|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The race to be the 2025 City Council president has turned into a knock-down, drag-out fight, led by the new president of the New Bedford police union, Lorenzo Gonzalez, and his apparent ally on local talk radio, a Republican activist turned power player in New Bedford politics, Chris McCarthy.
Their target is two-term councilor-at-large Shane Burgo, a popular Cape Verdean-American councilor who finished second among the five at-large councilors in his re-election bid in November 2023.
Burgo is one of the most progressive councilors, if not the most progressive. He’s been a quick study in learning the council rules, advocating effectively for his positions on affordable housing and forward-looking policies in general.
An affable 31-year-old who monitors fraud and overpayments for the Department of Transitional Assistance, Burgo, according to his fellow councilors, has made it known to them that he plans to run for mayor in 2027, when Mayor Jon Mitchell’s sixth term is up. And that’s regardless of whether the present longtime mayor runs for re-election.
That’s a politically ambitious approach in New Bedford, where incumbent office holders most often wait their turn for an open seat.
Maybe it’s the fear that Burgo could be a mayor in the making, but whatever the reason, this year’s race to be president somehow has rather startlingly blown up into a full-scale political and ideological conflagration.
One wouldn’t have predicted it.
Burgo has a reputation of approachability and fair-mindedness. He is well-liked by both conservative and moderate councilors, and is said to be a team player, whom his fellow councilors trust as a man of his word. That’s something some other popular councilors have struggled with.
As far back as last summer, Burgo had evidently gathered commitments from an impressive eight of the 11 councilors to be president, well above the majority of six needed to be elected. They include, according to several councilors, both conservatives and moderates, and all four Cape-Verdean American councilors. They are Ryan Pereirra, Maria Giesta, Linda Morad, Ian Abreu, Brian Gomes, Derek Baptiste and current Council President Naomi Carney.
Meanwhile, councilors Leo Choquette, Joe Lopes, and Shawn Oliver are said by multiple fellow councilors to be supporting Councilor Oliver, one of the most conservative voices on the council.
Right after the swearing-in on Monday night, Jan. 6, the councilors vote for the new president.
The race to be the council president is normally an insider’s game.
The candidates — be they progressive, moderate or conservative — lobby the other councilors, sometimes promising the chairmanship of this desired committee or that one. The chairs then have the power to bring things quickly to the council agenda or keep them bottled up.
The council presidency is a somewhat high-profile position, as the president is the council’s liaison to the mayor’s office and often the voice of the council in the media. In that sense it has value, particularly for a councilor thinking of running for mayor.
But the main power in being council president is in setting a tone of collegiality and fair play among the councilors. When the councilors are at each other’s throats, they tend to lose power to the mayor. So in the end, the councilors usually either come together in choosing a president, or keep their mouths shut if they lose a close race.
It’s historically been a contest more about loyalty than ideology.
In my 25 years of covering the City Council, I’ve seen a few bitter council presidency races for the limited power and the roughly $5,000 extra stipend — but not much drama beyond that.
Until this year.
Police union president’s email called a “smear”
Over the last few weeks, the councilors’ attention has been laser-focused on an email sent by the then-incoming New Bedford Police Union president, Lorenzo Gonzalez, that urged its recipients (evidently police union members) to lobby councilors against Burgo for the presidency. The goal is to shake loose a couple of councilors committed to Burgo with the politically-loaded charge that he is anti-police.
The email by the president of the police union, which The Light has obtained from one of the councilors who asked to remain anonymous, accuses Burgo of being against the police. Several councilors told me its message has been particularly aimed at councilors Abreu, Gomes, Baptiste, Carney and Pereira, who some believe might be most fearful of the police union’s wrath.
Chris McCarthy has name-checked those councilors on his WBSM show, and speculated about whether they want to be known as anti-police.
“It’s a shame they’re going to ruin their own reputations to advance this guy,” he said on air on Dec. 18.
Burgo’s defenders, however, have not been deterred by the arrayed political muscle.
The Gonzalez email tarred Burgo with what one upset councilor called “lies.” A member of a local progressive activist group called it “a smear.” Here’s what it says:
“If you are not familiar with Councilor Burgo, he leans extremely left on the political spectrum and is not a friend of the men and women of this Union.”
