Effort to recall Mayor Correia started

October 18, 2018 5:09 pm

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) – Embattled Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia has made it crystal clear, he won’t step down. So now some residents are trying to oust him from the job.

A small group has started the recall process to throw Correia overboard but it’s not going to happen overnight. We’re told they started this process because they don’t have any faith in Correia’s ability to lead right now and they’re embarrassed by the arrest and how he’s behaved in the week since.

If he won’t resign, a group of people say they’ll take the necessary steps to remove Mayor Jasiel Correia from office.

“I think people are feeling a little let down that things weren’t as honest as they hoped them to be,” says Joseph Pereira. He’s 1 of the 10 people who started the paperwork to get the recall ball rolling.

“A lot of us are kind of gun shy after Mayor Flanagan’s recall. It was an embarrassment. This situation is an embarrassment. I hate the fact that we’re here but if we didn’t file, believe me 10 other people would have,” says Pereira.

Once the City Clerk signs off on an affidavit, the recall effort has 20 days to get 5% of registered voters to agree they want Correia out, which is roughly 2,500 signatures. Pereira says they’ll need even more than that to be safe.

According to the City’s Charter, if there are enough signatures to recall Mayor Correia would have 5 days to resign before a recall election is scheduled.

That’s when more questions pop up.

“Then it becomes who’s going to run against Jasiel? I think we’re lacking strong politicians in this city,” says Pereira.

An ABC 6 News crew was in Fall River today looking to speak with the mayor about this recall and his arrest, once again he wasn’t available to the media and we still haven’t heard back yet about our request for a statement.