Tuesday, Mar 10 – Hour 3

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the final hour of the program for today. God willing, I'll be back tomorrow, but we're going to do it for an hour right now. And after me comes Barry Richard, and that's always great. And then of course, the great Howie Carr. So we talked about state issues, federal issues. Now let's get to the local issues, right? We got town elections coming up. You just had an election in the city of New Bedford. Put in a lot of, well, I mean, it's a relative change to the city council, right? Got a new at-large councilor, and you've got in the person of James Roy, and you've got a new Ward 2 city councilor, and you've lost Maria Giesta, and you lost Linda Mora. Now, both of them had their pluses, both of them had their minuses. And now you don't have them anymore. So there's an opportunity, as you're seeing, for an example, with the advanced manufacturing campus out on Hathaway Road, that's advanced forward. That was being held back by the person who was the chairperson of city properties, Maria Giesta, asleep at the switch, right? She's gone now. And Sean Oliver has taken over that committee as appointed by City Council President Ryan Perera to advance the city forward, try to create a larger tax base. I don't know why Giesta was holding it back, but except that she didn't know what the hell was going on and didn't wanna give the mayor a victory, I guess. I really don't understand it. It doesn't matter. But now, with a new city council, you can advance certain things, like trying to expand the tax base responsibly with the advanced manufacturing, right? That piece of land, it's still gonna be a golf course, but now it'll also contribute in the future to the tax base, sharing the burden. So it's amazing what can happen. The other thing the mayor put forward, put a lot of things forward over the years, is a recall on his own office. So you can kick an elected official out of office in between elections. That's a very important safeguard for democracy, for the taxpayers, from scoundrels who get elected to office wearing a mask only to later be revealed for their true character. Criminals, today you are unguarded. Today you have no defense from a criminal politician in the city of New Bedford. You have no defense because you have no way of recalling them. Now, the mayor has put this forward year after year. Now that you've got a new city council, relatively new city council, you get an opportunity to see who, quite frankly, the potential criminals are, all right? The potential criminals, cuz they're the only ones that are afraid of this. They are the only ones that are afraid of this, the recall that the mayor put forward. And the other thing is, it's a great opportunity for members of the city council to work with the mayor's office. Because whatever gets passed, if anything, by the city council for recall of all elected officials, so it'll cover the mayor, the city council, the assessors, the school committee, and it has to cover all of them. It has to cover all of them. Linda Morehead, on her way out the door, tried to make a cute thing where they would exempt the city council. It's just ridiculous. Whatever they pass has to be amenable to the mayor. He has to sign it or else it doesn't happen. Your protections are an illusion. So what you're gonna have to judge, you're gonna have a year to do it cuz the next election's a year in the city of New Bedford. See where these politicians stand, who outs themselves as a potential criminal. Remember, nobody knew that city councilor Tanya Fernandez up in Boston was a criminal until the FBI swooped in and arrested her. Everybody thought she was going along, collecting her city council pay, representing her constituents, and doing the job. You didn't always agree with her, but you had no idea that in the background, she was scheming with a relative for a kickback scheme on salaries with a city employee, a kickback scheme. Nobody had any idea about that. And then the FBI swooped into City Hall and took her away. Actually, they came to her house. They'd already gone to City Hall. And it became a major case, but she collected her paycheck all the way through, all the way through. You are similarly unprotected, similarly unprotected. So it's time to see who on that city council has got the character to step forward and say, I'm for the recall petition as the mayor wrote it. Now look, the mayor didn't write it. He had a team of people around him, his staff, his lawyers. I know cuz we discussed it at length. For a year, it sat in committee, maybe longer. Burgo wouldn't let it see the light of day, neither would his chairman. They tied it all up. He's still there, and he's only learned more. We'll see what happens. But we'll see what city council is going to bring forward the mayor's recall petition as he and his lawyers wrote it. They went out and sampled all the other charters, all the other recalls all over the state. They may have gone further to see what was the most reasonable approach to protect both the elected officials. Cuz remember, this is overturning an election. So they went out to see what's a reasonable standard, a hurdle to get over, so you just don't have malcontents out there trying to throw elected officials out of office who they maybe don't like over one particular vote, that type of stuff. So the hurdles are significant, I believe, in the mayor's proposal. I think it's a very reasonable protection for you, the taxpayers of the city of New Bedford. And it's outrageous, quite frankly, that it has been bottled up in the city council. So someone's gotta bring it