A cardboard cutout of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, sporting a “Trump Pence” coronavirus face mask and tending to a flock of mask-bearing sheep, stands outside a building owned by Eric Shaheen in Tupper Lake in August 2020. Shaheen is running for village mayor with this property listed as his voting address, but a village trustee is challenging that with the Franklin Country Board of Elections. (Enterprise photo — Amy Scattergood)

TUPPER LAKE — A village Board of Trustees meeting Thursday ended with a heated and lengthy discussion of a slew of electoral issues, including voter fraud, candidate residency requirements and village board members living outside the village.

Trustee Ron LaScala said Tupper Lake has a problem with candidates and elected officials running for or holding village office while not residing in the village. He said this constitutes fraud and a failing of “personal integrity.”

LaScala has privately spoken on this issue for years, but it was refreshed this election cycle amid a three-man race for two open board seats.

Trustee Clint Hollings-worth is seeking reelection, and Jason McClain and Eric Shaheen are running, too. Trustee David “Haji” Maroun is not running for reelection.

LaScala said he does not like that McClain, a Lake Street resident whom he asked to run for office, has to run against Shaheen, who owns a business in the village on Park Street (E&M Enterprises General Contracting) and a house outside the village on Old Wawbeek Road. Shaheen uses his business address to vote and run in village elections. LaScala said a village resident should not have to run against a town resident for a village seat.

Franklin County Republican Election Commissioner Tracy Sparks, who sat in on the meeting, said this occurs in part because of state law on voting rights.

“We can’t suppress someone’s right to vote because they don’t have a place to live,” Sparks said.

She said many homeless voters use the address of a park where they spend time, or even the election office address as their “residence” when registering to vote. Sparks said she understands this law because people without residences are citizens and have a right to vote.

But this means the elections board does not have much authority to question if someone really lives where they say they do.

LaScala said his issue with residency is not about Shaheen exclusively. He said taxpayers have brought this issue up to him and Hollingsworth for years.

Two current board members — Mayor Paul Maroun and David Maroun — do not reside in the village full-time.

Mayor Maroun owns a property on Raquette River Drive, in the town outside the village, and another on Wawbeek Avenue in the village. He spends time at both, leading LaScala to dispute where his actual place of residency is. LaScala says the mayor spends more time at Raquette River Drive.

David Maroun — who was not present at the Thursday meeting — has not lived in the village for some time now. Trustee Leon Leblanc said he did when he was elected, but then he moved. LaScala said David at one point lived with village police Chief Eric Proulx in the town.

LaScala said he believes if people move out of the village, they should resign from the village board out of “personal integrity.”

“You wonder why people look at us like we’re a bunch of liars and crooks,” LaScala said. “This is why.”

He said he’ll work with Shaheen if he is elected. He said this grievance is not against David and Paul Maroun, personally; it’s against the situation.

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Is it a crime?

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Sparks said the law does not give many options for preventing this kind of situation.

“It doesn’t matter if we like it or not,” Sparks said.

She said the elections board is “administerial at best” and does not have the authority to reject a candidate’s filing on its own. A third party would need to challenge the filing for the board to reject it. LaScala said Shaheen’s petition should have been challenged but that he only learned of Shaheen’s plans to run after the three-day challenge period was over.

Mayor Maroun said he usually calls the county to get a list of who is running for local offices, but didn’t this year because he was not expecting anyone else to run.

LaScala said he believes Shaheen’s filing is illegitimate and called it “voter fraud.”

Sparks said under election law there was no crime committed, but it would be up to the district attorney if this meets the requirement for filing a false instrument under criminal law.

LaScala said he brought this issue to Franklin County District Attorney Craig Carriero. He said Carriero told him he does not have a case, that it would be too expensive to investigate it and that perhaps he should sue Shaheen personally.

LaScala was not pleased with Carriero’s response and said he believes the DA was not giving the issue enough attention.

“Apparently in Franklin County … voter fraud isn’t really taken that seriously,” LaScala said.

Sparks said she took this “personally” and took issue with the accuracy of this statement. She said the county does take voter fraud seriously but said this was not voter fraud.

Sparks and LaScala got heated while talking, and more aggravated as they finished fewer sentences and felt more attacked.

“We are either going to keep this civil, or I am going to end this meeting,” Mayor Maroun said as voices rose.

When it wasn’t kept civil, he abruptly adjourned the meeting with a pound of the gavel. Others in the room left, and the village clerk hung up the conference call on which department heads and the public were listening. But the debate lasted long after the call ended.

Tensions between the speakers rose quickly and settled slowly, but eventually reached a constructive, calm discussion as insults gave way to explanation.

LaScala said he still believes Carriero could make a case for fraud and called for him to launch an investigation into the matter.

“Election law prevents him from doing that,” Sparks said. She said she had a statement backing this up from the deputy legal counsel for the state Board of Elections, Nicholas Cartagena.

Sparks said when candidates register to run, they choose which property is their primary residence. Mayor Maroun said to use himself as an example. He owns residences in the town and the village, but uses his village location as his electoral address. Sparks said this has always been OK under election law.

LaScala said he believes your primary residence should be “where you lay your head” at the end of every day.

Sparks said the board of elections does not have the right to investigate voters or candidates, or to visit their homes.

“We have to take it at face value, which is frightening,” Sparks said.

LaScala said he believes it is politically unpopular for Carrairo to investigate this since Mayor Maroun is also a Franklin County legislator, with some power over the DA’s office. He said Carrairo should defer this case to a special prosecutor, as he believes this constitutes a conflict of interest.

LaScala also called out reporters at the meeting.

“The press is supposed to be keeping us honest. They’re not doing a good job,” LaScala said. “They know where the hell we all live. They don’t want to make waves.”

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Resolutions

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LaScala said he wants to change state election law to exclude this sort of situation from happening. He also wants to consolidate the town and village governments into one coterminous government, as he has advocated for in the past.

“The bar is set now so low that there’s no point in having a village if anyone can run in our election,” LaScala said. “Do we still need a village? That’s the only thing that’s dividing this village, a stupid line.”

He has spent time in the past trying to eliminate the extra taxation village residents pay. He is against dissolving the village, as some services — such the police department — would be cut. A coterminous government would expand the village to the town lines and combine the two governments into one.

“Nobody wants to go coterminous, but the townspeople sure want to sit on the village board,” LaScala said. “We all identify as Tupper Lakers — not village, not town — except for when the bill comes in.”

The town and village boards have been hesitant to move forward on this idea until they can study the possible outcome first. LaScala said a study is not needed as the fact of town residents sitting on the village board shows that town and village can work together.

Until there is a change, LaScala said a “Pandora’s Box” of problems could crop up. He gave a hypothetical: Someone who doesn’t live in Tupper Lake could register to run, get people from all over the state to register to vote absentee in the village, and become the mayor of a village they’ve never been to.