Good evening and welcome to the city council meeting of Thursday, October 9th.

It is 7 p.m.

Opening session by myself, uh, Naomi Carney, City Council at large.

Um, before we go in and get our uh our pastor up here, I just want to let everybody know that our council president's grandmother passed away today, and that's why I'm sitting here for him.

So before we start, I'd like to have a moment of silence for Shane Burgo and his family and his grandmother, of course.

Thank you, Councillors.

So our leading prayer would be led by Pastor Leon Fisher in the name of Jesus Church.

Amen.

Good evening, everyone.

Dennis, thank you for the invitation.

Let us pray.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Sovereign God, we approach you with humble hearts to invite your presence into this meeting tonight.

I pray your hand of favor to be upon these council members as they process the agenda set before them.

Guide them and uphold them in all they need to do for the betterment of New Bedford and its citizens.

God, I pray for your continued grace and mercy upon New Bedford, upon our nation, and upon all nations.

Because we need you, Lord.

We need you.

Thank you for hearing our prayers.

This I pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

That was lovely.

And the pledge allegiance will be led by Council at Large, Linda Morat.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Council Moore, Council Moorad.

In the chambers, we are joined by our colleagues in government.

Council at Large, Ian A.

Council Ward 2, Maria Giesta, Councilward 1, Leo Choquette, Councilward 5, Joseph Lopes, Council at Lodge, Brian K.

Gomes, Council, Councilor at Large, and Second Vice President, Linda Morad, Councilward 3, Sean Oliver, Councilward 4, Derek Bagtis, and myself, Councillor at Large, Naomi Carney, and First Vice President.

Note this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City Council and Committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under quick links, then meetings.

Thank you.

Anything we have to read in the record.

Madam President, we do.

We have a letter from Council President Burgo.

Dear Vice President Carney and honorable members of the Council, I am writing this letter to inform you that I'll be unable to attend the City Council meeting on October 9th of 2025 at 7 p.m.

due to a personal matter.

Motion receive and place on file.

Motion made to receive and place on five by Council Oliver, second by Council Lopes.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Madam President, you take M1, M1A, M2, M2A, read them into the record, and refer them to ordinance in the planning board.

Without objection.

Madam President, I am one is a communication from Mayor Mitchell to the Council, submitting an ordinance amending chapter 9 of comprehensive zoning relative to parking requirements, appendix C, Table of Parking and Loading Requirements, and 1A is the ordinance.

So moved.

Motion made by Council Morad to refer them both to the ordinance committee and planning.

Second by Council Lopes.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Madam President, M3 is a communication from Mayor Mitchell to the Council.

Submitting an ordinance amending Chapter 22 of Street Sidewalks and Other Public Ways and Public Works.

M3A is the ordinance.

Motion receive and place on file, refer to the committee on ordinance.

Motion made to receive and place on file by Council Morreck and refer to the committee ordinance.

Seconded by Council Giesta.

Any but anyone on the question?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Madam President, item one is a report from the committee on ordinances recommending that attorney David Garetowski, legal counsel draft an ordinance amending chapter 9, zoning, appendix A, Table of Principal Use Regulations Reflecting Changes to the following categories.

Motor Vehicle Light Service Station, Wireless Communications Facilities, Batch Asphalt, and Concrete Plants, Biomass Recycling Facility, Contractor's Yard, Freight Terminal, Heavy Material Sales and Distribution, Material Salvage and Recycling Facility and Recycling Collection Facility.

1A is the ordinance draft.

Motion to receive and place on file and refer to the committee on ordinance and the planning board.

Motion made by Council Giesta to refer to the Committee on Ordnance and the Planning Board.

Second by Council Baptiste.

Anybody on the question?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Madam President, you waive the reading on item two and two A and take no further action.

Motion has been made to wave the reading on two and two A.

Take no further action made by Council Morrad.

Second by Council Oliver.

Anybody on the question?

