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Date: 11/17/2021
SOUTHWICK — Some of the top petitioners of Reclaim Southwick said they are pleased with the pace at which they are gathering signatures to force a recall election for Select Board member Russell Fox.
Jason Giguere and Angelina Simone of Reclaim Southwick said on Nov. 14 that the petition effort had reached about 20 percent of their goal of 1,786 qualified signatures. As of 2 p.m. that day, the exact figure was 368 signatures, though there were still canvassers trying to get more during that time.
Reclaim Southwick has until 3 p.m. on Nov. 29 to get enough signatures of registered Southwick voters.
Fox said that he had no comment before press time on Nov. 14, and would release a statement on Nov. 15.
Giguere, Simone and the rest of the main petitioners said that they are on pace to reach the required number of signatures to force a recall election. Fox is being accused by Reclaim Southwick and other critics of employing politically oppressive behavior against his opponents, nepotism and cronyism, Open Meeting Law violations, and violating the law by dismissing three commissioners on Sept. 27.
Simone said that many of the people who have been coming to signing events have said they had been following the political situation in Southwick more closely after the Carvana proposal earlier this year. She said that some people showed up to give vocal support, but said that they feared reprisals from Fox and the Select Board if they put their names on the petition.
“We’re also getting pushback from people who don’t want to sign out of fear of retaliation from Russ Fox and his family,” said Simone.
Following a meeting among the top 10 petitioners from Reclaim Southwick, MacKenzie Diaz said that she felt that the effort to remove Fox, and possibly other members, from the Select Board goes beyond standard political affiliations.
“The main pushback has been because Russ Fox has been in his seat for 19 years, basically unopposed,” said Diaz.
If the recall petition is successful, the town will conduct a special election sometime in early 2022 to ask voters whether they wish to recall Fox, and whom they would elect to finish his term. Fox’s current three-year term is scheduled to end in spring 2023. The Select Board member up for re-election at this spring’s regular town election is Joseph Deedy.
Reclaim Southwick member Beth Carnevale said that the group is also helping people get registered to vote so that they can sign the petition and participate in the democratic process. She said that they will also be traveling to people’s homes if one wants to sign the petition but can’t make it to a signing event.
John Whalley, who recently joined Reclaim Southwick, said that he wants to see a Select Board that prioritizes conserving Southwick’s rural and agricultural nature over further development. He cited the North Pond project from when he was on the Community Preservation Commission, where the CPC wanted to purchase about 140 acres around North Pond to preserve the land. He said that the Select Board publicly supported the effort, but worked in the background to make it nearly impossible to accomplish.
He said that even if the petition fails, it will at least start the conversation about a change in the town’s political landscape, including removing Fox, Deedy and Douglas Moglin from the Select Board. All three members have served several years on the board, and have been re-elected without opposition in the past decade.