Westfield Mayor Daniel Knapik has been accused getting city workers to illegal remove some campaign lawn signs before the Nov. 8 election.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 3:15 this afternoon.
Westfield City Councilor David Flaherty and Municipal Light Board member Jane Wensley are involved in a civil rights suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against Westfield Mayor Daniel Knapik.SPRINGFIELD – Three people have filed a suit against Mayor Daniel Knapik in federal court, stating he had city workers remove campaign signs on private property in November.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the Western Regional Office of the American Civil Liberties Union in U.S. District Court of behalf of City Councilor David Flaherty and municipal light board representative Jane Wensley as well as Westfield property owner David Costa, of Russell.
The suit states Knapik had public employees on Nov. 7, one day before an election, remove signs supporting Flaherty and Wensley from the yard of property at 38 East Silver St. owned by Costa.
“This action was no accident, and it was no routine enforcement of Westfield’s signage laws,” attorney Luke Ryan, who filed the complaint for the ACLU, stated in a press release. “That the mayor of Westfield had instructed the public employees to remove the signs, including signs endorsing the candidacy of a city council with whom the mayor had a long-standing, contentious relationship, is the essence of the complaint.”
“These are important First Amendment rights,” Ryan said of the posting of lawn signs.
City employees removed signs promoting Flaherty and Wensley, and which met local requirements, within an hour and a half of two calls made by Knapik to the manager of the Westfield Department of Public Works, according to the lawsuit.
Signs for other candidates had been posted at the same location for as long as a month and city workers did not remove similarly displayed signs from nearby properties, according to the lawsuit.
“Citizens have a right to post lawn signs,” William C. Newman, director of the ACLU’s Western Massachusetts legal office, stated. “The ACLU vindicated that right in a case against Longmeadow in federal district court in Springfield in 1988. The breach of that right by a high-ranking public official should not go unchallenged.”
“I believe the evidence will substantiate all of the claims made in the complaint and that Mayor Knapik, in an attempt to influence the outcome of the election, ordered city employees to illegally remove my campaign signs the day before the election,” Flaherty stated in a written statement. “This case is about what’s right and wrong, and about stopping this type of illegal activity in the future.“
The mayor could not be reached for comment.