Westfield City Clerk Karen M. Fanion
WESTFIELD – The election calendar for the City’s 2017 municipal election on Tuesday, November 7 is now posted on the City Clerk’s page at www.cityofwestfield.org. Monday, April 3 is the first day that any Westfield resident may pick up papers to run for mayor, city councilor, Municipal Light Board commissioner, School Committee member or Athenaeum trustee.
City clerk Karen M. Fanion said the two requirements to run for office are residency in the City of Westfield, and to be enrolled as a registered voter. Residents must pick up papers in person at the City Clerk’s office, Room 201 in City Hall at 59 Court Street and sign for them.
The entire City Council is up for re-election for a two-year term. There are 13 seats available; six ward seats and seven at-large seats. At the Feb. 1 meeting of the City Council, a vote was approved to increase the salary for a City Councilor to $13,000 annually, beginning on January 1, 2018, with $500 step increases annually up to $15,000 in 2026. Currently, the salary is $10,000 annually.
The position of mayor, currently held by Brian P. Sullivan, is also up for election for a two-year term. The mayor’s salary is $100,000 annually.
The City Council also grappled with term extensions for the mayor and the council over the past year. There was no consensus to increase the term lengths for City Council, and the motion was withdrawn. However, there is some momentum to put a non-binding referendum question on the ballot to extend the term of mayor to four years.
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph J. Figy, who introduced the motion to extend term lengths, said that he met with Fanion and city solicitor Susan C. Phillips on Thursday to discuss putting the non-binding referendum on the ballot to see if the public is in favor. If the ballot question were to win a majority, he said it would mostly likely go through a home rule petition to change the city’s charter. He said the change in term length wouldn’t go into effect until the 2019 election. Figy said he plans to introduce a motion to put the question on the ballot at the next City Council meeting on April 6.
Ward 3 Councilor Andrew K. Surprise said he expects the question regarding extending the term of mayor to be on the ballot. Surprise had proposed a term limit amendment to the motion to extend the term length for mayor that would limit the terms to two, or eight years. The amendment was defeated by the City Council in October.
“I think when we extend terms we have to be careful to put a limit on them. I hope in the future we can add term limits,” Surprise said on Thursday, adding that eight years is long enough for anyone to be mayor.
Three seats on the School Committee are up for election, a 4-year term that earns $5,000 annually. Those seats are currently held by William Duval, Jeffrey Gosselin and Cynthia Sullivan.
The deadline for returning papers for all seats to the Board of Registrars for verification of signatures is Aug. 8 at 5 p.m. The Board of Registrars must then file papers with the city clerk by Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. Fanion said candidates have to have 50 good signatures on the papers, so she recommends that they get at least 60 signatures. The drawing for ballot position will be held on Aug. 28 at 5 p.m.
The deadline for voter registration for the preliminary election is Sept. 6. The preliminary election date is Tues., Sept. 26.
A preliminary election will be held for each race that has double the number of people running plus one, according to Fanion. For example, in the race for mayor, if three people run, there will be a preliminary election. If two run, they would both automatically appear on the November ballot.
For the seven At-large City Council seats, if there are fifteen or more candidates, there will be a preliminary election. For the Ward seats, three or more running for one seat would put that Ward race in the preliminary election. For the three School Committee seats, seven or more candidates would put them in the preliminary election.
The deadline for voter registration for the November election is Oct. 18, and the November election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
