Despite lacking a quorum, the Board of Elections and attorneys representing the recall organizers and embattled Mayor Jasiel Correia II discussed pending hearings on the mayor’s objection to the certification of more than 4,500 signatures registered voters in an effort to remove the mayor from office.
FALL RIVER — Despite lacking a quorum, the Board of Elections and attorneys representing the recall organizers and embattled Mayor Jasiel Correia II discussed pending hearings on the mayor’s objection to the certification of more than 4,500 signatures registered voters in an effort to remove the mayor from office.
Chairwoman Kelly Sousa-Young, before the informal meeting, recused herself from the proceedings.
Reading from a prepared statement, Corporation Counsel Joseph Macy indicated that Sousa-Young was stepping away from the objection hearings due to public perception of her appointment to the election board by Correia.
Another issue regarding a quorum, the election board, made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, has a vacancy for one of the Republican seats. That would become a major sticking point for the opposing attorneys later in the non-binding meeting.
The mayor, among a number of objections, has suggested fraud related to the signatures and the process.
Commissioner Daryl Gonyon started the discussion with expressing his desire to have the matter go directly to court.
“If that’s the opinion of both attorneys, I don’t think anybody wants to go through the exercise and getting frustrated, upset and emotional if it means nothing and nothing is binding. I’m sure everyone wants to save their energy and resources if the proper forum is court,” said Gonyon.
But neither attorney Paul Machado, representing the recall group, nor attorney William B. Golden expressed much interest in litigating, rather choosing to follow the procedure outlined in the charter.
By statute the Board of Elections is supposed to wrap up their hearings on Correia’s objection in 14 days.
The question on how to proceed with the quorum conundrum was a major issue for the attorneys with the procedure to select election commissioners, which is set by ordinance, calling on the the mayor to select a candidate and the council confirming the choice.
“I think it would be inappropriate, since the board is going to be making an evidentiary hearing decision against the mayor or for the mayor, he’s a party to that. I think it would be inappropriate for him to be appointing any new members,” said Machado.
He said “it certainly would have an appearance of conflict,” and suggested that the City Council be the sole body to appoint a new member.
Golden said the charter and statutes addressing recall is a “linear and sequential” set of laws.
“The mayor is committed to living with that process, the process by law,” Golden said. “But that process has to be followed, no steps can be skipped.”
A few of Golden’s issues included that the board as a whole had to certify the recall signatures and that the City Council moved ahead with notifying Correia he had five days to leave office or they would schedule a recall election.
Golden argued that by law, it should be Correia to appoint one or two new election commissioners to be approved by the City Council.
Commissioner David Dennis said he thought it was the commission’s responsibility to put forth their best effort to resolve the present issues about proceeding with the hearings.
Macy said Friday that while there may not have been any concrete solutions that came out of the non-binding meeting, it was worthwhile for the parties involved and the public.
“I think if anything productive came out of last night’s meeting it shows how complicated this is,” Macy said.
Nearing the end of the meeting, Macy, Machado and Golden agreed to meet and then report back to the election commission.
It’s unclear if the commission could vote on recommendations without a quorum, however.
Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com