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Once again, Jason got his groove back

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Jason Cole

The town of Lebanon tried to get the goods on Jason Cole. So did the city of Rochester. But it took a corporate fitness giant on the New York Stock Exchange to show who, in fact, may have been the real biggest loser.

Cole is a former Lebanon selectman and assistant rescue chief, former dispatcher manager at Rochester PD and most recently former payroll manager for Planet Fitness.

After he was fired by PF, the corporate giant sued to enjoin Cole from releasing sensitive PF information. The suit also sought to recover court costs associated with their lawsuit and make Cole return PF equipment.

Instead, in documents spelling resolution of the case this week they said nothing about equipment or sensitive information, only that they were paying Cole an undisclosed amount of money, likely for fouling his reputation by means of the lawsuit. Does this sound kinda like déjà vu all over again?

It was almost exactly two years ago that auditors and town officials revealed that Lebanon's Rescue Department, headed by Cole and wife, Samantha, owed the town some $200,000 due to lax bookkeeping, shoddy record keeping and overspending money from the department's "enterprise" account.

Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson at the time said the town would be looking at any and all avenues to try to recoup the money hinting they might go after Cole, personally. However, it soon became evident that any pursuance of Cole, personally, would be a sticky and costly wicket and nothing more was done.

You also might remember that in February 2013 Cole was abruptly fired from the Rochester Police Department where he was employed as chief of the dispatch department.

In August of that year he apparently won his grievance and was reinstated with full back pay and benefits, though he never commented on how he was paid on the back benefits. Nevertheless, with his $55,000 a year salary as dispatch chief, that would've been more than $27,000 paid upon his rehiring. Nice pay for doing nothing.

A few months later, however, his employment with Rochester PD did end, this time permanently, though we don't know why. Personnel records are, of course, confidential.

So it would appear Cole has had skirmishes with his three most current employers, and won them all.

I'm sure a lot of people thought this time old JC was finally gonna get his comeuppance.

Didn't happen.

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