What can contract chief opponents do now? It may be time for a referendum.
Today’s city council vote in favor of a contract fire chief does not have to be and should not be the end of the line for this issue.
Pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 43 section 42, now that the city council has approved the contract fire chief switch, the citizens of Fall River can overturn the decision through implementing a referendum.
We, the voters, have twenty days to get a referendum petition signed by at least 12% of the registered voters of the city and submitted to the city council. The petition would then be filed with the city clerk and it would immediately suspend the measure from taking effect. According to Massachusetts law, the city council must immediately reconsider the measure. If the city council does not rescind the measure within twenty days after the date of the certificate of the registrars, the city clerk shall submit the petition, to a vote of the registered voters of the city in a special election.
Given the firefighters ability to get 4,000 signatures on their internet petition in a few short days, I have no doubt these persuasive firefighters would be able to get the support of 12% of the city’s registered voters to initiate the referendum. The city has approximately 45-50,000 registered voters, 12% of 50,000 is 6,000 signatures. I will happily offer my signature, so only 5,999 more to go!
13 comments:
Thanks for the advice. I'm a 20 year veteran of the fire department. I was present at the city council meeting Tuesday night and I was at the snake charmers display Friday afternoon. I believe that councilors Casey, Kozak, Lund, Periera, Viverios, and Joe Camara, have done an injustice to the citizens of Fall River. They should be ashamed of their behavior. The circus like atmosphere of a Joe Camara led council meeting is nothing less than sad. I will, at re-election time, remind the voters of their sorry attempt to silence the democratic process. Four thousand plus signatures need to remember what happened in our city today. To not give their support or respect to people who put their lives on the line day after day. To not let their meeting allow anyone including the defiant councilors to speak is preposterous. All we wanted was the time to return this topic to committee for a fair discussion. Something Joe and Pat would know nothing about since neither of them can seem to conjure an original thought.
I would like to suggest to all registered voters that it is clearly time for all of these councilors to watch from the sidelines how true statesmen carry themselves.
Thank You to all of you who supported us.
Let's do it! We need a rally, pick a date and spot to get it going.
Make sure you ask those signing the petition if they are fall river residents andregistered voters. If you get
6000 votes they will have to be verified and some could be thrown out. Just be careful.
Good luck!!
what was the site for the internet petition ? That needs to be publicized as well
Big Things.........
My prediction is that there will be some exciting news in the next few days so stay tuned....exciting for me, the firefighters, and democracy - although not so exciting for Bob Correia, Cathy Ann V., Lund, Pat Casey, Tom Kozak, Joe Camara, and Linda Pereira.
C'mon Shamrock give us a hint!!!
Has a petition been created and, if so, could someone let me know where it is so i can sign it (either online or in person)?
word on th street is the mayor's daughter just got a nice new job in the court system.
Big news? Is 60 Minutes or 20/20 coming to cover the firefighters thing?
or dateline!!!
Every day this mayor does something that makes me glad I didn't vote for him....
I signed the petition to keep this position in Civil Service.(and I will sign another and another to keep this position Civil Service).. I don't want this position to be a puppet being controlled by the puppet master.
The Fall River firefighters are civil service and the Fall River Paramedics and EMTs are civil service so why not the Fall River Fire Chief???? Isn't Chief Ford civil service also????
Something sounds fishy to me...
Why couldn't this meeting be postponed until ALL members of the Council were present???
The meeting could have been postponed,normally the city councilors will reschedule a
normal meeting if a colleague
has a conflict like that as
a courtesy !!!!!!!!!!
Mayor's daughter already has a great job in the courts. According to the Boston Herald she gets around $85k. Did she get a better one?
Daughter-in-law has a job in the courts too for about the same salary.
Don't have a problem if qualified and didn't get the jobs over someone more qualified.
Post a Comment