Christina Mauriello Nash (fiancée) waiting for her turn to be interviewed during the Two-Party Conference, conducted on February 17, 2015 in the New York State Division of Human Rights office in Albany.

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Present in the conference room:
Lisa DiCocco – HRSI
Manuela Michailescu – Complainant
Mary Lou Christiana – Attorney for Respondent, Town of Rochester

Interview of Christina Mauriello Nash (fiancée):
(with my two cents in the narrow column)

I am Mr. Chipman’s fiancée. I do not work at the Town. I periodically visit; I just happen to be in on that day. On August 27, 2014, I had gone in and Carl was on the phone so I was speaking to his secretary, Shirley. We noticed that he seemed to be getting repetitive. We made our attention to him and he put the phone on speaker and we were able to hear the rest of the conversation. Ms. Michailescu was on the other end. The gist of the conversation was about the vote that would be taking place to fill the vacancy. Her words were, “you need to keep your board in line, control your board and have them vote for me.” At that point, he said “I am only one vote, they have their own opinion and will vote the way they feel; I don’t control my board.” Ms. Michailescu and I have met before. She sits on the youth commission board and I’ve gone on many trips with her; we’ve interacted with each other many times. There was no hostility between us before this. At some point, I don’t know whether her husband took the phone but he then got on the phone. I did hear a portion of it where he said, “it’s time for you to go.” Jon said to Carl in a screaming tone, “it’s time for you to go.” Carl said that he’s one person, he has one vote and the board will vote as they see fit. Jon kept screaming at him, “you need to go.”

Apparently, the fiancée was in Supervisor Chipman’s office during an August 27, 2014 phone conversation between Carl, Manuela and myself. I made public the conversation in Carl Chipman – just another dirty deals addict, posted on this blog on September 23, 2014. In her statement made during the interview the fiancée mixed a few sentences taken out of context with some outright lies.

The fiancée claims hearing Manuela saying to Chipman: “you need to keep your board in line, control your board and have them vote for me.” Close, but no cigar…

See for yourself the notarized Affidavit of Manuela Michailescu. Paragraph 22 – reproduced below – shows how the conversation between Manuela Michailescu and Supervisor Carl Chipman actually went.

“22.
On August 27, 2014 Supervisor Carl Chipman called our place and the phone conversation followed this path, almost verbatim:

CC: I wanted to let you know that the interviews tomorrow start early, at 5 p.m.,
to accommodate Cindy Fornino; then we’re going to have a Special meeting
next Tuesday to interview Toby Stover, who cannot make it tomorrow…
It’s going to be Cindy, then you, then Cliff Mallery…

MM: Why Michailescu before Mallery, why not in alphabetical order?

CC: It’s not working like that…

MM: Why? We always used the alphabetical order…
So… did you read my application? What do you think about it?
Who is the best qualified?

CC: You are the best qualified but it’s not always the best qualified who gets
appointed… Look at Eric Holder at the Department of Justice… It also depends
on personality, it’s not only the application…

MM: What could you possibly discover about my personality during an interview
after working together for so many years?

CC: You know… Brian Drabkin hates you, you had an incident at the Christmas
party…

MM: I didn’t have any incident, Jon asked him why he is not responding to his
greeting; and Brian is not responding to my hello either! What is more
important for the town, that Brian HATES me or that everybody in the summer
program LOVES me? From kids and counselors to the director… So…
you cannot control the board to vote on qualifications, not based on hate?!

CC: Remember, we are 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats…

MM: Yes, 2-2 would be a possible outcome…

CC: I have just one vote… Each board member has a favorite among the 4
applicants; Democrats want Toby… I need a unanimous vote…

MM: I know how unanimous votes are arranged and I’m going to tell it as it is!
Please, do not open a can of worms… You know my determination…
I beg you, I implore you, do not do anything stupid!

CC: Do not threaten me!

MM: I don’t threaten you, I’m just telling you what is going to happen!”

Manuela never asked Chipman for his vote, she only asked for fairness in the appointing process. And the fiancée never heard Manuela saying to Carl “you need to keep your board in line, control your board and have them vote for me.” If she really heard anything at all, it was “So… you cannot control the board to vote on qualifications, not based on hate?!”

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The fiancée claims that she heard me screaming at Chipman: “it’s time for you to go.” Close, but no cigar…

See for yourself the notarized Affidavit of Jon Dogar-Marinesco. Paragraph 10 – reproduced below – shows how the conversation between me and Supervisor Carl Chipman actually went.

10.
Manuela handed me the phone and Carl and I had the conversation reproduced
below. Even if some words are not remembered exactly, the meaning is absolutely correct.

JDM: Carl, did you read all applications?

CC: Yes.

JDM: Who is the best qualified, in your opinion?

CC: Manuela.

JDM: Are you going to vote for her?

CC: It doesn’t work that way…

JDM: Are you going to share your opinion with the other Board members?

CC: It doesn’t work that way…

At this point I was raising my voice.

JDM: Why? Are you going to vote for political gain?
Stop kissing X’s ass! (X being the town chair of a political party.)
You will be surprised to learn how many people in town are telling me
that’s time for you to go!

CC: Bye! (and hangs up)

There is a long way from what I actually said (You will be surprised to learn how many people in town are telling me that’s time for you to go!) to what the fiancée “heard” (“it’s time for you to go.”).

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For your reading pleasure, I reproduce below a joint statement of the fiancée and Shirley Lamon, Carl Chipman’s confidential secretary. This piece of crap was introduced as an “affidavit” at the Two-Party Conference, conducted on February 17, 2015 in the New York State Division of Human Rights office in Albany. Funny, it’s not notarized…

And now, please allow me to frost the cupcake… Do you see above the date next to signatures? 8/28/14. That’s August 28, 2014. The phone conversation that makes the subject of this joint statement took place on August 27, 2014. If nothing is fishy, it follows that this statement was written between the phone conversation and the moment it was signed, either on August 27 or on August 28.

Now look below. Are we supposed to believe that the person who wrote the statement (in blue ink) remembered the year and the month of the phone conversation, but not the day? So, a blank space was provided for the day to be inserted (in black ink) later? In other words, at the time of writing the statement, whoever wrote it could not remember if the phone conversation took place today or yesterday? Give us a break!

The whole story of “witnessing” the telephone conversation on August 27 and signing a statement one day later, begs the question… Did the signers know on August 28 that the Town Board is NOT going to appoint Manuela Michailescu one week later, on September 4, 2014? Did they know – long before Manuela knew! – that Manuela would have reasons to file a complaint, and such statement would be handy?

(To be continued)

– Jon Dogar-Marinesco