Gonzalez signed the email “Lorenzo” and wrote that it was for “informative” purposes only and not to be taken as the union “officially endorsing one candidate over another.”
You could have fooled many of the email’s recipients, however, that it was not associated with the New Bedford Police Union because of its own president’s pointed claims about Burgo. “Councilor Burgo is for defunding the police and is supported by groups that do not support us,” the email says.
I’ve never seen any public documents or news coverage in which Burgo is quoted or described as advocating for defunding the police department. In fact, Burgo has consistently voted with the other councilors against Mayor Jon Mitchell’s proposal to change the department’s health insurer to a less expensive state program.
In a debate when he first ran for office in 2021, Burgo did acknowledge that he felt police profiling of minorities has sometimes gone on in the New Bedford department and gave the example of his brothers being questioned on their way back home from high school years ago. He made that response, however, only under questioning and did not make it an issue in his campaign.
Burgo, who at times has seemed shaken by the level of criticism, denied point blank that he has ever taken a position remotely close to “defund the police.”
“I have never, at any point, publicly or privately, advocated for defunding the police,” he told me. He said he has been “dispirited” by the efforts of Gonzalez and McCarthy.
“I think we owe it to the people of New Bedford to rise above these divisive tactics,” Burgo said.
Councilor Oliver, like Burgo, is a gracious man and well-liked by his fellow councilors, regardless of their political philosophies. Two weeks ago, he told me that if there is an organized effort to flip votes by way of the police union and talk radio, he was not aware of it. Since then, he acknowledged he’s seen the effort, including Gonzelez’ email. He said he could not remember at this point who sent it to him.
Oliver said he has been speaking with his council colleagues, trying to convince them to support him.
“We’ve had some good conversations,” he said. “Those conversations will continue until the night of the council swearing-in.”
Radio host McCarthy’s campaign against Burgo
Chris McCarthy has made a full-throated campaign to stop Burgo the focus of his WBSM show for weeks.
“I want you to call your city councilor and say, ‘Let’s avert a disaster,” McCarthy also said on Dec. 18.
“I know that the New Bedford Police Union has sent out an email and they’re making calls to city councilors saying, ‘anybody but Burgo.’ They know how bad he’ll be for the city for recruitment of officers, for the morale of officers.”
McCarthy did not return several phone calls from me over New Year’s. He texted me Thursday morning, saying he has been sick since Christmas and barely able to get his radio show on. “Everything I say is (on) the air,” he wrote.
I know McCarthy well enough to believe that he is deeply dedicated to his conservative philosophy, and feels strongly that liberalism, progressivism, whatever you want to call it, would not be good for New Bedford.
Burgo said he does not want to give attention to some of the specific claims that McCarthy has made on air about his alleged positions on the radio. “I really don’t want to engage in these public accusations and distortions.”
McCarthy has tried to paint Burgo as supporting a local homeless advocate’s proposal for government involvement in operating a city homeless encampment.
There are an estimated 36 homeless encampments in the city. Burgo has said he has reservations about a government-run camp but it may be necessary before better long-range plans can be developed.
Burgo acknowledges he made a mistake, when pressed one day, for saying it could be located in a field near the airport and said he quickly retracted the suggestion. By that time, it had won him the opposition of Ward 1 Councilor Leo Choquette, who represents the area.
McCarthy also claims Burgo would back Sheriff Paul Heroux’s plan to turn part of the Ash Street jail into an inmate homeless shelter.
The sheriff’s plan, however, would only apply to the small portion of Ash Street where the sheriff used to live. It would provide training to released inmates downstairs and room for 10 to 15 beds upstairs for ones who do not have a place to go.
Heroux has said Burgo backs the plan, but Burgo told me it’s only a proposal to be discussed.
The effort to derail Burgo has made its way into some of the power corridors of the city’s politics.
Former Mayor Scott Lang joined McCarthy on the air Tuesday, and, rather startlingly for his own reputation as a liberal, also argued that Burgo would not be an appropriate council president, almost echoing Gonzalez and McCarthy’s talking points.