Seeing none.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Madam President, item three is a written motion from Councillors Lopes and Pereira requesting on behalf of New Bedford residents that the city look into the possibility of placing two benches on the cove walk, one bench on the east side and one bench on the west side of the cove walk.

Motion to receive place on follow, followed recommendation.

It's under the Mitchell administration and the planning department.

Second motion.

Motion made by Council Lopes.

Second by Council G.

Hester.

Anybody on the question?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Madam President, without objection, take items four six and items and motion to refer to by this briefings.

Without objection.

Madam President, item four is communication from the city clerk to the city council submitting an application for a new private livery license on behalf of Jalen M.

Guzman Carrero doing business as DJ Transportation at 458 B.

Maxfield Street in New Bedford.

Item five is also a new private liberty license on behalf of Delfeo Amado doing business as Grace Transportation at 8 837 Shaman Avenue in New Bedford.

And item six is on behalf of Joao Empires doing business as Blue Line Transportation at 62 Upton Street in New Bedford.

All these licenses will expire on June 30th of next year.

Motion made to the first appointments and briefings by Council Abrew.

Second by Council Baptist.

Anybody on the question?

See it none.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Madam President, item seven is a communication from Councillors Morrad and Oliver.

Submitting a copy of an email from Lisa Dunaway, giving notice that she will not be seeking to be reappointed at the conclusion of her term on the Board of Election Commissioners.

Motion received motion receiving place on file.

Second.

Motion made by Council Oliver to receive and place on file and the communication.

Second by Council Morrad.

Anybody on the question?

Seeing none.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Number eight is before us.

Madam President, number eight is the communication from Councillors Morrad and Oliver.

Submitting a copy of the letter from Mayor Mitchell to the Board of Election Commissioners regarding the appointment of Patricia LaRue as the temporary Republican member to fill in the board's vacancy.

Second question action.

Motion to accept the communication from the May Mayor, excuse me, made by Council Oliver.

Second by Council Morrad.

Anybody on the question.

Seeing none.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Madam President, item nine is communication from Councillors Morrad and Oliver.

Submitting a copy of the letter from Mayor Mitchell to the Board of Election Commissioners regarding the appointment of Daniel Higgins as the temporary Republican member to fill the board's vacancy.

Motion and receive and place on file.

Motion be made to receive and place on file.

And follow the recommendations of the communication.

On the question.

Second.

Second by Council Morat on the question.

Thank you, Madam President.

I rise today as uh to to speak on this as well as the previous communications.

Um, but uh why this is before us is um mainly in an effort of transparency and to clear up some uh at least confusion with this council.

I don't know how my colleagues feel about it.

Um I guess it's better if we just kind of set up set to set a timeline um why these items are before us and why these communications exist.

Um it's basically in a scramble in the 11th hour to um try to rectify one of our city boards or commissions that we have.

Um and in that timeline, um it was uh brought to uh the this body's attention that back in February, uh February 12th of 2025, Miss Dunaway had sent her resignation letter in to the administration and her fellow colleagues on the board, um, and we never really heard anything about it.

Um and in that resignation later letter, it says that um she's just not going to be seeking her reappointment uh for the the board uh that her commission would expire in April.

Uh so in April 2025 comes around and the uh appointee uh no longer sits on the board uh as she indicated in her resignation letter.

And um, so let's count the months.

So that was April, May, June, July, August, September, and we hear nothing.

Uh there's nothing that comes before us for an appointee or an appointment or anything like that.

Um then the local Republican um city committee kind of gets wind of the fact that there's a opening or a vacancy on this board or an expired term, if you will.

Um so Republican committee man Bob McConnell sent reaches out to the administration by the uh election commissioner via email to request um some clarification on this.

And that was back in September of uh September 17th.

The administration through the solicitor's office returns uh that communication saying, Oh, yeah, um her term expired, Miss Dunaway's term expired, we're gonna be seeking an emergency appointment or an appointment to to um to the uh the committee.

If the Republican local Republicans, and they are some, there are some of them.

I don't know if many people believe that, but they are out there, um, were solicited to say, hey, if you have anybody that you think would be great for this position, you're more than welcome to send their names through so we could take a look.

