City Clerk asks Secretary of State to investigate petitions

Date: 10/18/2011

Oct. 19, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — City Clerk Keith Rattell is asking the Secretary of State’s office to formally investigate the forged signatures on the petitions that would have placed a question on the ballot concerning extending the term of the mayor from two years to four years.

Rattell’s action came last week after members of the City Council had made a similar request to the Attorney General.

At a press conference at his office on Oct. 14, Rattell displayed the original petitions. Many of them were marked with flags he had placed on them upon review indicating signatures that he believes were similar, the use of one color of ink for an entire page and three pages that were signed in alphabetical order.

He said he had alerted members of the City Council when he reviewed the petition forms, which started the questions about the legitimacy of the signatures.

The Board of Registrars has taken the question off the ballot after a hearing showed there were enough fraudulent signatures to warrant the action.

Rattell said in his opinion, there were “hundreds” of false signatures.

He said he has “no clue” who was responsible for the false signatures and declined to speculate.

He did show that the people who took out the petition papers included Mayor Michael Bissonnette’s two former chiefs of staff, Francis Lapointe and Christopher Nolan, who are also active in Bissonnette’s reelection effort.

Rattell said he has not spoken to Bissonnette about the situation.

Rattell did comment on Bissonnette’s remarks about the issue over the city charter signifying the wrong day for the city’s election.

Rattell said several years ago the City Council accidentally changed the clause on when to conduct the election from the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November to the first Tuesday of November.

This year, that would have meant the election would have been on Nov. 1 instead of Nov. 8, when it is supposed to be, according to Rattell.

Rattell said the matter has been corrected and that he had nothing to do with setting the election schedule. He showed the schedule that was released in December 2010 by Registrar Janina Surdyka that noted the election was set for Nov. 8.

“This really isn’t even a story,” Rattell contended. “The mayor is throwing a red herring out.”

Bissonnette told Reminder Publications that Rattell should have caught the conflict between what the charter said was the election date and what city officials assumed was the date. Another city official brought it to his attention.

He added making sure the city could conduct the election on Nov. 8 “took a great deal of legal effort.”

Bissonnette has been critical of Rattell’s performance as clerk and charged the Clerk’s Office has used incorrect forms for people seeking to quality for the ballot.

“They don’t keep up with things,” the mayor charged.

Bissonnette acknowledged the problems with the signatures on the petitions and said again that he wants to see the issue resolved. He did question why Rattell has waited six weeks to make his inquiry to the Secretary of State.