The Lewiston City Council has censured two of its members for evading public access requirements by using an encrypted messaging app to communicate with former police Detective Joe Philippon, who resigned this month.

The communications were discovered during an internal investigation into Philippon, and once notified, the council launched its own inquiry into the matter. 

The council on Tuesday approved releasing a report on the internal inquiry, which was conducted by Toby Tiner, a human resources consultant and professional investigator.

While the redacted report does not identify Philippon, referring to him as “A,” several sources close to the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release information, confirmed last week that the employee was Philippon.

The report from Tiner confirmed that councilors Josh Nagine and Scott Harriman used the Signal app to communicate regarding “city matters” with a city employee. Both councilors said the employee initiated the requests to communicate over the app, and said they were not aware that messages disappeared and were unretrievable.

Elected officials are required to retain copies of all written communication, including electronic messages, related to city business that could be subject to Freedom of Access Act requests.

“I should’ve known better,” Nagine said prior to the council vote. “I absolutely realize that I’ve lost some respect as far as transparency, and I apologize for that to my councilors and my constituents.”

Harriman also apologized, stating he “should have made sure (the messages) were preserved because that’s something that’s important for us as elected officials to maintain.”

“I fully regret this oversight and I apologize for it,” he said.

A censure is a formal statement of disapproval that is adopted by majority vote, but does not typically result in further discipline.

Council President David Chittim said censuring is “the only remedy” available to the City Council to handle matters like these, and that doing nothing wasn’t an option.

“We’re all human, we all make mistakes,” Chittim said. “There are some who believe that these were more than mistakes. I choose to believe that they were errors in judgment.”

Councilor Tim Gallant proposed that the council discuss potential changes to the section of the City Charter regarding council procedures in order to give the council more options in similar situations.

Both votes to censure were 6-0, with Nagine and Harriman abstaining and Mayor Carl Sheline voting.

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Tiner’s report confirms that at least two other councilors were asked by the city employee to communicate on Signal, which “they either ignored or declined.”

Councilor Susan Longchamps said Tuesday that she was one of them, telling Nagine that she understood how he “could have been persuaded” by the employee.

In the report, Nagine estimated he engaged in roughly two dozen phone calls with the employee using the app, and about three to four text message exchanges. Tiner said both Nagine and Harriman confirmed that they discussed “city matters” with the employee, with Nagine’s discussions also including “city personnel (at least four city employees).”

Last week, Harriman told the Sun Journal that he and the employee “talked about the overall direction of the Police Department,” but that they didn’t share any personnel complaints.

Harriman said that while he talked with the employee in question about “matters relating to how the city functions,” he didn’t take direction from the employee.

According to Tiner’s report, Harriman said he also communicated with the employee mostly over phone calls, with only a “handful” of text exchanges. Both councilors reported that they stopped their communication with the employee in June or July.

Both Harriman and Nagine pushed back last week on what they said has been a “narrative” that there was a conspiratorial nature to their communications with the city employee.

Harriman called it an “intimidation tactic” to use law enforcement to investigate city councilors for a noncriminal matter.

In response, city administration said that “knowing the sequence of events will demonstrate that public resources, specifically the Lewiston Police Department, were not misused. Nor, at any time, did anyone in City Administration initiate, direct, advise, influence, or have any involvement into LPD’s Internal Affairs Investigation.

Philippon has been active in city politics for years, often backing candidates and writing letters to the Sun Journal. He hasn’t been shy about sharing his opinions on city issues and leadership.

While Philippon’s separation agreement with the city confirmed that he was the subject of an internal affairs investigation, it does not disclose details of why the investigation was launched.