City Councilor Delmarina López announced Thursday she's running for mayor of Chicopee, Massachusetts.
López, the first person of color elected to the council, and first woman in over a decade, is calling for more transparency in Chicopee's government.
"I'm going to audit the city government to root out any corruption," said López, who is in her first term on the council. "I'm going to implement a revamped 311-style system connecting residents to city services and ensuring accountability. Transparency is really important to me because at the end of the day, these are taxpayer dollars."
López said incumbent Mayor John Vieau refuses to take accountability, especially in lack of funding and services for the public schools.
A spokesperson for Vieau had no immediate comment on López's candidacy.
Vieau was first elected mayor in 2019. Both he and López have pulled paper work from the clerks office to begin collecting signatures to get on the ballot.
According to Chicopee Registrar of Voters Barbara Galindo, mayoral candidates have until Aug. 1 to submit the signatures of at least 250 registered voters.
If more than two candidates make the ballot, they will face off during a preliminary election Sept. 19, Galindo said. The general election is Nov. 7.
According to the state's campaign finance office, Vieau has about $15,000 in his mayoral campaign account. Similar information was not yet available on the state's website for López, who filed her committee's statement of organization on Thursday.
Chicopee is the second most populous community in western Massachusetts, with about 55,000 residents, according to the Census Bureau.
