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Fall River City Council loses initial court battle to remove Mayor Jasiel Correia
The Fall River City Council’s preliminary injunction to remove Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia from office has been denied today in New Bedford Superior Court.
Supreme Court Judge Raffi Yessayan ruled that the Charter does not grant the City Council the authority to temporarily remove a mayor charged with a felony from office. Instead, the Charter requires the removal of an elected official convicted of a felony.
The judge also stated that the City Council has failed to show it will succeed on its claim that the phrase “other cause” under Section 3-8(a) of the city charter permitted the Council to temporarily remove Correia based upon the Sept. 5, 2019 Indictments.
Overall it was felt by Yessayan that if the Court were to interpret Section 3-8 as broadly as the Council suggests, it would give the Council the authority to remove a mayor whenever he or she is unable to perform his or her mayoral duties to their liking.
Based on these reasons, the judge denied the preliminary injunction.
Here is the ruling (8 pages – use the arrows to turn the page):
[pdf-embedder url=”https://fallriverreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/FR-City-Council-v.-Correia-Memo.pdf” title=”FR City Council v. Correia Memo”]
J Correia
October 10, 2019 at 3:06 pm
I think they should vote out Ponte for his attempted political power grab
Steven Camara
October 10, 2019 at 3:09 pm
Sometimes when standing alone, as I did on the 8-1 vote against the Fall River City Council’s motion to pursue court action to temporarily remove the Mayor from his position, critics pile on as they did since my vote against this ill-conceived action. Now, I hope the City Council ends this waste of taxpayer & rent payer dollars paying Corporation Counsel, City Council’s lawyers & Mayor’s lawyers for a legal challenge that was doomed from its beginning.
Gene Puhl
October 10, 2019 at 5:16 pm
Amen. The nobgobblers on the New Bedford city council are always wasting time and taxpayer money on idiotic nonsense that will never go anywhere. Thank you Steven for being a good role model for all the other knucklehead elected officials in the Commonwealth.
SocialCrustaceCrusader
October 10, 2019 at 8:31 pm
Declaration by Cliff Ponte appointing himself as CEO of Fall River, costing the taxpayers, in order to feed the ego of a crazybaldhead, sad state of affairs.
https://youtu.be/BR0fQ6wJb6A