Mayor Pluta has four announced challengers while others vie for City Council and School Committee.
HOLYOKE – The deadline for incumbents and challengers to become eligible to run for city offices in this year's city election is Tuesday.
By 4:30 p.m. on that day, candidates must submit nomination papers bearing signatures of registered voters to the Registrar of Voters at City Hall in order to get their names on the election ballot.
A preliminary election would be Sept. 20 to narrow the fields of some races if necessary.
Election day is Nov. 8.
Races for mayor, all 15 City Council seats and eight seats on the School Committee will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The yearly salaries are mayor, $85,000, city council, $10,000, and School Committee, $5,000.
All seats have two-year terms.
Also, a ballot question will ask voters if they want to establish a new city charter to modernize the existing one, which took effect 115 years ago.
Mayoral candidates must file papers bearing signatures of at least 250 registered voters.
The papers of City Council and school board candidates must have 50 signatures each.
Mayor Elaine A. Pluta has said she will run for a second-term.
Pluta has four announced challengers: Alex B. Morse, who works as a youth counselor and job developer at CareerPoint here, business consultant Daniel C. Boyle, whom Pluta defeated in 2009, and former city councilors Daniel C. Burns and John P. Brunelle.
Regarding the charter question, despite its multiple parts, voters are unable to vote menu-style for those parts they like or against those they dislike, and instead must vote yes or no on the whole question.
Among the proposed charter changes: The mayor’s term would increase to four years; the City Council would be reduced from eight at large members and seven ward members to an 11-member format, consisting of 7 ward and four at large; and a finance department would be established encompassing the Board of Assessors, city auditor, treasurer, tax collector and purchasing, headed by a new position of chief financial officer.