“I think you need someone who is much more mainstream than Shane Burgo (for) the president of the council,” Lang said. He later added, “It’s even harder for me to imagine that fellow councilors will say, ‘Yeah, I’ll support this guy.’”
Lang contributed $100 to Shawn Oliver’s campaign fund last year.
Also contributing to Oliver was John Saunders, $300 in two separate contributions last year. Saunders, a county commissioner and former longtime city councilor, is the point man for what remains of New Bedford’s vaunted political machine.
Two councilors told me this week that Oliver is meeting at The Inner Bay Cafe with several members of the city’s conservative political establishment: former Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson; Jim DeMello, owner of the DeMello International Center in downtown New Bedford; Steve Beauregard, executive director of the New Bedford Housing Authority; and Chris McCarthy.
Hodgson said the regular meetings are not based on conservative agendas and are simply a meeting of folks who have known each other a long time.
Shawn Oliver has only attended twice, he said.
“We have a bunch of friends who get together,” Hodgson said. “We don’t all agree. We debate things all the time out of fun,” he later added.
Oliver and Hodgson both said Oliver has only attended the gathering twice.
“To be honest with you, a lot of it is not city related at all,” Oliver said. “It’s more of folks just getting together and having a lunch.”
More questionable claims by police union chief
Gonzalez’ email tries to take down Burgo’s candidacy through public pressure. “I am simply asking, if you are able to, to take the time to contact the city councilors and let them know that you do not want Councilor Burgo for city council president.”
But the’ “defund” claim is not the only questionable attack on Burgo in Gonzalez’ email.
Gonzalez raised the issue of the escalating cost of police officers’ health insurance in his email against Burgo.
Mayor Jon Mitchell has tried to lessen health care costs by allowing the union to join a state collaborative. Gonzalez’ worries might have legs against the mayor, who has described health care costs as a budget buster, but hardly against Burgo, who has been an unequivocal supporter of the city unions and their health care plans during his time on the council.
Gonzalez took over as union president on New Year’s Day, and did not return two of my phone calls. Neither did his predecessor, Lt. Evan Bielski.
Gonzalez, who is a detective, also did not respond to my visit to police headquarters where I asked for my message to be sent to him. I also visited Station 3 in the North End, where he works, but that place is locked up tighter than a drum from the public, and no one answered either the doorbell or a phone number posted on a window, though there were numerous civilian cars in the parking lot.
A sign said the intercom was broken and referred the public to the phone number, which was not in service.
The Gonzalez email also raises the specter of Burgo becoming mayor if he were council president should Mitchell, a 13-year incumbent, leave for a higher-level government job. The mayor’s reputed ambition for a higher state or national position is common subject for speculation in the New Bedford political sphere.
The city code does provide for the council president to serve as “acting mayor” if a mayor leaves in his first year of office, but only until an election can be held as soon as possible. If a mayor leaves after his or her first year, the council can elect any councilor it wants to be acting mayor until the next election.
Anti-Burgo campaign shakes at least one councilor as others hold firm
The campaign against Burgo has evidently been successful in convincing at least one councilor, Ian Abreu, to reconsider his commitment to him.
“My support is up for grabs. I’m getting a ton of phone calls,” he told me last week.
Abreu said he believes there has been “a paradigm shift” in the country since the November election. “People are hungry for law enforcement.”
Abreu, however, said he has also not seen any evidence that Burgo is automatically against the police. He told McCarthy that Burgo was a co-sponsor of a recent motion to give full disability benefits to a New Bedford officer shot in the face while doing surveillance last year. He said he’s never heard him advocate for the defunding of police.
If Councilor Abreu is wavering, four other councilors I spoke to last week — Ryan Pereira, Maria Giesta, Linda Morad and Naomi Carney — remained firmly in Burgo’s camp, saying they would not be swayed by the campaign against him.
One of the other councilors being targeted to switch their votes — Brian Gomes —- did not return my phone calls. Councilor Derek Baptiste’s phone message box was full all week, and I did not reach him. He has not yet responded to an email I sent on Tuesday.
Gomes could come under immense pressure from the political machine that has dominated New Bedford in the past and still holds some sway.
Former state Sen. William “Biff” Maclean and County Commissioner John Saunders have both been regular contributors to him over the years. Saunders, seen as the point man of the remnants of the Machine these days, also contributed $300 to Oliver last year.
