The Fall River City Council convened a special meeting on January 31, 2023. Following a roll call, moment of silent prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, the council heard citizen input from Mr. Charles Chase. Mr. Chase spoke about the concept of "hyphenation," arguing against its use as a divisive tool and advocating for unity as Americans, sharing a personal anecdote about his grandfather's racism. The council voted to waive its rules to allow Mr. Chase to continue his remarks. The primary agenda item was an open meeting law complaint filed by Patrick Higgins on January 24, 2023. The complaint alleged that the City Council had previously violated the open meeting law by referring a complaint regarding their January 3rd meeting to Corporation Council without first reviewing it themselves. After the complaint was read, the council voted to refer this new complaint to Corporation Council. The meeting then adjourned.
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Council
Public / Other
thank you
0:51foreign
1:33Council come to water the clerk will call the roll council is Kadeem Dion yeah yeah Kilby Liberty Pelletier yeah Herrera here raposo here Washington here president Camara please stand for a moment of Silent prayer
2:04remain standing for a salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible with liberty and justice for us foreign pursuant to the open meeting law any person can make an audio a video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees or therefore advised that such
2:36recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledgeable and permissible citizen input we have one person that signed Mr Charles Chase and the topic is hyphenation you can come on down just so you know Mr Chase it's a three-minute citizen input okay thank you and if you could just state your name and address for the record
3:09any seat that you're comfortable with sir right here
3:20well hi I want a great uh Madam president and the members of the council here thank you for letting me be here um I have a topic that isn't talked about too much that's hyphenation I believe everybody knows what a hyphen is well um going back a little ways when I was in high school um I had a lot of friends in the elementary school at that time my grandfather happened to visit the house
3:59and he was talking with my mother I was in the bedroom they were in the living room but I could hear them he was saying that that Charlie he'll never grow up to be good he just does not understand the word of the world my grandfather on my mother's side was a strong Ku Klux Klan member on Cape Cod you don't think of it so much up here but that's what he was and he had
4:26indoctrinated his children and the grandchildren to the extent that he was able to he was not able to do it to me all my friends were of all different races and I love them all from that point I never spoke to my grandfather again when he died about oh 30 years later I was not at his funeral why because I thoroughly dislike anyone or anything that is done about racism there should be no racism in America
5:01we've we've come a long ways but we've got still got a long ways to go and the colleges are utilizing that to indoctrinate students of Journalism of teaching and politics especially these three areas they're going out they're burning cities they're having not demonstrations they're having riots and it all starts with that little hyphenation it was used to divide all of us we are Americans I believe is
5:41everyone here an American yes yes right we are American and we should be proud to say that we're Americans I have different traditions in ancestries in my background I don't bring those forward but I love them and I respect them but I am an American I am not a hyphenated American in other words 30 seconds Mr Chase how many seconds 30 30 motion away I could be hyphenated French there's a motion to waive the rules is
6:14there a second second all in favor okay Mr chase you may continue okay thank you you're welcome um uh I could be um a french-american I could be English American Welsh American scotch-american irish-american and I we call all called it Indian American I have two Indians that are certified in my background I love America that's why I went in the service I spent 17 years in Japan getting an
6:48education in the college so that I could teach over there because I wanted them to know how charitable and how wonderful Americans are in the American culture is I see it now being torn apart purposely and this is something that we all have to protect against we have a tradition and a constitution and we should not be dividing people into one group of people a second a third a fourth a fifth group of people
7:26we're all Americans and we have to protect that tradition and do what have all our former politicians and people because the people are the most important have done to do away with racism and divisiveness to make us so that we are a wonderful Nation we I don't know of any other Nation I could really assimilate with but I just wanted to mention that hyphenation please do what we can to do away with that and
8:04go with we are Americans yes ma'am councilman seat number two Council Dion I just want to say thank you for coming and I wish we had a lot more people in this country that were like you there are there are um a lot of them aren't speaking up but I love the country I love the people thank you Mr Cheese thank you Mr Chase you're welcome and thank you for giving me uh that extra time
8:33item number two on the agenda open meeting law complaint filed by Patrick Higgins on January 24 2023 alleged violation of the city council their motion motion to review Madam clerk if you would like to read the complaint
9:03the Fall River City Council violated the open meeting law by voting to refer the open meeting law complaint regarding the January 3rd meeting to Corporation Council without first reviewing the complaint public body does not have legal authority to refer the complaint to legal counsel until they have first met to review the complaint as it is explained in the instructions that are attached to every open meeting law
9:27complaint issued by my office public body May delegate this responsibility to an individual member of the public body its Council or a staff member but only after the public body is met to review the complaint thank you motion refer to Corporation Council all in favor there is nothing else on the agenda motion to adjourn second all in favor aye thank you