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Date: 6/5/2023
EASTHAMPTON — With the effort to recall School Committee Chair Cynthia Kwiecinski in its second stage, City Clerk Barbara LaBombard discussed the process required with a recall election.
LaBombard explained the requirements for the first step of the recall process, the recall affidavit.
“The first step is the recall affidavit, they have to get 400 signatures each, with at least 60 from each precinct, which they barely did. They ended up with about 413 signatures total,” she said.
Catherine Wauczinski, one of the organizers of the petition, explained why residents chose the recall route, which included candidate Vito Perrone’s use of the term “ladies,” which led to national attention for the city.
“I think the issue about the ladies is one piece of it, but it’s the ongoing disengenous behavior where there is information that’s being provided to the community that is not accurate or only pieces of the information,” she said.
One example Wauczinski pointed to was the withdrawal of second superintendent candiate Ludlow Superintendent Erica Faginski-Stark, after an email from students regarding her use of “transphobic rhetoric” was not shared with the full School Committee until after she had withdrawn.
Wauzcinski also explained why Kwiecinski was the target of the recall and not other members of the committee.
“The chair is the person — under her leadership and with her problematic behavior — who sets the tone for the rest of the committee. This is a very challenging process and to try to do it for multiple people at a time is difficult. She has not voted for Dr. Perrone herself and comes up with this microaggression of being referred to as a lady,” she said.
With the affidavit finalized with LaBombard’s office, the next step is the recall petition.
“The recall petition is made by my office, the first 10 signers on the recall petition get it mailed to them. They need to get 2,517 signatures at least, which is 20% of the total number of registered voters at the last city election, which was November of 2021,” she said.
LaBombard said there is a firm June 8 deadline for the signatures to be filed.
“They have to get those in June 8, it’s not an open-ended thing, they have 21 days from the date I issued that petition to do that. They can drop them off ahead of time but when they do they have to tell me that’s all there is, I can’t start and then ask them to get more signatures,” she said.
As of June 1, Wauczinski said the petition has received between 500 and 1,000 signatures.
“I have over 500 in my posession, but I also have between 30 and 50 people out there collecting signatures, so those numbers aren’t in my possession, we’re somewhere between 500 and 1,000 with a week left. We’re picking up speed as we go and I’m hoping that we’ll have a little bit of a boost,” she said.
Following the June 8 deadline, LaBombard said she has 10 days to make sure that the signatures are valid.
“Say that 10 days go by and then I determine that they have enough signatures, then what I do is I pass it on to the City Council, the City Council at that point will notify the chair of the School Committee that she has five days to resign, and if she does not resign within five days they are supposed to call a special election,” she said.
She added that a special election would likely cost the city between $10,000 and $15,000.
LaBombard explained that after July 1, the recall effort becomes “moot.”
“It can’t happen, the charter says if it is within six months of the end of the term, you can’t do a recall,” she said.
LaBombard also noted that if the recall were to pass, the term would be up for reelection this fall.
Wauczinski also said progress is being made on a recall affadavit for Mayor Nicole LaChapelle,
“We also have a recall affadavit going for the mayor that was started last week. Nearly every person that has signed the original affadavit for Cynthia [Kwiecinski] has signed the affadavit for the mayor,” she said,
LaBombard encouraged anyone interested in the School Committee to take out papers for this year’s election.
Nomination papers will be available beginning on July 3 and will be due back to the clerk’s office in September.