Um in other cities in other towns, um, the local RTCs and the the Democrat uh city town committees will submit names for the appointment to these boards, where in the cities the the administration has a little bit has more discretion.

But um so that was on the 25th, uh and then on the October 3rd, we get communication that there's gonna be an emergency appointment.

And I was kind of beside myself, I'm sure uh a couple of my other colleagues were.

I know I spoke with Council President um uh regarding it because he had a meeting coming up with the mayor and spoke with my colleague from the far north end about it.

Um first time we're hearing about it, and we're talking about days away from a preliminary election that just happened.

Um I guess the administration gets wind uh that uh the the city council is sniffing around seeing what's going on and um for one reason or another, that appointee no longer wants to sit on the board or commission.

And we have another appointee that we just received and placed on file uh for the temporary position, and then that gentleman's gonna be um in front of us for a permanent.

Um I don't know if the mayor has gotten any, I don't believe the mayor has gotten any uh information from the RTC, but to me, this just seems like we're rushing um to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row when we had ample time to find somebody for this position.

Um in some of my conversations with my colleagues, it was told to me that you know um there just aren't anybody there's nobody that I can find for these boards or commissions, it's no Republicans willing to come forward.

Um, how does he know that if he hasn't waited if the administration hasn't waited for the RCC to present those names?

Basically, kind of like putting them on a clock for our election that's coming up in November.

Um meanwhile, the administration had months to rectify this.

Um this isn't an issue of the the administration versus the council or vice versa.

This is an issue of transparency and making sure that we as a body are holding the administration accountable.

You thought you had somebody to fill the position.

You hastily did so.

That didn't work out, and here we are with another name presented.

I'm sure both of those candidates are great candidates.

They'd probably come in front of this body and answer the questions and will most likely be appointed.

But the way that this is being handled in a time where voter turnout is down, uh the integrity of elections are uh weighs on everybody's mind.

I don't think it's a time that we should be playing or hastily um placing people in these positions that are supposed to be overseeing and making sure that we have fair and and equal and um you know true elections here in the city of New Bedford.

It just it just undermines the process.

Uh so I was a little taken back uh when I saw all this, and I believe some of my colleagues are as well, and I uh I thank you for the time.

I'm gonna sit down for now and maybe some of my other colleagues have some concerns as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Burton.

Thank you, Council Oliver.

Just so um the public knows.

Uh, Council Pereira from Ward Sakes has joined us.

Thank you, Council Pereira.

Anybody else on the question?

Council Morat.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um thank you, Councillor.

I appreciate you doing the chronological order.

But you, you know, you gave the administration two months.

I mean, Miss Dunaway told them the beginning of February that she was not going to seek reappointment.

And so they had the whole month of February, the whole month of March, and the whole month of April because her term expired at the end of April.

So you you gave them a little blessing here.

But in addition to what my colleague from Ward 3 uh told the body and the general public, um the emergency appointment of the candidate uh on October 3rd, who is subsequently withdrawn her name, is not authorized, is not legal in the way the administration performed that.

Um I have two problems with that.

Number one, um, you're making an appointment that you're not authorized to make.

And number two, uh and you you had no conversation with the council leadership.

Council President Burgo, he's not here today to to say, but he had no knowledge that this process was happening.

Why is that?

Why is there no communication with the council president?

Why they meet on a regular basis, there's a phone call, there's texts, they see each other at events.

What why aren't you speaking to the council president and informing the body that there's an issue and this is how you're going to rectify it?

There is no conversation.

The first conversation, the first um uh notice that Council President Burgo got was the same letter that all of us got um emailed to us.

And the way the emergency appointment is being made is not correct.

The mayor has no authority to make the emergency appointment of either the first candidate or the second candidate under the way he is attempting to do that.

What he should have done when he realized that he had messed up and he had all those months to go uh to rectify this, is he should have called council president and said, look, we got an issue.

