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Shawn Oliver is continuing to serve as a New Bedford city councilor, even after ending his campaign for lieutenant governor over the weekend. And no one can stop him until the next election.
That’s because New Bedford has no legal process to remove a sitting city councilor, according to the city’s Public Information Officer Jack Thuon.
Oliver has faced intense scrutiny since he was involved in a destructive rollover car crash late Saturday night. He pleaded not guilty to a drunk driving charge and other violations in New Bedford District Court Monday morning.
Since then, he has continued to serve in his usual role as the Ward 3 representative at City Council meetings. He has declined to answer reporters’ questions about his political future.
No one has the authority to force him out, Thuon said. That could change, but it’s up to the state Legislature.
The City Council recently passed a measure that would create a process for recall elections of city officers, but the city needs permission from the state Legislature before the ordinance can go into effect.
The petition hasn’t been officially filed in the Legislature because legislative staff had to clarify some of its technical language with the city after it was submitted, said Savannah Roth, a spokesperson for Rep. Antonio Cabral’s office, in an email to The Light.
It’s “uncertain” when the measure will pass, Roth said, because the Legislature’s traditional formal session ended in July and won’t restart again until the beginning of next year.
Mayor Jon Mitchell first proposed the recall measure in 2024, but the council didn’t approve it until June 2026. Councilors also made changes to the mayor’s proposal, requiring the support of more voters for a successful recall and limiting the time period when a recall can take place.
Oliver became the councilor for Ward 3 after winning a special election to fill a vacancy in early 2023. He was reelected when he ran unopposed later that year and in November 2025. He is up for reelection next in 2027.
Oliver is currently chair of the Audit and City Property committees. New Bedford councilors receive city salaries that increase with inflation each year — Oliver was paid $28,621 in 2025.
What would it take to recall Oliver?
If and when the Legislature approves New Bedford’s recall measure, voters would be allowed to initiate a recall election of any city councilor, assessor, School Committee member, or the mayor. But hundreds of people must support the effort.
For Oliver, a recall process could only start after at least 300 registered voters in Ward 3 submit affidavits to the Board of Election Commissioners requesting a recall. Then, at least 15% of registered voters in the ward must sign a petition to put a recall on the ballot. As of September, there were 12,948 registered voters in Ward 3, so a recall petition would require 1,943 voters’ signatures.
If the petition is successful, a recall election could take place in Ward 3. At least 15% of the ward’s voters would need to cast ballots for the recall to work, and Oliver could only be ousted if the majority of those ballots say “yes” to a recall.
At least 972 of those voters would need to vote in favor of recalling Oliver.
By comparison, the special election that Oliver won in 2023 had a turnout of less than 7%.
A successful Oliver recall would need to happen by the end of April 2027, because the measure sitting in the Legislature would not allow any elected official to be recalled within eight months of the end of their term.
What if Oliver resigns?
Oliver declined to comment when reporters asked him whether he plans to continue serving on the council.
Mitchell is not demanding Oliver’s resignation. He hasn’t spoken publicly about the situation except for a brief statement issued on Sunday, saying Oliver should provide an explanation of what happened.
Councilor James Roy is the only voice in city government to share an opinion on whether Oliver should step down. In an interview with The Light, he did not explicitly call for Oliver to resign, but he said there’s “nothing wrong with taking a step back when necessary.”
“If Shawn is dealing with something bigger in his personal life, I hope he takes the time he needs to address it,” he said. As a City Council candidate last year, Roy spoke openly about his own struggles with substance use and criminal charges.
“Public service is a responsibility to the community, and sometimes we have to consider not just what we want to do, but whether we’re ready to take it on,” Roy added.
Other councilors have refused to take a stance on Oliver’s political future.
Councilor Shane Burgo has strongly disagreed with Oliver on various issues that have come before the council, but even he stopped short of calling for Oliver’s resignation.
“I would love to remove Shawn Oliver,” he said. “But it wouldn’t be fair to the people of Ward 3 who elected him.”
He said he didn’t think it was appropriate for him to take a stance on the representation of a ward where he doesn’t live. (Burgo, an at-large councilor, is a resident of Ward 4.)
Burgo added that he was surprised by the news of Oliver’s drunk driving charges because he has spent time with Oliver at city events where alcohol was served and didn’t think of the Ward 3 councilor as an excessive drinker.
Council President Ryan Pereira told The Light he had no comment on Oliver. In an interview with WBSM, he said he wouldn’t try to remove Oliver even if he had the ability to.
Councilor Leo Choquette has also declined to take a position on whether Oliver should stay or go.
If Oliver resigns before July 2027, that would trigger a special election to fill the vacancy for the remainder of his term. The winner would be the third consecutive Ward 3 councilor to come into office in a special election.
Otherwise, the soonest opportunity for Ward 3 voters to choose their councilor will be in the next regular municipal election in fall 2027.
Oliver wouldn’t be the first to hold onto office after an OUI
There are several recent examples of elected officials in Massachusetts continuing to serve, and even being reelected, after a drunk driving arrest.
Oliver’s Ward 3 predecessor, Hugh Dunn, was arrested on a drunk driving charge in 2021 and continued to serve with a pending criminal case for more than a year. He was reelected when he ran unopposed that fall. He was found not guilty in October 2022 and resigned shortly after, citing a long commute to his job in Boston.
Holyoke City Councilor Israel Rivera stepped down from his leadership roles after a December 2022 drunk driving arrest, according to news reports. But he kept his seat even after he was put on one year of probation and received a 45-day license suspension.
His colleague on the Holyoke council, David Bartley, has been reelected repeatedly since a 2017 drunk driving arrest. The court issued him a 45-day license suspension, and required him to pay $1,380 in fines and attend driver alcohol education classes. More recently, he was accused of violating state ethics laws.
Brockton state Sen. Michael Brady and Worcester state Rep. David Leboeuf have both been reelected since their drunk driving arrests in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
Oliver was arrested before a busy time for the City Council, with six meetings scheduled in seven weekdays. He participated in routine committee meetings on Monday and Tuesday, and chaired an Audit Committee meeting on Wednesday night.
Eleonora Bianchi contributed reporting.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org.
