Deadlocked convention reveals deep divides in New Bedford

It’s not just the country that is deeply divided between conservatives and progressives.

Anyone who watched the two-plus hour joint convention of the New Bedford City Council and School Committee last week knows that this city is also deeply divided.

The convention’s task was to appoint a new School Committee member in the wake of the unexpected death of longtime committee member Bruce Oliveira, but the 16 members present couldn’t do it. In fact, they deadlocked no fewer than five times in a row on the vote with a mostly progressive coalition each time giving eight votes to Marcus Coward and a mostly conservative group each time giving eight votes to Henry Bousquet.

Here’s how the votes broke down: Shane Burgo, Derek Baptiste, Brian Gomes, James Roy, Jack Livramento, Melissa Costa, Rick Porter and Von Marie Moniz steadfastly voted for Coward. Meanwhile, Ian Abreu, Naomi Carney, Leo Choquette, Shawn Oliver, Scott Pemberton, Ryan Pereira, Chris Cotter and Mayor Jon Mitchell steadfastly voted for Bousquet.

It wasn’t completely a conservative/progressive breakdown as Gomes, a fairly conservative councilor on some issues, voted for Coward through all five rounds. 

Gomes, however, was the only councilor on the Coward side who voted to override a convention rule that would have forced the council to decide on the appointment on the Jan. 7 convention night. The measure had been pushed through earlier in the meeting by freshman Councilor Roy, apparently to capitalize on momentum for Coward that might dissipate as time went by. 

When Gomes joined the Bousquet-supporting councilors on that key vote, it meant the joint convention could postpone their vote another two weeks to Jan. 21. That’s when Ward 5 Councilor Joe Lopes, who was absent from the Jan. 7 convention, will presumably be in attendance.

With only two of seven convention members of color voting for Bousquet, there might be pressure on one of those councilors — either Naomi Carney or Scott Pemberton — to change their vote over the next two weeks. Gomes gave no reason for his decision to join the conservatives in postponing the meeting. 

Councilor Carney did change her vote on an important vote last year. She originally voted not to fund The Zeiterion, but later changed her position after an outcry in the community.

With the postponement motion prevailing, both sides will have had two weeks to do the strong-arming and behind-the-scenes deals that will eventually decide who gets the open seat on the seven-member board.

Or maybe not. 

With the city and the convention so deeply divided, it’s possible the convention will simply not decide and leave the committee with six instead of seven members for the foreseeable future.

And there is also talk about looking for a third party, a moderate candidate who would be acceptable to both sides in the event of continuing gridlock between Bousquet and Coward.

There is evidently an effort to convince Pam Oliveira, Bruce Oliveira’s widow and herself an educator, to allow her name to be placed in nomination. She attended the Jan. 7 convention and was there when multiple officials praised the job and long commitment to the schools of her late husband. 

Bruce Oliveira, who himself was appointed to the committee 12 years ago, became an enormously popular committee member over the years. He was known both for his financial expertise in analyzing the budget, but also for his moderate positions on the issues. He reliably backed Mitchell, who is politically to the right of the majority of the progressive-dominated School Committee.

There is also talk about returning Cheryl Viveiros, a Bridgewater State University instructor and former New Bedford teacher, back before the convention, and reviving former Councilor Brad Markey’s candidacy, which, due to a technicality, is still under consideration.

Councilors generally like to pick one of their own for key jobs. They have hired former councilors Dennis Farias, Denis Lawrence Jr. and David Gerwatowski respectively as city clerk, clerk of committee, and legal counsel to the council. 

There is also some discussion around town about changing the structure of the New Bedford School Committee to a combination of appointed and elected officials.  Few people run for the School Committee, which is an unpaid position here. The move to elect school committees began as a progressive reform to thwart conservative city councils and select boards. But the progressive-dominated committees have come to be seen as problematic themselves as they tend to be dominated by parent groups and teacher unions. 

