Fall River City Council to continue budget process, legal counsel states Mayor Coogan in the wrong

The Fall River City Council released a statement today, one day after Mayor Paul Coogan released his own statement stating that his budget that was rejected by the City Council was getting adopted.

On Sunday, the Mayor’s Office issued a release stating that the vote of the City Council last week to reject the entire budget was ineffective in stopping the FY 2022 budget from being enacted.

In a release issued late Monday afternoon, City Council President Cliff Ponte Jr. and Vice President Pam Laliberte disagreed with Coogan’s reasoning as to why the budget is adopted.

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Their legal counsel also seems to side against Coogan’s assertion that the City Council ran out of time.

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It appears that the City Council will continue to have budget discussions this week and according to the advice of counsel, will be asking Mayor Coogan to present a month to month budget for the next two months until the issue is resolved.

It appears that the Fall River budget battle is not over.