MURRAY

WEST WARWICK — Stephen D. Murray, who was fired as town building official in February, yesterday announced his Democratic candidacy for the Ward 2 seat on the Town Council this fall.

Murray, 57, said he plans to run on a platform focused on ridding the town of corruption. He noted that his cooperation with the state police led to the conviction of Robert B. Boyer, former chairman of the Economic Development Commission and prominent local surveyor, on ethics violations last month.

“I pledge to do everything that I humanly possibly can to stop corruption in town government,” Murray said yesterday. “If the people of the town of West Warwick want to elect or hire corrupt people, they can go ahead; just don’t vote for me.”

Murray’s announcement could set up a primary battle in September against the Ward 2 incumbent, David Gosselin Jr. (This week, Gosselin was the lone dissenter in the council’s vote to keep Boyer in his seat on the Kent County Water Authority board.)

Murray, a native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, earned a GED there in 1976. He said he later took courses at the Alberta Institute of Technology and the University of Calgary, in Alberta, and is now studying engineering at Warren National University, an online college formerly known as Kennedy-Western University.

Murray came to New England from Canada in the early 1980s, and took up residence in Rhode island after a few years in Connecticut. In 1986, he started a building services company that he still runs. He was Block Island’s building official from 1988 to 1999, when he was appointed building official in West Warwick.

Murray’s office came under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the Station nightclub fire, in February 2003.

But it was a rough patch last year, with an incident at Quaker Valley condominiums, that ultimately led to his dismissal. He was accused of initiating a public panic by giving the news media unsubstantiated reports of a safety crisis while keeping town officials in the dark about potentially improperly vented water heaters in the complex. As a result, Murray was placed on a week-long suspension, and later received a second unpaid suspension. He was fired by the council, in a unanimous vote, in February.

Murray contends that his termination was retribution for his cooperation in the case against Boyer, who initially had been charged with felony counts of bribery.

“I have had nothing in my folder as far as complaints or grievances; nothing but praise,” Murray said. “I refused to do corrupt things and they wanted me out of there. … The only thing they could do was to come up with some kind of story to discredit me and fire me.”

Murray said winning a council seat would fulfill a lifelong dream.

“I’ve always been involved in politics and I said that when I retired, I want to be an active participant in making a safer and better community for people to live in,” he said. “I don’t want to sit back and watch someone change or ruin or destroy what was already there.”

Murray and his wife, Joann, live at 33 Parker St. with Murray’s 18-year-old son, Douglas. His daughter, Katy, 15, lives in Narragansett with her mother.

tbuford@projo.com