forward. Maybe they put together a coalition and bring it forward. But you can't do anything cute or underhanded like Linda Martin and some of her cronies wanted to do, which is to exempt the city council. That's unreasonable. It also shows you who thinks they've done something that they don't want the taxpayers to find out about, like Fernandez up there in Boston, right? They don't wanna put a recall in. Anyway, 508-996, what say you, to quote a caller to the program? Good morning, thanks for holding. Hey, how's it going, Chris? We gotta keep you alive at all costs, I tell you, because these things need to be brought up more often, and I appreciate it when you do it. And it's like, true leaders shouldn't be afraid to do the right thing, you know what I mean? And I think now that Linda Morad and Fiesta Giesta, Party on a Taxpayer's Time, is gone, I don't think that there's gonna be a force that's gonna be manipulating all the other councilors to, for whatever reason, deals were made behind the scenes. And I think Linda Morad and Maria Giesta were worried that certain individuals were gonna target them because of the things they've done in the past, or things that we don't know about. Right, I think that's the thing. What don't we know about that certain councilors obviously know about their own behavior? That's, I think, the underlying force here, Carlos. And I don't really care for Ryan, but I was surprised that he, because he boasted that he was gonna make sure that everything was gonna be heard and put through and no dilly dallying and all that stuff. And then one of the major things to come through, got tanked and hidden and put to the side or whatever you wanna call it, they know how to kill it. They kill it without killing it. They're experts at that. I've seen it a million times following the city council. It's an old trick that they do. And now he's not in that committee, he's moved on. And now it's up to someone else. But why he did what he did or why he was encouraged to do it, I don't know. I've been trying to figure that one out. I have some thoughts in my head, but I'm not gonna talk about that right now. But anyway, yeah, I appreciate that you bring this up because it's important. And I do believe that we have some talented people that are gonna be running this next election. So the council really need to be on their toes. I really do, I believe in that. Because they saw, look at Emberton, a nobody, barely known, quiet guy, went door to door. But besides that- That's all he had to do. Right, in most cases, he should have lost. Yes. And Maria was dumbfounded. And some of her people were dumbfounded and could not believe that she lost. Well, they were asleep. They thought they were gonna win the whole time. And he pulled it off. And I think other people can do the same thing. Because the council really haven't been doing much. And they've been playing games. And I think people are sick and tired of that. And they're getting less for their tax dollars. And the salaries and all that, everything's just increasing, increasing, increasing. And we're getting less and less and less for it. So I think it's a due time for change. Unless the council wanna step it up, I mean, that'd be nice. Right, right. Thanks for the call, my friend. Listen, you got two years as a city councilor, and a lot can get done in two years, or a lot can get proposed, and a lot can get stymied. It all depends on your agenda. With the recall, again, the mayor put it forward. It is a defense for the taxpayers. The way I've seen it written by the mayor, it's all out there. The hurdles are significant. In other words, some of these people imagine that their neighbor who doesn't like them, or for whatever reason, we all have neighbors that don't like us. Or from time to time, we know about neighbors don't liking other neighbors, right? The idea that that is a reason not to have a recall is ridiculous, because the hurdles the mayor put in there require a groundswell of public disapproval for the individual in their actions, to the point that it's protected. In other words, city councilors get elected, school committee members get elected, the mayor gets elected by the voters. And then to turn the election over, which is what a recall does, you have to have significant hurdles. The mayor and his legal team went out and surveyed all the other communities in the Commonwealth that have these taxpayer protections. And they found the best practices, the best hurdles that have to be overcome to get an election overturned, just merely to get it on the ballot, understand that. Just because you have a recall doesn't mean the person gets kicked out of office. The voters have another opportunity to take a look at it, weigh it out, all of that. Today you don't. If someone got grabbed at their home at 5 o'clock in the morning, which is customarily what the FBI does, even though they've been trailing you for two weeks before they grab you, they like to wake you up at home and perp walk you out the door. If one of the city councilors has that happen to him, today you continue to pay their health insurance if they're getting it, their salary, since we got rid of the bonus thing that was illegal or improper. They don't have that extra bonus anymore, we got rid of that. If they got grabbed at 5 o'clock in the morning by the FBI, you'd continue paying for them all through their trial, because none of them would resign. All through, just like the taxpayers of Boston had to pay for Fernandez, help me out here. City Councilor Fernandez up there in Boston, who got indicted and pled guilty for a scheme involving city employees, kickback