Stoughton Recall Challengers Sweep To Victory

STOUGHTON, MA — Six months after a contentious selectmen meeting that ended with a new interim town manager and recall chants as board members left the room, there are three new selectmen in town.

Pro-recall candidates swept the 2017 Stoughton Special Recall Election Tuesday night, ousting Chairman David Sousa, Vice-Chair Robert Cohn, and Selectman Peter Brown. In their place will be Christine Howe, Stephen Cavey, and Richard Hill. Both Cavey and Hill beat Cohn and Brown, earning about 50.79 and 51.8 percent of the vote to the incumbents’ 46 and 45.33 percent. Howe had the biggest win of the night, defeating Sousa 54.25 percent to 43.7 percent.

The three now join a board with two members that have spent the months since the town’s annual election in a minority voting block. When asked after their win about their goals and what issues they would like to tackle first, the three gave few specifics, only noting that they have a lot of work ahead with the town budget and the search for a new town manager.

“I think the campaign is probably the easy part because now we’re going to jump in with the budget and town manager. I think we’re ready to jump in. This was the easy part, now we have to get to work,” Howe said after the win.

On the town manager front, all three said they are not interested in bringing back former Town Manager Michael Hartman, who was ousted in June. The split became the spark that started the recall movement and led to the ex-town manager filing a lawsuit against the town.

“The mission here wasn’t to bring back Mike Hartman, the mission is to stabilize the government and now the mission is to find a new town manager,” Hill said.

Much was made of Hartman’s departure, with recall supporters citing the town charter, which states that a town manager cannot be removed from office unless four selectmen vote to do so. Supporters Sousa, Cohn, and Brown pointed to a preliminary ruling from Norfolk County Superior Court judge which stated that Hartman and the town had a contract where they agreed on a final day of June 30, making a discharge vote unnecessary. Hill said he would like to look at the town charter and see if the board can clean areas that might be considered to have a gap.

Prior to the final vote tally, now former Chairman David Sousa appeared on Stoughton Media Access Corporation’s election show to give what appeared to be a concession speech on behalf of himself, Cohn and Brown and speculate that former Interim Town Manager Joseph Feaster, who was a co-host on the show, would replace Steve Anastos as the new interim town manager.

“We thank our supporters, our employees, businesses, it’s been an honor and privilege to serve the Town of Stoughton. I wish the Town of Stoughton best of luck,” Sousa said.

When asked about if Anastos would remain the interim town manager, Hill said that's a question for the board of selectmen.

The new selectmen are expected to be sworn in within 48 hours of their victories and should be ready to go for Monday’s meeting. The new board is one of newcomers with two-term Selectman RobertbO’Reagan now the board's most senior member and Michael Sullivan only months into his first term. The new three selectmen, however, have spent time on the finance committee. At a minimum, there is likely to be a vote on the new chairman and vice-chairman at the next meeting.

Beyond selectmen meetings is a town that has been divided by the recall issue where vicious attacks on Facebook have become normal and a need for post-election healing is needed. Cavey said that he wants people who did not feel the result was a win for them to know that they can come to him and he will listen.

"Even if they are angry and upset, I'll listen. I want to hear their thoughts and concerns. (The healing) is going to take time but I want them to see that I genuinely care about their lives," Cavey said.

Below are the full unofficial results of the recall election. Turnout was 19.7 percent.

Stoughton Recall Election Results by DanLibon on Scribd

Image Credit: Dan Libon