Recall effort advances

Recall effort advances
Toy Town group clears first hurdle in the process
Damien Fisher
News Staff Writer

The effort to recall selectmen Fedor Berndt and Elizabeth Hunt is making progress, as the town’s Board of Registrars has certified the necessary number of signatures to move on to the next step.

Town Clerk Judy Lajoie said the group, Standing Up for Toy Town, collected more than 400 signatures from registered voters against Mr. Berndt and Ms. Hunt, each of the recall process. The charter stipulates a requirement of 5 percent of the registered voters, or a little more than 300.

Now that those sigout, the group has 20 days, or until Jan. 28, to collect a minimum of 954 signatures against each candidate, or 15 percent of registered voters. State law allows the group to collect up to 1,336 signatures to cover for any mistakes, but the Board of Registrars will not accept more than that number.

Danielle Hart, one of the founders and leaders of Standing Up for Toy Town, confirmed that the group reached its first goal, but declined a request for an interview.

The town clerk’s office issued petition papers, signed by Ms. Lajoie and including the town’s official seal, to the group on Thursday so that it could begin collecting signatures.

Former Selectman Robert Zbikowski, one of the signers of the affidavits, picked up the petition paperwork for the group. He declined to say if he would help collect signatures.

“I’m just a messenger,” Mr. Zbikowski said. “It’s cold out there.”

Standing Up for Toy Town is seeking the recall on the grounds that Ms. Hunt and Mr. Berndt did not fire Town Manager James Kreidler in the wake of the town’s fiscal crisis.

Mr. Kreidler was informed last year that accounting errors and other issues in the town and school business department contributed to a $3.4 million debt.

Working with selectmen and the state Department of Revenue, Mr. Kreidler has plans in place to pay off the deficit.

The town will receive a state loan that will cover the debt, and Mr. Kreidler plans to have the town pay off the state as soon as possible without raising taxes.

Mr. Berndt said Thursday that he is planning to challenge the recall efforts. He will examine the signatures collected for the affidavits for possible forgeries, and he is investigating challenging the recall on legal grounds.

“I’m not going to take this lying down,” he said.

The town’s charter states: “Grounds for recall shall include: lack of fitness for office, corruption, neglect of duties, misfeasance or malfeasance.”

Mr. Berndt states that the Standing Up for Toy Town’s grounds for recall, including not firing Mr. Kreidler and allegedly not coordinating a joint meeting with the School Committee, may not rise to the legal requirements laid out in the charter.

If the group is able to collect the necessary number of signatures, the next step will be a recall election. The recall elections require that 20 percent of registered voters participate in a ballot vote asking if Mr. Berndt and Ms. Hunt should be recalled.

It’s possible that the recall election will happen at the same time as the annual May Town Meeting elections, putting all five Board of Selectmen seats up for grabs.

Selectmen Keith Barrows and Robert O’Keefe are each up for re-election to three-year terms, and there is a one-year seat open representing C. Jackson Blair’s old seat. Mr. Blair resigned from the board in October after he was deposed as chairman