schemes. It played out in the media. She pled guilty, but the city taxpayers kept paying her the whole time. You're as vulnerable right now. And any city councilor that is opposing the mayor's taxpayer protection, really, against their own potential actions, is outing themselves as a potential criminal. Because why would you not want to use that as a feather in your cap when you run for re-election? That I had the confidence in my own character that I allow you to overturn an election if you disagree with some activity I took, particularly if I'm arrested, because I know that's not going to happen. So those who are worried about that, you got to worry about them. You got to worry about them. So anyway, we'll have the mayor here tomorrow. We'll talk more about this with the mayor. But would you like, particularly if you're a taxpayer, property owner in the city of New Bedford, this provision added to the ordinances of the city? It's currently bottled up in the City Council. What you ought to do, reach out to your city councils. If you're in Ward 1, that's Leo Choquet. If you're in Ward 2, that's Scott Pemberton. If you're in Ward 3, we all know that's Sean Oliver. Ward 4, that's Derek Baptiste. Ward 5 is Joe Lopes. Ward 6, Ryan Pereira, the city council president. All of them are affable gentlemen. They'll be happy to take your calls, take your emails, and register your opinion. I would reach out to them. Remember, you can't hold it against them if you didn't give them your opinion. And of course, if you live anywhere in the city of New Bedford, you've got multiple at-large councils to pick from. Shane Burgo, James Roy, Naomi Carney, Ian Abreu, right? You've got multiple city councils to pick from. And tell them how you feel about it, right? Register your opinion with them. And hopefully you can get a Taxpayer Protection Act. You know, the other thing, speaking of elections, now that it's an off year in the city of New Bedford, what about that ballot? The idea that it's incumbents at large first by alphabet, that is a bizarre way to do a ballot. It rigs it. In other words, no wonder you reelect incumbents at large consistently in the city of New Bedford, despite what they do and don't do. It's because the ballot is weighted in their favor. Absolutely, the ballot is weighted in their favor by putting the incumbents first before everybody else. The odd way that a lot of people in the city of New Bedford vote is they vote one through five. It's weird. It is weird. I think it's a hangover from another era. But the fact that the incumbents have such an advantage on the ballot, now there's a lot of ways to do it. But I would think that what currently is, is incumbents first by alphabetical order. So when Dave Ows is on the city council, he would get the first ballot placement. Now it's Ian Abram, then Shane Berger, all the way down, right? Alphabetical by incumbents. What about a lottery system? I think that's how it's done other places. Just a random lottery position. All the qualified candidates, incumbents that are running again, who've got the signatures, all the challenges who've got the signatures, they all get thrown into a hat, the names, write the names on ping pong balls, whatever. And they're randomly chosen. And that's the order of the ballot. So in that case, Shane Berger could end up being on the top of the ballot or James Roy could be the top of the ballot, right? Everybody's random. And then you, the voters, would have to go and look for their name on the ballot and select them, right? I mean, that to me is a more democratic way of doing it. And you just might get some legitimate change in the city. Currently, people who wanna run at large, to be an at-large city councilor, they have to campaign citywide. But it's very hard to break into the top five after the preliminary election, or during the preliminary election, because the incumbents are all listed ahead of you. So I think that's a real, and I wonder what city councilor can organize the other councilors into doing this. And look, I think particularly a guy like Ian Abreu, who regardless of ballot placement, always comes in top. And I don't think it's solely on ballot placement. He does a lot of constituent service work. But I would think a guy like Ian Abreu would see the logic in what I'm saying. And I don't think it would cost him much. And it actually show how politically courageous he is by saying, look, I don't need to be the number one guy. And if I am the number one guy, I'll still win the race if I'm on the bottom of the ballot, cuz people look for my name. I think he and other like-minded councilors could lead this sort of democratic reform. That's what we're looking for, right? People who have the courage to put forth democratic reforms, like a recall, petition to protect the taxpayers, and ballot reform, to give everybody an equal shot, regardless of whether they've been there before, to get on the ballot. I mean, that is democracy. Take a break, and then we'll be right back. South Coast Now with Chris McCarthy, weekdays on 1420 AM and 99.5 FM, WBS. Welcome back to the program. The New York State Freeway is closed, man, can you dig it? Little Arlo Guthrie for you. So the point on the recall petition is the mayor put it forward. And this is an opportunity for some member of the city council or a couple of members to get together with the mayor and his staff and figure it out and get it on the books. This year, get it on the books this year. They've all got fresh terms, being reelected, and do it straight. Do it straight. I mean, you can do it any way you want. We're going to expose it either way. Applaud you