as we speak at considerable expense to the town and will be mailed to every Lebanon household and post office box. It randomly advances just four of 34 questions: the Town Hall renovation, Code Red, a town-controlled reverse 911 emergency notification system; the Special Amusement Ordinance and the illegal New Hampshire registration of motor vehicles whose owners live in Lebanon.

Bragg also questioned why Frizzell’s letter to the residents wasn’t from all three selectmen and questioned its appropriateness given Frizzell’s political future rests on a vote less than a week away.

Gerrish and Frizzell defended the Voter Guide and said the town had produced the same type of document in the past.

While they both defended it, Gerrish admitted she didn’t even realize Code Red, which she voted against, was part of the mailer.

She said she was so busy checking the Special Amusement Ordinance section, she never noticed the Code Red section written by Cole before the document went to the printer.