Robert R. Nichols recall, Blandford, Massachusetts (2010)
| Blandford Selectman recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| April 17, 2010 |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2010 Recalls in Massachusetts Massachusetts recall laws City council recalls Recall reports |
A vote about whether to recall Robert R. Nichols from his position as a Selectman in Blandford, Massachusetts, took place on April 17, 2010. Nichols retained his seat in the recall election.[1]
Recall results
- Votes to recall Nichols: 159
- Votes to keep Nichols: 212
Supporting arguments
Payment controversy
The effort to recall Nichols was supported by former Selectman Andrew Iglesias, then-Selectmen Chester Broughton and Theodore Jensen, Town Clerk Staci Iglesias, former Tree Warden Michael Wojcik, Tax Collector LeeAnne Thompson, Highway Commissioner Brad Curry, Stephen Jemiolo, Mark Blanchette and Jared Heeter.[2]
In 2009, Nichols discovered that Michael Wojcik, one of those who went on to seek his recall, was paid about $20,000 over a 10-year period by Northeast Utilities to supervise tree clipping in Blandford. Anthony J. van Werkhooven, a former Selectman, said that Wojcik was paid by the town for tree clipping and was in Florida during some of the billing periods in question. Van Werkhooven and others suggested that the recall was in retaliation for this discovery.[2] At a forum about the recall in early March, "people in attendance expressed outrage at the tactics employed by petitioners seeking the recall."[3]
Pornographic email
Several recall supporters said that their motivation for wanting to remove Nichols from office is that he sent a pornographic email from his home computer to a Yahoo account used by Blandford's highway department in Summer 2009. Nichols initially denied sending the email but eventually said that he did it and apologized, saying, "There was an email that contained adult material that was sent to a perceived, and what I believed to be, a personal email. This was a mistake in judgment on my part that will never happen again. The primary purpose of making this error in judgment public was to humiliate me in public and cause me to resign from office."[2]
Footnotes
