LEWISTON, Maine — Lewiston’s City Council voted Tuesday night to appoint Chrissy Noble to fill the vacant Ward 5 seat left open after Iman Osman resigned when his residency controversy and gun charges became too much to withstand.
But the appointment is already being hammered across the city, not just over who won, but how the council got there: a withdrawal after the application window closed, a holiday when City Hall was shut, and a behind-the-scenes push that critics say looks like exactly what Maine law warns against, government business drifting into the shadows.
The timeline that set off alarms
The application window closed Wednesday, Jan. 14. Noble withdrew on Friday Jan 16th. Then came Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a city holiday when City Hall was closed.
That same Monday night, emails show the withdrawal reversal was already in motion.
Councilor David B. Chittim wrote to colleagues that he had just finished a telephone call initiated by Noble, in which she asked whether her withdrawal could be rescinded. Chittim wrote that he told her they were in “uncharted waters,” and encouraged her to email staff, speak with the city clerk the next morning, and attend Tuesday’s meeting.
The charter is the rule book for the city of Lewiston. Chittim is correct that there is nothing in the charter, yet he did not consult the entire council, which could be an ethics violation.
City Clerk Kathy Montejo later forwarded the message to elected officials: Noble was rescinding her withdrawal. Noble wrote that she had spoken with “a few people,” including Mike Roy and Megan Parks, who urged her to reconsider. She wrote that her director could accommodate her schedule and that she spoke with “David” that evening, who encouraged her to attend Tuesday’s meeting.
Did the clerk make the call to put her back in the candidate pool? Did Chittim? It appears not all the councilors were notified or aware of it.
Why?
Two city councilors tell the Maine Wire, they were not aware of these conversations until right before the Tuesday meeting.
Councilor Bret Martel said, “the fix was in before the meeting even started.”
“I knew there was discussion reconsidering the withdrawal, but she never contacted me or asked for my vote, so it led me to believe she was not being considered.”
“I currently sit on a kangaroo council.”
FOAA doesn’t ban talk — unless it’s used to defeat open government
Maine’s Freedom of Access Act is explicit about the public policy behind open meetings. The law says public actions should be taken openly and warns that “clandestine meetings” not be used to defeat that purpose.
And the key line critics are now pointing to is in Title 1, §401, which spells it out plainly: “This subchapter does not prohibit communications outside of public proceedings… unless those communications are used to defeat the purposes of this subchapter.”
That’s the question now hanging over Lewiston: Did private conversations about a live council agenda item, the Ward 5 appointment cross the line from normal communication into outcome-shaping that should have happened publicly and included all the councilors?
A vote with little scrutiny and no public backing
Noble ultimately got appointed, but critics say the public record around her selection was thin:
- Three of the five votes to appoint her came from councilors who never asked her a single question.
- She had no endorsements.
- She had zero letters of recommendation sent to public email.
- Not one speaker during public comment supported her as the pick.
A council “regroup” after the Majerus-Collins moment
The council’s pivot came after a chaotic, widely watched meeting where applicant Kiernan Majerus-Collins faced questions about a well-known online video showing Collins accused of harassing former city council candidate Ed Hill. The room, observers said, laughed out loud, reflecting how familiar the incident is in Lewiston political circles.
Critics argue the council then scrambled to line up a different candidate and that the end result looked less like a transparent selection process and more like a tactical move to block former councilor Ryn Soule, a Republican, from returning.
Another brutal optic for Lewiston
The Osman resignation blew this seat open in disgrace. The replacement process was supposed to restore confidence.
Instead, critics say Lewiston got another black-eye: a deadline-closed application pool, a post-deadline withdrawal, a holiday reversal driven by private conversations, and an appointment that sailed through with little public support and limited public vetting.
For residents already fed up with the council’s handling of the vacancy, the demand is simple: stop improvising, default to clear procedure, and keep decisions in the open, because Title 1 §401 doesn’t just encourage transparency. It warns against using private maneuvering to defeat it.