One councilor was adamant that he would not bend to the pressure being put on him.
Ryan Pereira said he gave his word, and that’s the most important factor with his fellow councilors. “Shane will do a great job conducting the meetings,” he said. “He will enforce decorum in the chamber.”
Pereira said he had heard of the union email, though he has not seen it. He said he had been approached by an officer, whom he declined to name, to change his vote. He said he’s had “a couple” of calls from constituents, and that police officers are both for and against their union president’s position.
He said the officers who are against Burgo “believe the lies that are being spread,” and the ones who are for him “know the truth.”
Pereira offered a criticism of some of the city’s progressive groups, but not Burgo.
“There’s never been any ‘defund’ rhetoric,” he said. “Some of the people who like Shane Burgo say ‘defund the police,’ but Shane Burgo has never said that.”
But Marlene Pollock, co-founder of the Coalition for Social Justice, one of the city’s most prominent progressive groups, said she was shocked by the union’s defund charge and that she thinks Burgo has been very supportive of police. “He’s never ever mentioned anything to do with defunding,” she said. “It’s never come up at all.”
Pollock added that she wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of police officers disagreed with Gonzalez. “It’s kind of a smear campaign, really, when you think about it,” she said.
The aggressive nature of the campaign against Burgo — the letter writing and the talk radio drumbeat — has unnerved several councilors, with several of them saying they were saddened to see the divisive nature of national politics being used in New Bedford.
Pereira, a second-term incumbent, said he always votes to support the police, but he is not going to succumb to these tactics.
“This has been blown way out of proportion,” he said, of the effort to paint councilors who disagree on a given issue as somehow totally against the police.
Abreu, though he may not vote for Burgo, at least agreed with him that an organized campaign by outside forces against a council president candidate is a new thing for the city. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
“This whole thing has been unfortunate,” Abreu said. “It’s sad for everybody. People have gotten hurt in this process.”
Email columnist Jack Spillane at jspillane@newbedfordlight.org.
McCarthy is a Fairhaven resident who should be asked why he was investigated about a police fundraiser in his past. Instead of making up tales about defunding in New Bedford, ask Chris of Fairhaven why he was questioned by law enforcement about a police fundraiser. That actually happened.
Wait a minute, the media for 8 years has bashed Trump . You want to be in a office appointed by the people than be prepared to deal with what comes with it. The city of New Bedford doesn’t want Burgo as city council president. Local politics matter. This is good people are getting engaged and voicing opinions. For far to long many politicians have gotten away with doing whatever they want in the late hours of the night with no one really watching. Well now people are engaged. This was shown in the past presidential election. Despite all the efforts to bash and slander Trump by the media people did research and used common sense and made the right choice. Trump was overwhelmingly elected. I would also like to say who knows what’s best for the city then the men and women out in the streets everyday day keeping us safe. If councilor Burgos feelings are hurt to bad get over it and put on your big boy pants and figure it out.
Every Councilor when elected takes an oath to serve and protect the citizens of the City of New Bedford and that is how this vote should be taken.
Electing this City Council President is a critical vote and will play a big part in determining how our city moves forward and deals with the bloated City Budget, High Taxes, Homeless Encampments, Free Drug Use Centers, and Supporting Our Law Enforcement Officers.
This past year with all the hard work of the council, Taxes still went up, and we need a Council President that will continue to lead this fight, or come next November Taxes Will Rise Again.
After weeks of listening to all the comments, I believe with his hard work ethic, and desire to serve our city, there is no doubt Councilor Shawn Oliver is the best choice to lead our City Council in 2025.
Unless you’re prepared for cuts in city services, don’t expect annual tax increases to end. What some residents view as vital services, property owners/tax payers view as wasteful spending, and if you’re unwilling to see cuts in city services, then you should expect to see increased property taxes and service fees, you can’t have it both ways.
Hodgson is involved. That says it all. it is not about local police. It is only about politics and using the GOP tactic he used as sheriff, scare people with lies. Remember why we got rid of him.
THANK YOU!
The City Council has been a mess for some time. Who the president is doesn’t matter as long as the council continues to have a dysfunctional relationship with the rest of the city government. I’m for voting out as many incumbents as possible, including Burgo, Oliver, and the mayor.