or castigate you for how you play it. In other words, Belinda Morad wanted to do, and look, again, she was the most experienced person and one of the smartest people on that city council. So it didn't surprise me that she ran the place, quite frankly. But what she wanted to do by taking out anybody who had a two-year term was just exercise the city council from the recall petition. That's not reasonable. And by the way, the way the mayor has the thing set up, I don't think you could reasonably recall a city councilor because the timelines are so tight to get the signatures and to get it on the, all that. I don't think that you really could reasonably recall a city councilor unless they had been really in big trouble, like indicted the way we saw in Boston and other places. Fall River had their mayor indicted. But the real reason you need it, because when the city council is a two-year term, but the mayor is a four-year term, when that change was put into place by supporters of the current mayor, the leader of it's gone to Europe now, so he's not even around. When they put that in as a ballot referendum, there was significant conversation about it. But everybody's happy with John. Most people are happy with John Mitchell. Even if you don't agree with him on every issue, you realize he's a secure hand on the tiller. That guy's not always gonna be there. And I think he's communicated that by trying to put a recall petition forward. In other words, I'm not always gonna be here. I'm not always gonna be the coach of the team, not always gonna be the leader. And you gotta prepare for that. I don't think it's gonna be anytime soon. But the fact of the matter is, the mayor is selflessly communicating to you that you need something in here, in the ordinances, to protect yourself against some renegade criminal mayor who gets a four-year term now. When the city of New Bedford was set up, the mayor was one-year term, then a two-year term. And for the longest time, it was simply a two-year term. Now it's four years with incredible powers. The mayor of New Bedford is one of the strongest elected officials by law. It's incredible how much power the mayor has. So if you are gonna allow your other elected officials, who God knows what they're doing. I really do not know what is happening, what makes them so upset about a recall petition. But they know. Be sure to know they know what they're afraid you're gonna find out and kick them out of office. Understand, that's the motivation to stop a recall, is that they know what activities they're up to. That when you find out what they are, you'll kick them out of office. And today you can't do that. That's why the mayor has had such resistance to it. 508-996-0500. The other thing you gotta do to protect yourself is get that cracked windshield fixed. It's very easy to do. Just make an appointment with Citywide Glass. They're a phone call away. They're located in Dartmouth and Fall River. Citywide Glass, you can go online, citywideglass.net. They will send a mobile tech team right to your home or your work parking lot. They'll fix that windshield. Then they'll send the bill right to your insurance company. So it won't cost you a penny out of your pocket. Call Citywide Glass in Dartmouth and Fall River or go online to citywideglass.net today. Make an appointment to get that cracked windshield fixed. Don't fix any other glass on the vehicle as well. So tell them all about it. Citywide Glass. All right, let's go back to the phones. Good morning. Good morning, Chris. Billy Saffield. Good morning. You're talking about the recall stuff and everything. Do you realize that at one time Linda Moret had made a motion that when they were talking about the recall and how to handle it, that what the mayor wanted, the president of the city council will take over a position as president, me at the time. Do you remember when that was going on? I don't have the specific details, but you're saying Linda wanted to make the city council president, the mayor, if the mayor was to leave. Well, what happened was she made a motion. Let's say we'll take Leo, for instance, he was president and the mayor resigned. So the president at the city council is gonna be the one that takes over as president, as mayor, right? She wanted, she made a motion to, in case the person that's president of the city council at the time and it wasn't qualified to be mayor, that they have an election between the city council for the takeover. That was her motion. That's on record. In other words, she was gonna control, she didn't want the person that was president at the time to take over as mayor. So she'll have her colleagues that she had all lined up to vote for her to be president of the city council. Do you understand what I'm saying? I do, I do, I do. This was on record. And you know, I followed the rules. Can you imagine? So that's the thing that why now all of a sudden nobody wants to bring anything forward. Well, she, and thanks to Carl Gillian, the contribution of the program. She's not there anymore. She's out of there. Hopefully she's enjoying it, her life, with all the free time, which I'm sure she's amazed at how much free time she gets. Whenever I talk to people who've gotten out of elected office, it was my experience too, that you can't even imagine how much free time you have because how much time you were dedicating to your municipality. If you're doing it right, and I'm sure she was, I know she was contributing a lot of time to the city of New Bedford. I do know that about Linda Moore. So here's the thing, on the table is the conversation about the recall. It's imperative that the taxpayers