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Chartier withdraws from Ward 3 consideration Candidate claims Medford council violated rules By Jessica Smith A candidate who threatened to withdraw her application for the Medford City Council�s open Ward 3 seat made good on her promise Tuesday. Rachel Chartier, one of three applicants for the position, said she dropped out of the running because the city refused to acknowledge that it violated its rules for filling council vacancies. "I don�t want to be part of a council that doesn�t own up to its errors," said Chartier, who failed in her election bid for a council seat Nov. 7 against Councilman John Michaels. Last week, Chartier told the council she believed it improperly extended the application period for the Ward 3 seat, left vacant in August by Matt Hart. Chartier said that because she was the sole applicant at the close of the original Sept. 29 deadline, the council should have interviewed her and decided whether to appoint her before seeking additional applicants. On her decision to withdraw her application, Chartier said she couldn�t back down from the ultimatum she gave the council. "Integrity, I believe, comes first," she said. "I have to stick by what I said." Council President Sal Esquivel said it�s "too bad" Chartier quit the race but that he stood by the group�s decision to deepen the pool of applicants. "Don�t we want more candidates? Isn�t it our job to pick the best person? Maybe I�m looking at this wrong, but I think that�s what we want," Esquivel said. Since the council voted Oct. 26 to extend the deadline, Seth Harriff, 27, an information system technician at Asante Health System, and real estate agent Claudette Moore, 52, both filed for the seat. The application deadline closed Friday. Before Chartier�s comments to the council last week, Esquivel said he supported her bid for the seat. "Now, I�m not real sure where I am with her," he said. Aside from the council�s desire for additional applicants, City Attorney Ron Doyle said the council was required to extend the application deadline because of a problem with legal notices published in the newspaper. The city�s code requires legal notices to appear once a week, two weeks in a row, to give applicants time to respond. According to Doyle, the second notice for the original Sept. 29 deadline never ran in the paper, requiring the city to go through the noticing process a second time. As it stands, the selection process is moving ahead without Chartier�s application. Beverly Sandblast, city recorder, said Chartier sent an e-mail requesting she be dropped from the "appointment process" because she no longer had "the desire to participate." That means a five-member committee has only Harriff and Moore to interview in a session today before forwarding a recommendation to the council. Council interviews with the candidates are scheduled for Nov. 29. The council is expected to make its appointment to fulfill the remaining two years of Hart�s term at its Dec. 7 meeting. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.