Former Fall River Police Chief Paul Gauvin visits the elections office

You never know who you will run into at the Fall River Elections office.

While on the regular reporter rounds at One Government Center on Thursday afternoon, I got a tip that former police chief Paul Gauvin was visiting the sixth-floor office where all things having to do with elections happens.

When I got there, Gauvin was meeting with Elections head Ryan Lyons. So I took a seat and waited.

A few minutes later, Gauvin walked out carrying a few sheets of paper.

Turns out, those papers were the election schedule and not the blue folder would-be candidates are given when they start the process to run for office.

Gauvin was a little coy when asked if he was running for an elected position in the city, responding that he was just looking for “information.”

The Gauvin sighting came less than a week after City Councilor Shawn Cadime took to Facebook suggesting the former chief run for mayor, with the hashtags #𝐆𝐚𝐮𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐨𝐫  #𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩. His posting last Saturday was in response to comments made by current Chief Kelly Furtado on a local radio talk show that included something about the “bad guys.”

Furtado took over as the FRPD’s chief after Mayor Paul Coogan canned Gauvin late last year. Gauvin is fighting the firing with the Civil Service board.

So if Gauvin chooses to run for office, it may turn out to be an interesting election season, rather than the snore-fest it’s looking like now.