No record exists of former Councilor Laura Sampson getting approval to vote on Fall River Police Chief Furtado’s contract

Over two weeks ago, Laura Sampson resigned from the Fall River City Council, publicly blaming my article recommending she recuse herself from voting on interim Chief Furtado’s police chief contract. She claimed simply mentioning that a police officer may be under her care (without mentioning a name) endangered her patients. She didn’t deny it and now the FRPD has confirmed that an officer has been under her care. Laura then went on to talk about firefighters, taxpayers and homeless under her care and then days later went on WBSM to repeat claims. If I mention police officers might be getting care (FRPD has since verified she has treated an officer), it’s bad. If she mentions firefighters get care, that’s good. Got it? It’s dangerous when I say a career field may be under her care, it’s a public service when she does it.

Sampson also claimed during her resignation speech that patients were calling her office then in an interview after, she goes on to say she was preemptively dealing with the issue. She kind of says people were calling, but she doesn’t seem confident. Watch the video a few times.

In her resignation speech on the floor, she claimed “with a simple records request from a real journalist to find out if I as a city councilor am receiving funding from a city to funnel people into my counseling practice.” Except I never made that claim.

Not once did I claim she was “receiving funding from a city to funnel people into her counseling practice.” She made it up. Read my article here. I stated that because her brother is the head of the biggest police union in Fall River and that she is voting on her brother’s boss, and that I’ve heard she may be treating one Fall River police officer, she should recuse herself. Since then, the Fall River Police Department admitted that one of their officers has been treated by Laura. I’ve also learned Laura Sampson is also friends with Interim Chief Furtado and has helped Furtado’s son with addiction (he posted a thank you to her on Facebook). The conflict of interest doesn’t end with Laura’s brother being the head of the union, it also involves Laura being friends with the Chief (Chief Kelly Furtado says they are just casual acquaintances).

One of the biggest issues leading up to my article with Laura Sampson is she was not reachable because on the official Fall River City Council website she had the wrong phone number listed.

Laura called me the day my article suggesting she recuse herself came out. She was angry and asked why I didn’t call her. When I explained that I called and texted the number listed on the official City Council website, she told me, “that’s not a good number for me.” I wonder how many months or years of her years as councilor that number was wrong, sending constituents down a dead end? Is it really that hard to have an accurate contact info on your official contact page?

A few days after Sampson resigned, I went to Fall River’s Corporation Council to see how easy it would be getting information on Sampson’s legal counsel. Corporation council are taxpayer funded lawyers available the mayor, city council, municipal workers and others use for legal advice. What I learned is legal advice is often (if not mostly) done through the phone with the mayor and city council. I talked to both corporation council lawyers, and they have stated that what they discuss or send to city councilors remains private and I’m not allowed access to it. If the city councilor decides to release the legal advice they can. But the lawyers would not tell me if Sampson visited or called their office to get legal counsel on a vote. Mayor Coogan told me “she called over” and for me to put in a public records request with the City Clerk. I put in a public records request asking:

I’m requesting any ruling that Corporation Council has made regarding conflict of interest ruling for City Councilor Laura Sampson regarding any Fall River Police Chief votes or anything related to the police department.

What did I get back? No records exists.

So, if Sampson got advice from corporation council about her voting on Chief Furtado’s contract, or any advice regarding voting on police issues, there is no physical record of it. If you ask corporation counsel, they will tell you that they can’t even verify if she’s made any requests or even called. Only Sampson can let us know.

Sampson could have easily written an email request, got a response and shared it with the public. One has to ask, why didn’t she do that? By not having recorded legal advice means you just have to trust her, but real journalists would prefer documentation.

City Councilors and other politicians in conflict-of-interest votes are often advised to recuse themselves or get a formal advisory opinion from the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. So, I reached out to the State Ethics Commission over the phone and via email. I was told the same thing – I can’t find out if Laura asked for advice and even if she did, I can’t find out what that advise was.

Not only did I have a reliable source confirming Laura has treated an FRPD officer, I have the FRPD confirming it with me. Her brother is the head of the union that voted no confidence in the last chief and pushed Kelly Furtado to become the new chief. Sampson is friends with Chief Furtado. I stand by my original statement that Sampson should have recused herself based on multiple conflict of interests.

As you can see above, there is a severe lack of transparency or records of Laura Sampson’s legal counsel with Fall River’s corporation council or the Massachusetts State Ethics Committee. Instead of a transparent paper trail of legal advice, we have no documentation showing Fall River or Boston lawyers giving Sampson the go ahead to vote, even though these lawyers cost nothing and generally have a fast turnaround. Fall River has had two recalled mayors and five Police Chief’s in the last decade. Maybe it’s time to get rid of the legal advice on the phone and be more transparent.