I got a candidate, but unfortunately, I need to do a temporary appointment for 90 days, and I'm gonna send it down to you, and I would appreciate it if you and the council could put that person in place, you know, without doing a screening, without just so that we can get through this election, almost like what happened with the licensing board.

I got a problem.

We got to get these licenses done by the end of the year.

Here's a 90-day appointment, and I'll send you somebody in the interim.

But that's not what happened.

Once again, he tried it to supersede the council's authority to approve candidates.

This is police chief all over again, only as a different name.

There are checks and balances in the City of New Bedford.

You've got to use those.

You're not King Mitchell.

I said that the last time, I'm saying it again.

Hopefully it'll stick.

But these appointments, and I don't know if the second candidate participated in an official capacity on Tuesday night.

I know he was present.

I just don't know if he was in official capacity.

He has no right to be in the official capacity.

John Mitchell has no ability under the law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to make an appointment to the election commission under an emergency statute.

It doesn't exist.

So I don't know what he's planning on doing between now and November 4th, because I I just don't know how we're going to get somebody in place for November 4th.

We we certainly don't have the paperwork.

The last conversation I had, I don't know about Council Oliver with uh Council President Burgo.

He offered to do an emergency council meeting so we could move this forward.

But I I don't know that any of that has gone any further.

And there's 27 days between now and the election.

So I appreciate the chronological order that the councilor from Ward 3 gave you.

But once again, John Mitchell's violated the law.

And I don't know, maybe we're gonna get another declaratory judgment in court because John's just the mayor is attempting to do what he cannot do, and he's taking the power of the council.

And I'm glad we stood up as a body for the last issue with the chief.

I certainly hope that we'll do the same with this issue.

Um there are checks and balances, there's a process, and I don't know what you're doing in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September.

Eight months.

What are you doing up there?

Thank you.

Thanks you, Council Morrad.

Anyone else on the question?

Seeing none.

So, Madam President.

Okay.

I know that on item eight, and I know my colleague asked to receive and place on file, and I appreciate that we did that, but we probably should take no further action on that item.

The candidate has no interest in um in moving forward with regard to that.

So I don't know if we could take no further action on the item.

I was gonna make a motion or reconsider item a motion be made to reconsider on item eight.

To take no further action.

Made by Council Oliver, second by Council Oops.

Would you like a roll call vote on no further action?

No.

All in favor?

No.

The reconsideration is to receive and place on file.

Okay.

All right.

So we're going to take the motion to receive and place on file the reconsideration.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Now we have the motion to take no further action on item number eight, made by counselor Oliver.

Second by Council Lopes.

And this motion is to take no further action on number eight.

All in favor of taking no further action say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

No further.

Madam President, on item nine, I believe it was to receive and place on file.

Um I would recommend that we place the item on the table until such time as we get a formal appointment.

Okay, so that's another reconsideration.

Okay.

So we need to take a motion to reconsider.

Motion reconciled item number nine.

A motion is made to reconsider on item number nine made by Council Oliver.

Second by Councillor Giesta.

All in favor say aye to reconsider.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Motion adjectives.

Motion has been made to table number item number nine, made by Council Morat, second by Council Oliver.

All in favor of tabling number nine say aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Okay.

Madam President, item 10 is a communication from the Department of Environmental Protection Waterways Regulation Program.

Submitting a notice of a waterway license application from the Bible Port Authority in Beverford Harbor 352, Herman Melville Boulevard of New Bedford Mass to authorize a change in use of filled highlands and a marine bulkhead for waterway dependent industrial and supporting uses at said address and the New Bedford Harbor.

Motion receive and place on file.

Motion made to receive and place on file by Council Morrad.

Second by Council Pereira.

All in favor to receive and place on file say aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Motion of option.

Before that, would you like to leave?

Um table thatems remain on the table.

Motion take up consent made by Council Pereira.

Second by Council Giesta.

All in favor to take up consent, say aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Motion to adjourn.

Seeing no further business, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn, made by Council Giesta.

Second by Councillor.

Oliver.

All in favor say aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

We are adjourned at 724.

Thank you all for coming.