Historic? City Council Fails To Pick A President, Ganim Quickly Adjourns Meeting

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In what could be a first, the City Council Monday night at its organizational meeting failed to muster 11 votes to elect a council president, presumably leaving Aidee Nieves as head of the legislative body. But, for how long?

The City Charter states, “At the beginning of each term of office the city council shall elect from among its members one council member to be president of the city council who shall serve for a term until November 30 of the next odd-numbered year or until the president of the council’s successor has been elected.”

North End Councilwoman Jeanette Herron garnered 10 votes to 8 votes for Nieves. The City Charter requires a majority of the council, 11 votes, to select a leader.

New council member Galen Murray from Black Rock and Maria Pereira voted no to either candidate.

With City Attorney Tyisha Toms sitting by his side, Mayor Joe Ganim who chairs the council meetings said council rules allow for an abstention only when a member cites a conflict of interest. He also cited a no vote as an abstention. He then quickly adjourned the meeting after one round of voting.

East End Councilman Ernie Newton, who served as council president from 1981-85, pushed back on Ganim’s procedural decision not to continue the vote, asserting roll call votes must continue until a leader is chosen.

Ganim declared to those who voted no “I don’t know what to tell you if you don’t want to pick a council president.”

Ganim also declared “We’ll sort this out.”

The politics of this is Ganim wants to keep Nieves in place. But, what’s the legal aspect?

It’s unclear what this means in the long term. It’s uncharted territory. Perhaps another vote?

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10 comments

  1. I watched this whole debacle a little while ago.As with most decisions this council has to make the choosing of a president turned into a contentious battle,and add in Joe’s usual “let’s hurry this up so I can get out of here” approach,the battle will last for awhile.First off,it Maria isn’t gonna ever change her mind and vote,she loves the battle & and being the center of attention,in fact she let everyone know at the onset,she was voting once and leaving,lol.So that leaves Murray,who knows what he’s thinking,but I’m sure he’ll end up voting one way or another eventually.
    Had to laugh at Ernie bringing up to Joe what the council did 40 yrs ago during a similar situation,they stayed for hours and kept voting till they came to a decision.Of course Joe would NEVER even think of entertaining that,like always,all he wants to do is get out of there as fast as possible.
    Instead of letting this linger and ..festering,Jeanette got 10 votes to Aidee’s 8 votes,Jeanette should win.Set a precedent,if you don’t want to vote,so be it,and move on.

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  2. Harvey I was there live, for the most part. 🙂

    The fact that G2 went in depth into the rules regarding this exact situation perhaps it was a precursor to Port’s politics, that seems to be a constant. 😂

    John L may have a point,people. The only thing that perhaps can address Port’s Jerry Springer style politics, perhaps by design, is residents engagment.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ZIRHtcH8o

    They, CC memeberts may actually have to be held accountable to their constituents instead of just bringing them up as a talking point in their political pontification in Port’s inside game, WEEPA 🤣

    That being said, clearly this is an inside game, regardless of WEEP’s political constituent pontification. From a constitution perspective, the CC president leads the photo op/pressconferances representation of the council member. There was a clarion call about being qualified and learning on the job curve among the members. So my guess is Jeanette’s ability to lead public meetings and press confession, because Nieves seemed to handle it well enough. But that shit doesn’t matter in Port Politics. It didn’t matter when AJ was appointed and took to the public podium, people. 🤣

    One council member seemed to speak some the truths, “it really doesn’t matter who’s CC president or even Mayor”.

    The game is the game, a dysfunctional one at that but the puppet masters are the puppet masters, and y’all are just the political pawns battling it out, for the most part. On that need to know bases. JS Good Luck.

    PS WEEPA good luck in your racism/anti-G2 regime CHANGE mayoral campaign. Good job in using the word CHANGE, novice, original idea. 🙃

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKMhrf4fmI

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  3. BTW Harvey, you think you had to laugh at Ernie bringing up to Joe what the council did 40 yrs ago.

    Perhaps you missed it but Moses of the Port withdrew his name as consideration for CC President and stole WEEPS thunder and high jacked your nomination of Jeantette before you could. 🙂
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    WEEP hope that makes you feel? 🙂 Considering you danced across the CC chambers to get down with Moses of the Port, I shit you not people. 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEWkZb11pss

    Not to mention that it seemed to be a lot of work, set-up of one song people 🙂

    Moses of the Port good luck on your state run. 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMqdbCXWMs0

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  4. P.S WEEPS, by extension, I am not getting goaded into your racist campaign. Perhaps you are right, change is needed , peace out 🙂

    Besides I didn’t come here to get into Port’s political disingenuous weeds. I came here to WOO somebody. Though it’s not as easy as I thought. 🤣 WOO ?

    Who’s John Galt? 🙃

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN8EE5JxSGQ

    Though in the spirit of John L. I may kick it a bit with , like it as the prophet, being John pointed out it’s my civic responsibility 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grL4JMs0hDc

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