I believe Shane Burgo would better represent the city as its council President. I know that he supports the city police officers, and supports lowering the crime rate and keeping taxes in check.
He also wants to make sure that the city stays affordable for its residents.
The City Council, city residents, and property owners should be prepared to cut services and cutting costs to offset property tax increases, if they’re not prepared to cut costs to offset tax increases, then they shouldn’t be in any elected office from Mayor to the City Council members, if you can’t make the hard choices, and difficult decisions in the best interest of city residents, then you’re not qualified to hold elected office and be paid to act in the best interest of the tax payers, residents, and business owners.
It would be a most pitiful shame if this city, or the City Council were to succumb to the same scurrilous, lying scare tactics that have been employed by some national actors of late. Shane Burgo is well known as a public servant of integrity and dedication to the best interests of New Bedford. His candidacy for City Council presidency should be weighed in the light of truth, not the darkness of falsehoods.
Bruce A. Rose
Shane Burgo is a man of high integrity who tries his very best to live up to the oath he swore to as a city councilman. I have known him for many years and observed him in his role in city government. The city of New Bedford and ALL of its citizens will benefit from Shane’s leadership as President of the City Council. He has no hidden agenda. His focus is clearly on doing his best for the City.
It appears that Burgo has supported the police on several issues. He says and others verify that he has never said he is/was in favor of defunding the police—end of story. The right-wing repetition of intentional disinformation has now filtered down to the local level, i.e. “They’re eating the cats and dogs.” It’s time to add a new intention to my rosary.
If you believe the Right-wing conservative voters are the source of disinformation, then you obviously haven’t been paying attention for the past four years. The far left liberal Democrats of the Biden administration, liberal Democrats in the House like Pelosi, and Hakeem Jefferies and far left liberal Democrat Senators like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey, and Governor Maura Healy, the liberal Socialist liar and thief who cut over $1 Billion tax payer dollars from several state agencies so she can waste that money to pay for hotel rooms, clothing, healthcare, dental care, food, and cell phones for illegal immigrants, many who have criminal records for drug use, violent crimes, and sexual crimes including rape and molesting minors. Those elected officials who allowed 10+ Million illegal immigrants from every third world country to enter and remain in America, and waste tax payer dollars to continue supporting, assisting, and defending them are all far left liberal Democrats. So you go on supporting and re-electing those Democrats, and soon you’ll be directly affected in a negative way, maybe then you’ll see things from a conservative point of view.
It seems that Detective Gonzalez is the willing instrument of a backroom political clique intent on using smear tactics to throw their political weight around. It would be interesting to hear what the Police Union’s membership has to say about Burgo. Hopefully the councillors will keep their word and not yield to this last minute smear orchestrated by the city’s junior varsity political machine.
I can understand the average person being swayed by such clearly polarizing rhetoric, but to see city councilors succumbing to this superficial pressure created by lies is disappointing to see. I for one, have complete faith in Shane Burgo and his ability as city council president, and eventually mayor when he does run. Shane supports New Bedford, so let’s support him.
Nobody seems to remember that Shane Burgo is in favor of rent control, that makes him a typical liberal socialist, and if you’re in favor of more government regulation, and city government telling property owners what they can charge for rent of their rental properties, then you should relocate to places like Russia, China, Venezuela, or one of many other socialist nations if you don’t value the freedom Americans enjoy, and are defended by America’s military forces to guarantee and protect those freedoms that generations of Americans fought and died to protect that freedom so many take for granted, and expect.
As a New Bedford resident, property owner, tax payer, and voter, I’d like to know why the voters aren’t able to vote for the City Council President during the election when we vote our choice for our ward councilor, vote our choice for Councilor at large, and vote out choice for Mayor? From what I’ve seen and heard over the years, the city council President is elected by city councilors alone, and regardless of how well, or how poorly a city councilor represents their constituents, it appears that every councilor who wants to be council President gets a turn at the job, like we’re running some contest with a participation trophy awarded to all who want to serve in that position regardless of ability, qualifications, and job performance, and that should be changed so the city residents/voters decide who serves as City Council President.