The last time that New Bedford considered reforming the School Committee was in 2003. At that time, voters approved, by a 67.6% to 32.3% vote, a reform that would increase the number of School Committee members from six to eight, giving each ward a School Committee seat and reducing the number of at-large members from six to two.

Those same voters, however, rejected a motion to pay the School Committee on a 59.9% to 40.1% vote. Unlike the City Council and Board of Assessors, the School Committee has never been paid in New Bedford. In the end, the voter-approved reform died when the City Council refused to advance it to the state Legislature. 

The two would-be School Committee appointees who were popular at the convention on Jan. 7 were not necessarily the candidates with the most impressive educational resumes, but they were the ones with the best political connections.

Bousquet is well known and well-liked by many of the incumbent councilors. He served 2½ terms on the council between 2012 and 2017. 

Bousquet is an affable man and besides his council service, he has long served the city as a teacher and an election commissioner. He’s also well-known as a Republican activist and an ardent booster of President Trump and the MAGA movement on his Facebook page. He’s one of three Republican members on the city’s four-person Election Commission. That’s a phenomenon itself in a city that may be changing politically. By state law, the commission must have two Democrats and two Republicans, but one of the Democrats, Donald Gaudette Jr., is a Trump supporter and switched his party mid-term.

Also part of Bousquet’s resume is the fact that he is an educator at Greater New Bedford Vocational-Technical High School, an institution that both Mayor Mitchelll and Superintendent Andrew O’Leary have criticized for using admission standards that are biased against Latino and disabled students.

The other finalist, Coward, is a 25-year-old youth worker and educational activist, and the only one of the nine candidates who actually ran for the position on the ballot last fall. He finished just 129 votes behind Von Marie Moniz for the second open position on the committee out of 8,393 votes cast. The winning candidates – Rick Porter and Von Marie Moniz – both voted to place Coward on the committee.

Coward is not without his critics, specifically about his age, alleged lack of experience and service in the Army. Councilor Burgo, in recommending Coward’s candidacy said of his military service “That experience, like much of his life, came with challenges.” Asked about his service, Coward said he received “a general discharge under honorable circumstances” after 1½ years.

Coward is to be applauded for moving past his earlier issues and becoming active and involved in the community, and neither side has publicly made either his history or Bousquet’s MAGA posts an issue.

It’s interesting the way the convention voted Jan 7. Though all the candidates made thoughtful presentations, the elected officials quickly eliminated most of them, not even bothering to nominate some of them.

The city councilors and School Committee members who were members of the convention coalesced quickly behind either Bousquet or Coward, leaving other applicants with equal or superior credentials out of the race. They included Viveiros, an educator and academic; Lee Blake, an historian, preservationist and educator; Eldric Abreu, a school parent, activist and administrator; Erin Alvarado, a school parent and businesswoman; Jose Galarza Jr., a banker and businessman; and Markey, a former school parent and former city councilor.

This convention’s deadlock on the appointment takes place even as the country as a whole has been consumed by right wing vs. left wing issues.

Among the divisive issues are the MAGA-driven roundup and deportation of undocumented immigrants by what many consider illegal means. New Bedford itself has had more than 60 people rounded up, and schools Superintendent O’Leary has expressed his concerns for the effects of Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions on students in New Bedford.

Arguably, the council and School Committee have gravitated to the two candidates on the furthest ends of the spectrum of the candidates who applied.

It’s pretty clear that on the one hand you have a candidate conservative on spending and who is an unabashed supporter of President Trump, and on the other hand you have a candidate of color, a young person, and a person who has apparently overcome personal issues. It’s almost an exact mirror of what’s happening in the country.

Will the joint convention of the City Council and School Committee be able to solve this choice in a way that brings the city together? Or have we entered a time when the politicians on all sides have gone to their ideological corners, and have no interest in selecting a moderate, never mind someone well-qualified. 

So much for bringing the city together.

Jack Spillane is a New Bedford Light news columnist.

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