Holyoke City Council president will not serve as longterm acting mayor

Date: 3/22/2021

HOLYOKE –   Mayor Alex Morse’s resignation and who would serve as acting mayor in his absence was the most significant topic of discussion at the March 16 Holyoke City Council meeting.

Councilor Linda Vacon began the discussion by stating that the initial order filed would allow for the city to skip a special election. Additionally, she said she would be removing her vote of approval on the amendments before the City Council because they had a “clear and simple” resolution within their charter. She said the conversation that had taken place had “muddied the water,” allowing them to petition the court and skip the general election. Instead, she said, she would be supporting the original order that would avoid petitioning the court.

An amended ordinance presented would allow for the council to choose an acting mayor from their own body. Vacon added that she felt this was a “simple solution” and while she felt surprised that council President Todd McGee announced during a legislative session on March 15 he wouldn’t serve as acting mayor,  he had “valid reason.”

Member Howard Greaney also said he was “blindsided” by McGee’s announcement and said he was in favor of petitioning the state to avoid a special election. Councilor Terry Murphy said he felt as though McGee did the “honorable thing” and knew it could not have been an easy decision for him to make. Councilor Joe McGivern said he was “a little bit in shock” and the council had “a very unique opportunity to map out the government” during the time an interim mayor would serve. He said he felt as though Mayor Alex Morse was ”reneging on serving the end of his term” and his commitment he had made to the voters.

He said a few weeks ago they thought they’d have until the end of April, that McGee had to talk to his employer and he would stay as the acting City Council president while acting as mayor. However, he said the letter they got from Morse came in quickly on March 1, prompting them to take action quickly.

McGivern said McGee had been transparent and talked with his employer, and had ultimately decided that there may be potential conflicts with regards to McGee’s work later on down the road. McGivern also added that he felt as though whoever served as acting mayor prior to the November election, much like what had happened in 1991, should be allowed to continue serving on the City Council as they had been elected by the people to do so. He added that so long as they were transparent and worked together he felt as though this was a possibility for the city. He said it felt “absurd” for anyone to say they were blindsided as he felt everyone had been up front.

Councilor James Leahy clarified that the order would remove McGee as the acting president of the City Council and elect another member of the council as both the acting president and interim mayor. Vacon clarified that this was in fact the case and that it was simply a shifting of positions with the council as the position of council president and acting mayor were “tied together.” She said keeping the role as defined in the charter and avoiding petitioning the court was the “simplest” and “quickest” solution.

Council Peter Tallman said he felt as though the “council should be able to appoint someone from within the body” to serve as acting mayor. However, he emphasized that the two current mayoral candidates on the City Council, Councilor Rebecca Lisi and Councilor Mike Sullivan, would not be allowed to serve as acting mayor as it would give them an unfair advantage in the mayoral race.

Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos said he felt as though “time is of essence” and wanted to seek advice from the state. He questioned the ability for the city clerk to step in as acting mayor for 60 days according to the charter, which would give the council time to figure out a longer term solution. Lisi said she didn’t envy McGee’s position and said she didn’t see the difference between appointing a council president and acting mayor. “The mechanism for appointing is the same,” she said.

She said given the immediacy of the situation McGee should fill in for a short period, as he said he would be able to for a brief time, until the legislation absolving the city of special election was resolved. After that, she said, “then we may need to take another vote and pass the baton to a new acting president who would fill in from there on.”

Murphy asked how long McGee would be able to serve without conflict. McGee said after speaking with Rep. Patricia Duffy and asking questions she felt the legislation allowing for the city to not have to host a special election would likely be passed sometime in early April. McGee said if that were the case he would be able to serve as acting mayor during that time with no problem. He added that the cities of Lawrence and Boston had already laid the groundwork for the petition being requested by the city of Holyoke as Boston Mayor Marty Walsh would be leaving the city to serve on staff for President Joe Biden.

McGivern expressed the urgency of the situation given that the acting mayor would need to help prepare and present a yearly budget to the City Council by May. Lisi said there was no one she trusted more than McGee to handle the city’s budget due to his experience on the Finance Committee and his professional training. “He is the appropriate person given the charter right now,” she said. Lisi emphasized that she felt as though when they heard from the state they could take the next steps in the process.

Councilor David Bartley brought up a section of Massachusetts law that discussed when an acting council president would not be able to serve the duties as acting mayor. McGivern agreed with his assessment and said he felt as though this applied to the city’s current situation for flexibility. Acting City Solicitor, Crystal Barnes, however, said according to the city’s charter, they would need to host a special election. She recommended that they petition the state and take that as guidance following the state’s decision.

McGee said he was “doing his due diligence” and as that was happening the time frame sped up. He said it was “not who I am” to do part time work and be paid a full time salary. “My whole goal is to step in and do what’s right for the city, that’s my oath,” he said. “We need a person in there to deal with every issue that we’ve discussed.”

Vacon, however, said she felt as though she should have been “given a heads up” and she found it “personally offensive” that he had not done so. Greaney said he was under the impression after speaking with McGee a week prior “that you were next in line to be the mayor of Holyoke if the mayor resigned,” and while he did feel blindsided he still respected McGee.

Ultimately a motion was made to send the petition to the state with an amendment stating that McGee was unable to take on the position of acting mayor, which was approved unanimously.

Another topic of discussion was an order that the city contract an independent assessment in an effort to obtain neutral, fact-based data and statistics of the Holyoke Police Department’s structure, policies and practices. Lisi recommended the order be sent to the Public Safety Committee and then it would be sent along to define a scope and get bids for the contract for assessment.

She said she knew the department had been in the news, but wanted to do a “holistic, systemic” assessment of the city, starting with the department to look at practices and policies within the city. It was voted unanimously that the order be sent to the Public Safety Committee.