WATERVILLE — A third city official is now the subject of yet another recall campaign after papers were taken out Monday to start a petition to remove Ward 7 Councilor Jackie DuPont from her seat on the council nearly a week after enough signatures were collected to put the recall of the mayor and another councilor on the June 12 ballot.
Andy Roy, who along with his parents Patrick and Marilyn Roy, is spearheading the effort. They filed the paperwork Monday to recall DuPont, a Democrat. None of the Roys live in Ward 7, but the City Charter does not stipulate that individuals taking out petition papers be a resident of the ward, but simply a registered voter of Waterville.
Roy said in an interview Monday that he had heard concerns from friends and family who do live in Ward 7, saying those people felt as though they were not being represented by DuPont and that she votes against the interest of her constituents.
“I respect, as I have always done, the Charter and the democratic process allowed by the Charter for citizens to voice their dissent,” DuPont said in an emailed statement Monday evening.
DuPont, who was elected in 2015, is up for re-election in November. When asked why he was not waiting until the regular election for voters to have their say, Roy said, “The problem is happening now, not then.”
DuPont has not said whether she is running for another term on the Council.
Last week, the City Council agreed to place a request to recall John O’Donnell, a Democrat representing Ward 5, on the June 12 election ballot. Two days later, municipal officials certified that petitioners seeking to remove Republican Mayor Nick Isgro from office had collected enough signatures to force an additional recall vote next month. The Council will vote on the request to put the mayor’s recall on the June ballot at a budget workshop Tuesday.
Deputy City Clerk Sarah Cross said Roy will need to collect 101 signatures by May 29 in order to force a recall vote. Regardless of whether or not Roy is successful in gathering enough signatures by the deadline, DuPont’s recall would not appear on the June 12 ballot, but at a later time.
Roy denied that the effort was in response to the effort to oust Isgro and that it was about the people of the ward. However, he said one of the reasons that he initiated this campaign was related to the mayoral recall effort. He said elderly people in the ward had asked DuPont to stop those collecting signatures from knocking on their doors and that DuPont failed to help — though he did not say how she may have been able to stop them from knocking on doors in the ward.
He claimed those elderly people had been harassed and lied to during the process, and by signing the petition to recall the mayor, DuPont in turn was endorsing that alleged behavior.
Roy, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor as a Republican in 2011, has been a public advocate of Isgro’s during the last month. He has made T-shirts that read “Eat it Hogg,” referencing the tweet that ignited the city’s political turmoil in which the mayor told Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg to “eat it.” Roy is now selling those shirts online at his company, Maine’s Royal Tees.
He said he stepped in to take out papers to recall DuPont even though he isn’t a resident of the ward because the people he had spoken with were afraid to do so. He did not identify the people who raised those concerns and did not say what the cause of their fear is.
Roy said that 90 percent of the votes DuPont has taken on the Council have been against the interests of her constituents. When pressed for an example, Roy could not provide any and said she did so “in general.”
He also said she favored Colby College in her votes, but also would not provide any examples of specific instances.
He did say he was interested in recalling all of the councilors associated with Colby, including Councilors Lauren Lessing and Winifred Tate who are both employed by the college, and would help anyone who wanted to take out those petitions.
Emily Higginbotham — 861-9239
ehigginbotham@centralmaine.com
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