and the business owners of the city of New Bedford have a mechanism by which they can remove the mayor and any other elected officials for malfeasance, right? You have the ability to remove them. And I think the plan the mayor put forward is fantastic. Again, he and his lawyers surveyed all the other communities, discovered best practices. Look, you're not hoping to have one of these, right? The only reason you have one of these is because somebody in elected office does something so egregious. You don't want them voting on police policy and appointments. You don't want them voting on the city budget. You don't trust them anymore. You hope that you never have to use this. Quite frankly, looking back on the history of the city of New Bedford, I see very few occasions where you would have had the opportunity to use this recall petition. But you need it on the books now that the mayor's office is a four-year term. Absolutely need it, absolutely need it. All right, take a break. We'll be right back. On WBSM, call 508-996-05... I could be a rambler from the seventh aisle. Don't pay taxes because I never file. I don't do business that don't make me smile. I love my aeroplane because she got style. I'm a treetop flyer. Welcome back to the program. I'm Chris McCarthy. You're the audience. So when I got here this morning, I was greeted by a piece of mail. Always good, right? Nice piece of mail. And it was from a former guest on the program, Congressman Seth Moulton. He stopped by the program at my invitation. A couple of weeks ago now, we were doing a remote down on Conway Street at Honeydew Donuts, one of Walter Moniz's stores here in the city. And Seth Moulton, again, guy's a legitimate war hero. He's got four tours in the Marine Corps in combat. It was on General Petraeus' staff and got himself elected to Congress on the North Shore, Seth Moulton, Democrat. And now he's running for US Senate against Ed Markey for the Democrat nomination. And ultimately to face John Deaton, if he gets that nomination, another Marine, an attorney who has a Republican nomination for US Senate. So anyway, Seth Moulton stopped by Honeydew Donuts, met a number of the councilors, met me, we had a nice conversation. And I got a piece of mail from him. Chris, thank you for a great interview. Let's keep in touch. All the best, Seth. On a card stock with a notation, which I liked, not paid for at taxpayer's expense. So I did like that part of the note. And funny thing about this receiving this note is I recently tried to keep in touch with him. I reached out to Congressman Moulton to invite him on the program. I reached out to his staff as well. I have Seth Congressman Moulton's cell phone number. So I texted him. Hey, do you wanna come on the radio and refute anything in the Boston Herald story written by Tim Dunn about you and the illegal alien bringing to the State of the Union and all of that stuff? Because remember, after, well, it was really before he brought him to the State of the Union. The Boston Herald knew that the illegal alien that he was bringing to the State of the Union had multiple police reports about him involving juvenile behavior or juveniles and sexual assault. And this is the same illegal alien that Seth Moulton then tried to hide in his office from ICE, his official tag. That office is paid for by the taxpayers, unlike the thank you note that I received from the very courteous Congressman. So anyway, Seth Moulton sent me a handwritten note, signed it, saying let's keep in touch. And I've been trying to keep in touch even before I got this note. So I'll keep trying. I may even send him a picture of the note to remind him of his thoughts about me and what a good experience we had together. But I just love to get to the bottom of what he knew and when he knew it about his illegal alien and the sexual assaults and allegations and juveniles and all of that stuff before he brought him to the State of the Union. I've never been invited to the State of the Union. You've never been invited to the State of the Union. You've never testified on Beacon Hill, I don't believe, or in Congress on laws relevant to the American people, even though you're not one of the American people. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the program. I'm Chris McCarthy. Plumbing emergency, they don't wait for anybody and really neither should you. At Bass Ready, we treat every call like it's our own home. Our family-owned business has been solving sewer and septic problems since 1974 and recommending solutions the right way with honesty and respect. We believe in customer service and we show it every day. Bass Ready, Ruta. We may not be your first call, but we'll always be your last. Visit BassReady.com today before you need to visit it. Visit BassReady.com today. Keep that right by the phone, right? The website, right by the computer because we're coming up on the season. If we haven't already gone past it when you need it, Bass Ready, Ruta, right? All right, guys. So I enjoyed the program. I hope you did too. Stick around for Barry Richard. I'm going across the street to the dialysis clinic to get all my blood taken out and put back in after they clean it up. And God willing, I'll be back tomorrow. I want to thank the winner of my poll for governor, Mike Minogue. He won by a landslide. And the campaign continues. And it's your opportunity to get involved. Think seriously about running for the House of Representatives. You heard Mike Minogue and the other candidates have already done it. They're willing to put their hard-earned money behind you. If you're a Republican and a reformer, stick around for Barry.