A citizen-led effort to recall Select Board chair Eric Kelley has officially met the requirements to move forward, according to a certification issued Wednesday by the Marshfield Town Clerk’s Office.
Town Clerk Narice Ann Casper II confirmed that recall petitioners submitted enough verified signatures to satisfy the town charter’s criteria for initiating a recall.
The process began March 31, when petitioners Lara Brait and Sean Costello filed affidavits seeking Kelley’s removal from office. The clerk’s office certified 114 affidavits, more than the minimum required, to authorize circulation of recall petitions. Brait and Costello both currently serve on the school committee.
Commenting to the South Shore Times, Costello said, "Mr. Kelley has repeatedly made poor decisions that impact the people of Marshfield." According to Costello, Kelley has thrown around insults and conspiracy theories, "while offering no constructive ideas to move our town forward."
Petitioners then gathered signatures between April 3 and April 17, ultimately submitting 3,877 certified signatures. The Town Clerk’s Office forwarded the petitions to the Registrars of Voters, who verified that the signatures belonged to registered Marshfield voters. Costello noted that this number of signatures represents, "just about double the amount of people who voted him into office."
Brait and Costello filed an affidavit to begin a recall after Kelley said that he would not schedule a special election for residents to vote on override options. Though two override options are on the town meeting warrant, the town requires an election to fund an override if town meeting approves it. Only the select board can schedule that special election, according to the town clerk and town counsel.
“It is my right under state law as a duly elected select board member not to vote in favor to move the override question to the ballot,” Kelley said in a comment to the South Shore Times. “It is not my fault because of the school's behavior during a select [and] advisory board meeting that they forced Tricia Simpson to resign. Their actions caused the one vote that may have supported an override to walk away.”
In a comment to South Shore Times, Brait said, "The recall process exists to hold elected officials accountable between elections. This isn’t about undoing an election, it’s about addressing serious concerns and giving voters a clear path to respond when issues arise that affect the entire community. Marshfield’s town bylaws are some of the strictest in the Commonwealth. The fact that this process was completed in 14 days shows the level of community concern and interest in the current fiscal climate."
In response to Brait’s statement, Kelley called Brait and Costello “parasites” and said they initiated the recall petition so that he would “bend a knee to their demands.”
“In my opinion, Lara Brait and Sean Costello want to force our seniors out of their homes to make room for younger families to increase school enrollment and possibly use this override to cover over faults in their budget they do not want exposed,” Kelley said. “We have a major spending problem and we need to reign that spending in. Everything needs to be looked at.”
Costello addressed the school’s budget concerns in his statement saying, “The school department’s line item budget is available on our website, we have had detailed budget discussions in public at our School Committee meetings for months, and we have expressed countless times that we are more than happy to discuss our budget proposal with anyone. The Select Board, under Chair Kelley, never invited us to meet with them, and has yet to finalize their own budget despite having had months to do so.”
Under Article 8 of the Marshfield Town Charter, recall efforts must collect signatures from at least 15 percent of registered voters in each precinct within a 21-day period. Casper determined that the petitioners exceeded that threshold.
“I do determine and certify that the recall petitioners have satisfied the requirements,” Casper wrote in the official notice to the Select Board.
With the certification complete, the matter now moves to the Select Board, which is required under the charter to proceed with the next steps in the recall process without delay. Those steps typically include scheduling a recall election.
The recall effort marks a significant development in local politics, signaling substantial organized opposition to Kelley’s continued service on the board. When asked if Kelley should resign before a recall election, Brait said, "I’m not approaching this with personal hopes about what Mr. Kelly should do. As an elected official, that decision is his to make."
Town officials have not yet announced the timeline for the next phase of the process. The next select board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 4/21, but the agenda includes no reference to the recall certification or recall election as of 3:00 PM.
This is a developing story.
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