Remarks by Shawn E. Cadime
98 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 4
“Motion to adjourn. Second. Second. All in favor?”
“In seat one, Counselor Kadeem. Thank you. So, Attorney Aiken, I appreciate all the information that was given to us. I think it's useful information. I do just want to say, aside from what you're stating, everybody's outrage on these harm reduction bags is mind boggling to me because When it was brought to my attention and then in the forever reporter, I said to myself, we've had conversations about harm reduction bags in the city of in council meetings, right at subcommittee meetings. And there has been nobody with outrage. I disagree with them wholeheartedly. So forever love for a civic net…”
“Maybe we should invite the DA's office as well.”
“Mr. President, did you say the entire Council? If not, can you make sure the chair of the committee has cc'd on that? Yes.”
“Thank you. I appreciate my colleague and C3's comments. I whole highly support them with regarding the affordable housing. I actually filed the resolution, I think it was like 2025, to have the administration come down before us to start discussing affordable housing and putting a mandate that at least 10 to 20% would be affordable housing for new development as we move forward. So we haven't had any conversation about that. So resolution was filed. It's just sitting in the lost files. And so I don't disagree. I think we need to revisit that. I think there's some significant conversations…”
“Can I just ask a question while he's going on? Sure. Do they ask for your ID, any information, anything?”
“I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep interrupting you, but so you walked into Seven Hills, there was no conversation about the type of drugs you use, what you need, any...”
“No, I'm just curious, and the reason I ask, I'm just curious if there's any follow-up with additional... So for my state, I don't know, it's one thing to give the bags. But if you're also trying to give them some additional services, right, so mental health services, or any type of rehab services, I'm just curious if that follows the”
“Is there anything that you want before he puts that up?”
“We'll drop in. We'll ignore the puff piece.”
“rush to judgment, we should probably have a conversation with the organizations that are providing these bags and trying to get a better understanding of what the intent is, right? So if there's wraparound services, then I think we need to have those conversations. And I just think we've got to be careful how, like if we're coming hot out of the box, Seven Hills is not going to show up, right? There's no incentive for them to show up and we can do what we're going to do. Apparently, we've already got statutes that would say that that's against the law. What I would say, and anybody who has…”
“I'm just curious how they allow you, and that's part of the conversation I want to have, just to walk in, grab a bag without any information. And maybe they know if you ask for information, they're not going to go in there. But I think at some point, there's got to be an exchange to be able to help that individual with some type of services. without a yield.”
“I just don't want to, I'm not trying to take away from the issue, right? But that bag you presented, you could probably buy, with the exception of the needles, right? The needles are separate. Everything you just presented, you could probably get for $3 at the local store, right? So if you're a homeless person who's just a panhandler, you can get that in two minutes, walk to a store, and get a glass tube, a charboi, baking soda, matches. You can all get that with short money, right? I recognize that giving it out for free is not one thing, but it's not like it's going to cost them $50 at Stop…”
“So one, thank you for being here. Uh, two, I just want to say the characterization as petty politics over $40,000 is extremely disingenuous and ignores the broader issues that have, um, been raised by the council. And I, I, for one, I won't speak for any other counselor. I've, I've got no confidence in corporation council and I'd, I'd be willing to take a vote of no confidence for the entire, uh, the entire office to have an opinion drafted without again, us even requesting an opinion two hours before a meeting. I requested it. Okay. They didn't do that out of the blue. I understand that.”
“And I appreciate that, but our conversation was on Friday.”
“Not Tuesday. So the first thing I would say is I want clarification because in here it says this isn't the first time that's before us. We rejected the budget. Correct. Flat out rejected the budget. So is this issue that's before us the first time it's before the city council? Yes. Okay. I'm going to ask the CFO in terms of budgets. Can you have a budget without an appropriation?”
“Can you have a budget without an appropriation?”
“You need an appropriation, okay. Do you think Corporation Counsel should know that you need an appropriation in order to have a budget? I mean, is that like Finance 101? Is that Municipal Law 101?”
“No, I mean, if Corporation Counsel has given us an opinion on something, one would assume right, that the biggest part of any municipal operation is a budget. That in order to have a budget, you need to have an appropriation, right? So I would assume that every attorney who practices municipal law would understand that. So the question that's before us as to whether or not what school department vote we're going to take, the first budget we rejected, there was no appropriation. In the second paragraph, it says the city council thereafter considered the proposed budget at multiple meetings.…”
“Your point of order, council? What appropriation was approved?”
“That's exactly where I was going. So there was no appropriation that was ever submitted. So there was no budget. So the entire budget was rejected. So again, when we're having an illegal opinion coming before us saying that there was a budget approved, I'd like to know how there wasn't a budget that was approved with zero appropriation. There wasn't a single dollar that was appropriated to any line item of that initial budget. budget was rejected it came back before us we rejected again the budget is not before us so for us to even again this this flies in the face of taking away the…”
“Right. And so, one, I can't get an opinion from another community. That's one. So, I mean, corporation council can get an opinion.”
“Right. So, I mean, we can have those conversations, but the draft agreement that we have starts off, number one, authority of corporation council. Pursuant to Section 2-527 and 2-528, the Code of the City of Fall River and Administration Act through Corporation Council remains the only authority authorized to legally bind the City of Fall River. We've acknowledged that. We've asked for an appropriation. We've asked for a good faith resolution. We've asked that the City Council draft a policy. The selection of the city council was clearly outlined. He has a seat at the table, but the ultimate…”
“This draft, Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, is a pretty straight, clear, straightforward. He's just refusing to sign it. He's not going to sign it. And that's fine. That's you. You you are ultimately the mayor. You are you are the individual who ultimately has control of every single department that's before us. If you want this way to get signs, the mayor says it gets signs, right? So if corporation council refuses to sign it because of some type of law he says that he's read somewhere that I've asked for the last month and a half, and he's yet to provide it to any of the city councilors,…”
“Mid-April. Mid-April. When's the budget due?”