From Robert Markel, temporary part time Templeton Town Administrator:


Regarding the expenditure for legal advice on the recent election, the Town Clerk came to my office with an important question: Can a candidate for election to the Water Department Board have his wife sign out nomination papers? This happened at 2:00 p.m. on the last day for pulling nomination papers. The law requires that the candidate must take out nomination papers in person. We did not know if there was case law or other decisions that were relevant, and we were aware that the Secretary of State would answer this question but it normally takes several days to get an answer. We did not have time, so I asked Town Counsel for an opinion and told the Clerk to issue the nomination papers to the wife contingent upon the opinion from Town Counsel. 

If we had denied the nomination papers and Town Counsel came back with a ruling that we should have issued them, we might be accused of unfairly keeping a candidate off the ballot. It we simply issued the nomination papers without checking the legality, we might be accused of ignoring the law, so the Clerk and I agreed that issuing the papers contingent upon Town Counsel opinion was the best and fairest course. 

The advice of Town Counsel was that issuing the papers to the candidate's wife was valid and that the candidate's name should appear on the ballot. The practice in most towns is to reveal the opinion of Town Counsel but not to release the written opinion. I would not release the written opinion without agreement by the Board of Selectmen. 

Lastly, I want to assure residents that we are making every effort to consult Town Counsel only when absolutely necessary. For the first time in recent years, the Town's expenditures for legal counsel will be less than the amount in the budget.

Seems at the last election, one candidate, Gregg Edwards, had his wife pick up his nomination papers. Now, if the law states the candidate must do this, why was this allowed to move forward? This was not the first election process for him as he has served as a selectmen before and there is a time frame laid out in plain English in Templeton. If you intend to run, you make sure you have no plans that interfere with the requirements which are you pick up your papers, sign the book, obtain the required number of signatures of Templeton residents and registered voters, turn them in so they can be certified and get your name on the ballot. There is a certain number of names required and a certain time frame to pick up papers and when to turn them in. All spelled out and all pretty simple. Why special consideration for this time around and this candidate? This was / is a Town election issue and this was/is not a matter for the Light & Water department so now we have departments laying out how elections will be run, now we have set a precedent on how nomination papers can be pulled, we already do not follow any real process, procedure or timeline for a budget, we have the selectmen and Town Administrator telling department heads not to meet with Advisory Committee, individual selectmen adding warrant articles to Town meeting warrant after it has closed and then having it show "presented by Board of Selectmen" even though there is no record of the board of selectmen voting on these articles. The topper is the selectmen now claiming they are the superior department and they can do as they please. 

posted by Jeff Bennett