UPDATED: Draft Affidavit Submitted For Recall of Marshfield Select Board Chair Eric Kelley
Affidavit alleges that Kelley "politically targeted other town employees and regularly displayed incompetence and a lack of preparation for Select Board meetings" and appointed friends to boards.
October 1, 2025 (Marshfield) — A draft affidavit for the recall of Eric Kelley, the chair of the Marshfield Select Board, has been submitted to the town clerk.
Yesterday, while staff in the Town Clerk’s office looking at the document, the Town Hall lost power.
“We were looking at the document, then we lost power,” said a staff member.
Work on the document will begin again tomorrow.
The recall has been in the works ever since Kelley presided over a public discussion of a complaint that resident Joe Pecevich submitted about Police Chief Phil Tavares. The meeting was largely seen as a disaster for Kelley politically, particularly because it pitted a popular police chief against an inveterate malcontent. Pecevich’s chief complaint was Tavares was going to publicly correct the record after Pecevich maligned the Marshfield Police Department on his local cable show, the Control Room.
The petition alleges that Kelley conducted a “politically motivated hearing targeting” the police chief, that he has “politically targeted other town employees and regularly displayed incompetence and a lack of preparation for Select Board meetings.” It also says that he is irresponsible, has violated the Open Meeting Law, and eliminated public input from Select Board meetings. In addition, it says that he replaced qualified town board and committee members with his friends and supporters.
