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This article was published 10 year(s) and 7 month(s) ago

Saugus plays name game

Christopher D. Roberson

December 11, 2014 by Christopher D. Roberson

SAUGUS – Town Clerk Ellen Schena said she cannot understand how Selectmen chair Ellen Faiella could question the process of certifying the recall signatures at Tuesday night’s board meeting.”I don’t know how they could call our process into question,” said Schena. “We did the best we possibly could within the time that we had.”Faiella, Maureen Dever, Stephen Castinetti and Paul Allan are subject to the recall, stemming from the board’s 4-1 vote on Oct. 29 to terminate former Town Manager Scott Crabtree. Selectman Debra Panetta cast the lone vote in favor of Crabtree and is not included in the recall.According to the Town Charter, the recall petitioners needed the signatures of at least 25 percent of the town’s registered voters – or 4,443 – to force a special election. Save Saugus PAC submitted at least 4,850 certified signatures for each of the four selectmen the group is attempting to recall.Schena said the signatures were verified by her office and the Board of Registrars, using the Voter Registration Information System (VRIS).She said it was impossible to count a page more than once, as the information system does not allow it. Schena said any signatures that were illegible, or from non-voters, were discarded. However, there were no safeguards to catch forged signatures, nor was it the task of either office to look for such aberrations, she said.”It is not my job to verify if it’s a fraudulent signature,” said Schena. “We’re not handwriting analysts.”Schena said that a deceased person could be counted, but only if the person died between the time the petition was signed and when the signatures were submitted. Otherwise, the person’s name would have been removed from VRIS.”If they’re deceased, they get taken out of the system,” she said.During Tuesday’s selectmen meeting, Dennis Gould, chairman of Save the B.O.S. PAC, said he went to the Town Clerk’s Office Dec. 1 to request copies of the signatures and was told they would not be available until the following day.Schena said state law allows residents two days to contest a petition after it is submitted.The signatures were certified Nov. 26 (the day before Thanksgiving). Schena said the signatures were ready for Gould to pick up by the end of the day on Dec. 1, however, he did not return until the following day.”She never explained to me that I had to make my challenge that day (Dec. 2),” Gould said of Schena. “Nobody told me about the 48-hour window.”In response, Schena said that Gould never asked any questions nor did he ask the Board of Registrars for more time to review the documents.In addition, Schena said Gould did not provide a letter of opposition until Dec. 8 – six days after the close of the 48-hour window.In his letter, Schena said Gould claimed that there were 1,200 signatures that should have been removed. Gould told selectmen Tuesday night that he had discovered 897 “bad” signatures.Regarding the date for the election, Town Counsel John Vasapolli said the secretary of state’s office told him Tuesday afternoon that the date needed to be changed from Feb. 3 to Feb. 24. This resulted from the selectmen not ordering the election within five days after they were notified that the signatures had been processed.”We didn’t get the approval until late Tuesday from the secretary of state,” he said. “Feb. 3 was based on them ordering the election within five days of Nov. 26.”Vasapolli said that information was not presented at the Tuesday selectmen meeting.Vasapolli said that although he signed the petition, he did not participate in the collection or certification of signatures.”I did sign the petition, but I did not solicit signatures,” he said. “I had nothing to do with the certification.”

  • Christopher D. Roberson
    Christopher D. Roberson

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