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Date: 4/7/2021
HOLYOKE – The Holyoke City Council voted in favor of language changes in legislation that would allow the city to skip a special election and choose one of their own to take over as acting mayor.
In attendance at the meeting, in addition to councilors, was state Rep. Patricia Duffy. The meeting began with City Council President Todd McGee going over the recommendations recommended after the legislation was submitted to skip a special election.
Acting City Solicitor Crystal Barnes said nothing regarding the City Council’s plans had changed, but instead just the language surrounding the topic that the state was looking for. “They just sort of finessed it,” she said.
She said some language was changed to be more specific and that whoever the acting City Council president was, whether it was McGee or someone else, would be able to serve both as acting mayor and City Council president, that the City Council would have 10 days to act as sitting mayor once the legislation was passed and that once a candidate was elected in November they would begin their term then.
Council James Leahy clarified that once the council votes, Duffy would take it down to Boston the following day, where it would be voted on depending on how quickly the House could vote on the matter. Duffy said it would have to go through both the House and the Senate, but it had already gone through the “House scrutiny” and that the senate would vote in favor of what the House did. She said everyone was expecting the legislation, that it “was the sensible thing to do” and that everyone at the state house “wants this through for us.”
“I’m not worried,” Duffy said.
Councilor Joseph McGiverin said he was proud of the council for working hard over the course of two days in regards to this legislation. He said the bill was “exactly what we voted for,” with some language changes and he felt it was “the right course to handle the next 10 months.”
Councilor Rebecca Lisi said she had concerns about the timeline that the council was working with. She also questioned the timeline as the charter clarified that a special election needed to take place within 60 days of the mayoral vacancy and the ‘what if.’ Duffy said that state secretary William Galvin didn’t want a special election for the city either, and that she wasn’t “worried about brushing up against that timeline.”
Councilor Peter Tallman said the election would cost upwards of $100,000 and he was “glad this was happening” and thanked everyone involved, including McGee, who had stepped into the role of acting mayor.
Ultimately the council voted to receive and adopt the language changes with a nearly unanimous vote and only councilor David Bartley voting no.