I’m not sure if the correspondence that I’ve gotten from you previously really recommended you to me.”

Council member Charles Levesque, referring to applicant Michael DiPaola

PORTSMOUTH — Beating out nine other applicants, Juan Carlos Payero was appointed new Town Council member in a 3-2 vote during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Payero, a Democrat who’s also running for council in the upcoming election, will serve out the remaining term of Leonard Katzman, who resigned his seat in May. Katzman, who was council vice president at the time, left to provide care and support to his wife of more than 40 years, Jhodi Redlich, who was diagnosed with a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma.

Payero, who was sworn in after Tuesday’s meeting, will begin serving in his new role at the next council meeting on Aug. 26.

The appointment of Payero, vice chair of the School Committee, has now left a vacancy on that board, which may choose to fill it by appointment before the November election. Payero ran for Town Council in 2022, but came in eighth place in the race for seven seats.

“He was the next-highest vote-getter in the last election, so I think it’s reasonable to nominate him to fill the vacancy,” said council member J. Mark Ryan, a fellow Democrat, in nominating Payero.

Another Democrat on the council, Charles Levesque, also supported Payero. “I consider him an extraordinary, competent individual. He is an individual who stands his ground. He’s a person who will let you know what he’s thinking, but can also work with other people,” Levesque said.

Levesque and Ryan, along with Council President Kevin Aguiar, another Democrat, voted to appoint Payero, with the council’s two Republicans, David Gleason and Keith Hamilton, voting against. Daniela Abbott, a Democrat, was absent from the meeting.

Both Hamilton and Gleason had kind words for Payero despite their votes. Hamilton said his objection was a practical one.

“I think Juan Carlos is a wonderful person,” he said. “But by making a vote to move Juan Carlos from the School Committee, we create a vacancy at the School Committee and therefore hamstring that committee to have to replace that person within two months of an election. With school starting in two weeks, I don’t think we should be taking anybody away from that committee at this point in time.”

Gleason nominated Theodore Pietz, who has served the town in various capacities. “I know what Ted has brought to the town,” Gleason said. “I think he has something else to bring with him for the next three months as well, and he deserves the opportunity.”

Pietz managed to garner only Gleason’s vote, however, and that was the only chance he had to get on the council. The Hatch Act, which dates from 1939, prevents federal employees like Pietz from running in partisan elections such as those in Portsmouth.

“I could be appointed to this board, but I could not run for election to this board,” Pietz said.

Also failing in his bid for appointment was David Reise, who’s running for election as a Republican. He was nominated by Hamilton, who voted for him along with Gleason.

The others who applied for the vacancy were Sharlene Patton, another Republican running for election; Mary McDowell, an independent also in the race; Michael DiPaola, who’s running as a Democrat in the election; and Keith Manville, Josh Rosenzweig, Nathaniel Rollo, and Timothy Phelps.

An unusual application

Before Payero was voted in, Levesque went down the list of each applicant and said something nice about all of them.

Well, almost all. When he got to the application from DiPaola, the owner of the “spite lot” on East Main Road that’s filled with broken toilet seats and signs with sometimes-obscene language critical of town government, he paused.

“Is Mr. DiPaola here?” Levesque asked as he held up DiPaola’s application. “I was kind of impressed by the fact that this is the first correspondence I’ve gotten from you that didn’t have one profanity in it. I’m not sure if the correspondence that I’ve gotten from you previously really recommended you to me. However, in all likelihood I’m not going to vote for you.”

DiPaola is well known to town staff members and elected officials for regularly sending them what they consider harassing e-mails, the language of which often echoes his signs’ messages.

Levesque was actually being diplomatic, as DiPaola’s application did indeed contain a profanity — two, in fact.

“STOP THE (expletive) CORRUPTION AT TOWN HALL” reads one line typed under a section that asked about his interest in the position. “STOP THE (expletive) SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT OF THE BUILDING & ZONING OFFICES.”

DiPaola also stated in his application that he was “currently supervising building and zoning departments” and that he “successfully defended 1st Amendment rights when the town violated them!”

No vice president

Also on Tuesday night’s agenda was a request to appoint a new council vice president. That was Katzman’s position before leaving the board in May, and the council has been without a second-in-command ever since.

However, Aguiar threw a monkey wrench into the proceedings when he voted “yay” on two separate nominations: Ryan, nominated by Levesque; and Hamilton, nominated by Gleason.

With two 3-2 votes for each man, neither could be chosen.

Aguiar, who decided not to run for reelection, explained his reasoning.

“It is very unfortunate that Mr. Katzman was not able to fulfill his term,” he said. “We have gone a few months without a vice president. It’s a short sprint to the finish line with this term. It is an election year. I’m OK if we do not have a vice president; right now it’s a tie.”

After a concern was raised about Aguiar missing any of the six or seven remaining meetings before the November general election, it was decided that seniority would dictate who takes over the gavel. That means that Hamilton, the member with the most years of service on the council, would sit as president in Aguiar’s absence.