WESTBROOK – While the Westbrook mayoral election may be over, with campaign signs all-but removed from city roadsides, a controversy lingers about alleged Election Day campaign phone calls that attempted to tie mayoral candidate Colleen Hilton to non-existent plans for a low-income housing development at Prides Corner.

During the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 5, elected officials in Westbrook’s Ward 5 voting location at Prides Corner Congregational Church began receiving reports from voters, who said they had been called and told not to vote for Hilton because she would bring a 98-unit, low-income housing project to the Prides Corner neighborhood.

Both Ward 5 Councilor Mike Sanphy and Councilor-at-large Michael Foley said they received the reports from voters at the polling location, but ever since, there’s been confusion about who was behind the calls and whether the calls even occurred.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said Wednesday that city attorneys are currently investigating the reports.

“It was brought to our attention that there were some issues in Ward 5 that we felt, based on their nature, required to at least be reviewed,” he said. “Yes, the election is over, but I think we need to review the situation and that’s what’s under way right now.”

Rose Marie Russell, a retired teacher, who assisted James Tranchmontagne’s ultimately unsuccessful mayoral campaign, said Tuesday that both her reputation and Tranchmontagne’s have been hurt by accusations that their campaign was behind the calls. According to Russell, Foley called Tranchmontagne supporters on election night, accusing them of making the calls.

“We were stunned that we would even be asked,” she said.

Foley said Wednesday that he was simply inquiring if they knew who was behind the calls.

“All I did was call and ask them, and I asked James in person,” he said. “We never publicly accused their campaign, we simply said someone was making calls and we don’t know who.”

Tranchmontagne said Tuesday that during their time at Ward 5 on Election Day, Hilton politely asked him if he was behind the calls.

“We never made any phone calls, so we’ve just asked the city to produce a phone number of where a call came from, or bring forward someone who received one of the calls,” he said.

He added that ever since the reports, he has been actively looking for someone who received a call, and has yet to find anyone. He said that if the calls happened, he’d like to find whoever was responsible in order to prove he wasn’t involved.

The city has been looking into a development deal that would establish market-rate housing at the former Prides Corner Elementary School, with Vincent Maietta of V&E Enterprises, the potential developer, reporting that rent prices could range anywhere from $700 to $1,500. While concerns about possible low-income housing were raised at a recent Prides Corner neighborhood hearing about the proposed development, there are no plans on the table to develop the property as low-income housing.

In what seemed as a relatively passive mayoral campaign, the Prides Corner school proposal stirred up Ward 5 voters. According to Sanphy, prior to the election there was a homemade sign in the neighborhood, at the corner of Pride and Austin streets, that read: “Stop 98 apartments, vote for James.”

Hilton said Wednesday that during Election Day in Ward 5, a lot of residents were asking her and city councilors questions about the Prides Corner development.

“Despite our best efforts, there was still a lot of misinformation out there,” she said.

Hilton said she believes that Tranchmontagne was not behind the calls.

“As we’ve heard more and learned more, I think there was just a lot of angst in the neighborhood over the development plan,” she said.

Russell believes that through the accusations made on Election Day, and with both the mayor and councilors posting about the calls on their Facebook pages, it might have swayed voters away from Tranchmontagne, but Hilton said she never approached voters on Election Day to talk about the issue.

“If someone felt that there was any sort of tampering during the election, they have the obligation to go to the warden, and that didn’t happen,” Hilton said. “I’ve asked the city attorneys to conduct a review on what may or may not have happened.”