Recall Effort Against Mayor Coogan Moves Forward Despite Legal Challenge

The group driving an effort to recall Mayor Paul Coogan indicated in a Facebook post that they intended to move forward despite a legal opinion by the City’s top lawyer that it was invalid hours after an affidavit was submitted to the City Clerk’s office Monday morning.

“Let’s be clear about what this is. It is an attempt to use process and power to silence the will of the people. But they have badly miscalculated. This effort will not slow us down and it will energize us,” wrote the unnamed author from the Committee to Recall Mayor Paul Coogan.

Committee organizers Nelson Vasquez and School Committee member Collin Diaz held a press conference on Monday announcing they had delivered the affidavit, a sworn statement of facts, with 14 signatures of city registered voters. The city charter requires 10 signatures to start a recall of an elected official.

It’s not the first time Dias has attempted to oust Coogan. In May 2022, Dias set up the Alliance to Recall Mayor Paul E. Coogan Political Action Committee, a campaign that never transpired.

Corporation Counsel Alan Rumsey may have done the group a favor with his opinion that the document the recallers submitted failed to contain language indicating the signers did so “under penalty of perjury,” a legal standard pertaining to affidavits.

A 1975 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court supported the clerk in the town of Winchester’s decision to reject a recall affidavit in part because it did not contain “penalty of perjury” verbiage.

Recallers list of grievances

The recall organizers outlined a litany of grounds to recall Coogan, who began his fourth term in January. Coogan has declared that he will not seek re-election in 2027.

Among their complaints:

• Coogan’s “inadequate planning, coordination, and execution of the City’s response under the administration” during February’s historic snowstorm.
• As School Committee chairman, Coogan filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requesting an inquiry into the School Committee in the handling of the contract with the Superintendent Tracy Curley.
• Coogan’s handling of the extension of soon to retire Police Chief Kelly Furtado without City Council approval.
• And less specific allegations that Coogan lacks leadership and his failure to prioritize public safety and affordable housing.

Once the recall committee submits a valid affidavit, the clock begins and they will have 20 days to collect over 3,100 signatures from registered voters that would prompt a recall.

UPDATE: Nelson Vasquez, chairperson of the Committee to Recall Mayor Paul Coogan, has stepped down from that role.