Times-Herald Record Article No. 1

REPUBLICAN CLUB MEMBERS RALLY TO SUPPORT CANDIDATE, SAY SHE WAS 'AMBUSHED'

By Paul Brooks
January 31, 2007
Accord — Rochester Republican Club members plan to flood the Town Board meeting tomorrow night and call for the resignation of two board members over their treatment of a candidate for the Historic Preservation Commission.

Carl Chipman, president of the club, said he was mailing a letter to 2,000 registered voters in the town urging them to attend the meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Town Hall in Accord.

"People have to know what is going on," Chipman said.

Chipman has called for the resignation of Supervisor Pam Duke, a Democrat, and councilman Francis Gray, a Republican, saying they "ambushed" Manuela Mihailescu on Jan. 24 when she interviewed for a position on the town's Historic Preservation Commission.

Chipman and Mihailescu's husband, Jon Dogar-Marinesco, claimed Gray showed Mihailescu multiple pages of pornographic pictures Town Board members found on a Web site and said it was associated with her name.

Both Mihailescu's husband and Chipman say the pornography has nothing to do with her and she had no knowledge of it. Dogar-Marinesco attributed the allegations to a lack of computer sophistication on the part of the Town Board. Mihailescu could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Gray refused yesterday to discuss the matter, saying whatever had occurred happened in executive session.