WESTFIELD – Two potential candidates for municipal election this fall attempted to submit nomination papers before the 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday, but those nomination documents failed to satisfy voting requirements and both candidates were disqualified.
Harold Alan Phelps attempted to submit nomination documents to qualify for the mayoral race. Phelps would have been the third mayoral candidate, joining Brian P. Sullivan and Michael L. Roeder, and forcing a preliminary election on September 22.
City Clerk Karen Fanion released a statement to the Westfield News stating that Phelps was unable to give proof of residency to qualify as a city resident.
Phelps “attempted to submit his papers, but he did not have an ID that showed his current address, so his papers could not be notarized, also he did not amend his papers to show his new, current address, therefore, we could not accept his papers.,” Fanion said in the statement. “And even if he did have the proper ID he only had 49 signatures.”
Candidates are required to submit a nomination petition with the signatures of 50 registered voters and are encouraged to submit a minimum of 60 signatures in case any of the signatures are rejected as was the case when former City Councilor At-large David Bannish failed to qualify for the ballot because signatures were rejected and his documents were not certified.
If Phelps documents had been certified it would have triggered a city-wide preliminary election, at an estimated cost of $35,000, to cull the number of candidates to two for the November General Election.
The ballot will now pit Sullivan, who submitted his nomination documents on June 26, and Roeder, who submitted his papers on Aug. 5, in the November 3, 2015 General Election.
Jason A. Lavallee is the other potential candidate whose nomination papers could not be certified Tuesday. Fanion said a friend brought the documents to City Hall, but that Lavallee had failed to sign that document and was out of state on business Tuesday, so he was unable to satisfy that requirement and his nomination was not certified.
Lavallee was seeking the Ward 1 seat on the Municipal Light Board and would have faced the incumbent, Kevin M. Kelleher in November.
The other five ward MLB members, Ray Rivera of Ward 2; Jane C. Wensley of Ward 3; Francis L. Liptak of Ward 4; Thomas P. Flaherty, Sr., of Ward 5; and Robert J. Sacco of Ward 6 are all unopposed.
One potential candidate who drew papers for election to one of the three seats available on the School Committee, Kaitlin L. Hurd, did not submit those documents for certification, meaning that the three incumbents, Diane M. Mayhew, Kevin J. Sullivan, and Ramon Diaz Jr., will be unopposed in November.
The only issue which still has to be resolved is what post David A. Flaherty will seek since he submitted nomination documents for both a City Council At-large seat and the Ward 6 seat being vacated by Christopher Crean who is one of several council members not seeking re-election this fall.
Fanion said that Flaherty has until Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 to withdraw one of those documents. If Flaherty decides to seek an At-large seat he will join a field of 14 candidates for seven seats.
Flaherty has won the seventh seat in the past two elections by a relatively small number of ballots, so he may select to seek the Ward 6 seat. Two Planning Board members, Cheryl L. Crowe and William J. Onyski, have both submitted nomination papers which were certified.
A field of three candidates would require a preliminary election in that ward in September, at a cost of about $5,000.
