FALL RIVER — Trailing his first public meeting after his arrest on federal bribery and extortion charges, Mayor Jasiel Correia II said he was handling city affairs one day before the City Council was due to vote on whether to temporarily oust him from office.
Asked for comment on the council's potential action, Correia told The Herald News, “I’m conducting the city’s business."
Correia's response followed the public portion of a School Committee meeting Monday, before an executive session to discuss personnel contracts and a pair of lawsuits pending against the school department and committee.
Minutes before the meeting began at 5:30 p.m., a letter from Correia, chair of the School Committee, to City Council President Cliff Ponte was posted on the mayor's social media page in which Correia proposed changing how the city does business to let the council to “participate in reviewing official mayoral actions.”
Correia offered to give the City Council president or vice president the option to “co-sign” official documents “as an additional level of comfort for the council.”
The mayor's letter came in response to one Ponte sent Correia earlier in the day calling on him to “temporarily step aside” and announcing a City Council vote Tuesday to determine whether Correia is able to perform his duties as mayor.
It would take seven out of nine votes to take any action to temporarily remove Correia from office and pave the way for an acting mayor to assume position until the charges against Correia are “withdrawn,” according to Ponte’s initial letter.
Ponte responded to Correia’s “co-sign” proposal in a second letter to the mayor, in which he wrote “there is absolutely no reason to re-configure the way we run City government because you are facing 24 federal indictments.”
The council president questioned whether Correia, by asking the councilors to co-sign, “indirectly” admitted he cannot act in an official capacity alone.
“If you are telling the council that we need to co-sign every mayoral action, are you in fact indirectly admitting that you cannot perform the position?” wrote Ponte.
Ponte again implored Correia to “take the time to step away and address your issues.”
“Your ability to perform the job has been compromised since the additional 11-count indictment that allege extortion, conspiracy, aiding, abetting and bribery. These charges have caused irreparable damage to your ability to execute your duties,” Ponte wrote.
Less than one year after he was arrested on 13 wire and tax fraud charges related to his failed smartphone app company, Correia was arraigned Friday on 11 more charges for allegedly conspiring to extort six-figure bribes from four marijuana companies. He pleaded not guilty and is free on bail before trial. Conditions of the mayor's release were also altered from a ban on travel outside of the continental United States to a ban on travel outside Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The vote to force Correia out of office was set to take place at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.
During the School Committee meeting, Correia questioned a representative of a solar company over a proposal to install solar panels on the roof of the field house at B.M.C. Durfee High School.
The proposal would see the company Solect Energy pay to install and maintain panels that would generate energy the city could buy back at a cheaper rate than offered by National Grid, said company representative Matt Shortsleeve.
Correia, who in 2018 registered a solar farm limited liability company with the secretary of state, recommended the city explore the possibility of instead spending about $650,000, possibly through a municipal bond, to purchase a roof solar system and “own the system outright.”
The committee voted in favor of revisiting the issue with an analysis weighing the benefits and drawbacks of the two options.
Email Amanda Burke at aburke@heraldnews.com.