The race for Registry of Deeds in Hampden County will see incumbent Cheryl Coakley-Rivera face off against independent Bob Collamore.
First elected in 2018, Coakley-Rivera has a background in law as a victim rights advocate. She told Reminder Publishing she was drawn to the Registry of Deeds position after realizing a lot of people were not fully aware of what the office can do for them.
Coakley-Rivera said she has used her term to grow the capacities of the registry’s communications with the public and make its resources more accessible.
“People call, and when they call our office, they’re usually lay people. When they’re calling our office, usually something happened. Usually a death, a divorce, buying a new home, discharge of their mortgage, so they’re eager, excited and nervous to call our office. We don’t want them waiting, we want to help them and we want to be as efficient and informative as possible,” said Coakley-Rivera.
Coakley-Rivera said she has always been eager to help others and has become proactive in her role as register in opening communications thanks in big part to a personal experience growing up. She explained her father did not know how to read and write so she would often accompany him to places and often saw him be treated poorly.
“The way people treated him usually wasn’t really a positive experience and people weren’t helpful, they were rude, they would ignore him, treat him as less than. That stuck with me. As a child you pick up on all that, and so that’s why I try to have our office the way it is,” Coakley-Rivera explained. “I look at it like that, like everyone that comes into our office is nervous, maybe have a deficit in understanding — we use many words that lawyers use. If you’re an average person you won’t always understand that, so we try to make it so that the average person could understand better some of the things they come to us for.”
Coakley-Rivera credited the staff in the registry’s office for a complete team effort in improving communications with the public. She added she aims to maintain this status if reelected and hopes to continue serving in the role.
Collamore has a background in both the private business sector and in public service. Some of his professional experience features being a legislative aide to State Sen. Marty Reilly (D-Springfield), a job development specialist at the Mass. Career Development Consortium, director of the student affairs office and a former correctional officer at the Hampden County Jail and House of Correction.
Other experiences leading up to entering this race for Collamore include being a Hampden County deputy sheriff and accountant financial field auditor for the state auditor office. He is a graduate of the former Classical High School in Springfield, Wilbraham & Monson Academy, the State of Connecticut Criminal Justice Academy and Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.
Collamore declined to comment further on the race for this story. He added he is planning on announcing more information about his campaign and goals if elected in September.
