The Fall River City Council convened a special meeting on September 16, 2022. Following the roll call and a moment of silent prayer for POW/MIA Day, the meeting proceeded with citizen's input. Nelson Vasquez of 210 Sunset Hill addressed the council, expressing concern over restricted information regarding an MBTA ballot question. He cited a "grim budget picture" for the MBTA, projecting over $10 billion in debt within 10 years, and argued that restricting information was "un-American" and disrespectful to the democratic process and those serving the country. He emphasized the importance of public dialogue on the ballot question, which he stated would significantly impact the city's future. The council then moved to an emergency preamble concerning the election of the City Council President for the remainder of 2022. This preamble passed unanimously with a 9-0 roll call vote. Subsequently, an order for the election of the president by viva voce vote was adopted. During the election, councillors cast their votes, and Joseph Camara was declared the new City Council President, having received five votes. Michelle Dion was the other candidate, receiving four explicit votes from the councillors who stated their choice. After being sworn into office, President Camara thanked his colleagues and delivered brief remarks on the nature of public service. Councillor Pereira then made a motion for a vote of unanimity for the new president, which was seconded by Councillor Kilby. This motion failed to achieve unanimity, with at least two councillors opposing. The meeting concluded shortly thereafter with a motion to adjourn.
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Council
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city council will please come to order and the clerk will call the roll kelsey kadeem
1:03yeah how's the pellet here yeah councillor pereira here councillor reposa yep council washington here everyone in the council chamber please rise for a moment of silent prayer since it's p-o-w-m-i-a day maybe we could keep those missing in action and those uh prisoners of war in our thoughts
1:32please remain standing for salute to the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that
1:59such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible first item on the agenda is citizen's input and the first the only person who signed in is nelson vasquez mr vasquez you have three minutes
2:26uh nelson vasquez 210 sunset hill fall river um this was the headline yesterday mbta projects grim budget picture for the next fiscal year for the record all of the information that we have provided is current and accurate boston herald boston globe channel 5.
2:52and i was going to post that yesterday on the page of wsar but then i've come to realize that it completely restricted our ability to get the message out there to me that is a huge disrespect to the whole process into this ballot question that's coming before us because look there's a difference between the durfee's ballot and this ballot see with bonds it comes with expiration date this ballot question here does not
3:24because once you're in you can't get out and when things go haywire the first thing that people gonna ask is how come nobody told us this information that's the whole purpose of this initiative and we're going to get people who's going to disagree and agree that's the hope that's the whole purpose is to get a dialogue with our city residents so they know what they can expect if they vote yes
3:49this is a huge question that's going to change the future of our city but this but by them restricting our ability disrespects two groups of people one people who have paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives serving this country and two those who are currently serving and also in in basic training that's about to serve and congratulations to your son who's currently serving by the way okay
4:20that's not who we are it's un-american to restrict information that you don't want to get out there because let's face it if if if if the the city says no our city is going to be saved all of the information that's soon to come is going to be very very heavy and it's going to be accurate i just find it appalling that they allowed a a representative to go on there and
4:47only cited parts of the law but not the whole law because have she done that she would have been disproven it's not fair we're going to continue to do what we're going to do but to restrict our ability to get the word out is not who we are everyone's talking about it up in boston except for no one down here not the not the herald news and not wsar we're doing their job
5:14this is a serious ballot question and you mean to tell me that this this is not worth talking about the fact that they're going to be billions of dollars in debt over 10 billion in 10 years and you have the executive director saying that they're going to go off the financial cliff in the year 23 on camera that's three minutes so i just want to say that but thank you for your time thank you thank you
5:44item number two is an emergency preamble to act on the council order regarding the election of the president of the city council for the remainder of the year of 2022.
5:54mostly to a job roll call motion is made by councillor kilby second second council of kadeem all those in favor roll call on the emergency preamble council kadeem yes council camaro yes council dion yes how's the kilby yes council of liberty yes council pellet here yes councillor pereira yes councillor yes council washington yes
6:31our next item before you is in order for the election of president of the city council for the remainder of the year 2022.
6:39ordered that we now proceed by the viva voce vote to elect the president of the city council for the remainder of the year 2022 the motion would be to adopt motion to adopt second motion made by counselor kilby seconded by council of kadeem all those in favor any opposed the order is adopted as the counselors names are called they will reply with the name of the candidate of their choice for the office of president
7:12councillor kadeem michelle dion councillor camara church of camaro councillor dion michelle dion counselor kilby joseph camaro council of liberty michelle dion councilor pelletier council pereira joseph camara councilor raposo michelle dion and council of washington joseph camaro
8:01council of camara having received five votes is hereby declared president of the city council for the remaining congratulations congratulations
8:52to the best of my ability and understanding in accordance with the constitution and laws of the united states and of this commonwealth of the united states and the ordinances of the city of fall river
9:17thank you i want to thank all my colleagues it's an honor to serve as your president for remainder of this year we'll see what happens next year i have a lot of respect for each and every one of you i think it's a noble position that you want to run for office of this city it's a wonderful city one that we know we all love being a city council you have to ask yourself four questions
9:37is it a blessing or is it a curse can it get any better can it get any worse and the answer to those questions i guess yes yes and yes sometimes it's a blessing sometimes it's a curse sometimes it could be better sometimes it could be worse what matters is how we act in between all of those it's friday night it's late we're here under these circumstances i'm not going to go on with any other
10:01long speeches i'm sure we all have things to do tonight i know council pellet and his wife have an engagement to get to so with that being said once again i want to thank each and every one of you for your support and hopefully we'll finish out the year the way we began it on a good start councilman seat six council council president kamara i would ask that one of my colleagues
10:19that didn't vote uh that now make a motion for unanimity because i think this council needs to work together so i would hope that somebody would i don't think i can make a vote of unanimity anybody can it has to be anybody can i can make it then i make a motion for a vote of unanimity second enemy has made by council c6 pereira and seconded by council kilby on the motion all in favor aye
10:47any opposed counsel see three opposed you got to see three opposed it counsel the business of the poll opposed do we noted thank you with that motion to adjourn motion to agendas we're going to get council c6 council pereira state second second second by county c1 council kadeem this meeting is now adjourned thank thank you have a good night everyone
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