By Benjamin Rothstein

DOVER — City Council has voted to censure Councilman Bill Hare, a former president of the body, for his alleged conduct with city code enforcement officer Lauren Eisenbraun and her husband, Cameron Eisenbraun.

The vote took place at Monday’s meeting, regarding Councilman Hare’s scrutiny of Ms. Eisenbraun’s work and time out of the office, including visits to her home and other reported improper behavior.

Mr. Eisenbraun filed a complaint against Councilman Hare in October 2023, resulting in the Dover Ethics Commission’s unanimous recommendation of a censure by City Council.

Before Monday’s vote took place, the councilman made a statement.

“If my stopping (at) an employee/neighbor’s house to advise that an issue had been resolved (is a violation of) any city code, I apologize to the family, and if censure is felt appropriate, I understand and will accept,” he said.

“There was no attempt to intimidate the gentleman, and if apologizing too many times is wrong, I apologize again. There might have been some discrepancies or differences in the ethics hearing and articles. As I will quote an Ethics member, ‘People lie. It’s OK to lie.’”

Several council members voiced their concerns about voting on the censure because they did not know the details of the ethics complaint that led to it.

This led to a question about whether council could review evidence before its vote. Councilman Roy Sudler was willing to suspend rules to allow Ms. Eisenbraun, who was in attendance, and local activist Chelle Paul to speak out against Councilman Hare. However, city solicitor Nicholas Rodriguez quickly denied that proposal by noting that the vote was simply on a resolution penned by the Ethics Commission after its earlier hearing and that the council meeting was not a place for testimony.

Later, Councilman Anderson moved to get footage from the Ethics Commission hearing shown, but that was also struck down.

Meanwhile, Councilman Fred Neil, who attended virtually, read a statement opposing the censure.

“I learned a very long, long time ago in my first profession as a newsman to look at the details rather than just one side that appears to be obvious,” he said. “Well, there’s a small modern version of the lynch mob, who in other instances would be standing on the other side of the fence demanding a censure of Councilman Hare based on the ethics committee decision,” he noted. “A spokesperson has added an attack on the handling of a case based on an erroneous interpretation of the law. History has shown the atrocities that have occurred by the hands of the self-righteous or to totalitarian regimes such as the Nazis.”

Ultimately, the majority of council decided, in light of council’s approval of the mayor’s appointments to the Ethics Commission, that its members’ decision is to be trusted.

Council’s vote was 5-2, with Councilmen Anderson and Neil voting against. Councilman Hare abstained, and Councilman Andre Boggerty was absent.

Before the vote, current Council President David Anderson, who succeeded Councilman Hare, decided not to operate as the leader while the issue was being discussed, saying he had already given public comment on the topic. He asked Councilman Gerald Rocha to lead the talk instead because he had not addressed the censure.