Dan Rivera recall, Lawrence, Massachusetts (2016)

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Lawrence Mayor recall
Officeholders
Dan Rivera
Recall status
Did not go to a vote
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2016 Recalls in Massachusetts Massachusetts recall laws Mayoral recalls Recall reports

An effort in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to recall Mayor Dan Rivera from his position was launched in August 2015. Two petition efforts failed to reach the ballot due to an insufficient number of valid signatures.

Recall supporters

Rivera was targeted for recall because of disagreements on a variety of issues: his hiring and firing practices; the closure of two fire stations and a pedestrian bridge over railroad tracks; and a decision not to appoint a hiring committee for the position of police chief. Supporters of the recall were also supporters of William Lantigua, who served as mayor until his 2013 defeat to Rivera.

Recall opponents

The Valley Patriot issued the following editorial opposing the recall effort published in December 2015:

"	The purpose of recall elections are, and should be reserved for throwing elected officials out of office for criminal behavior, incompetence, or when the office holder cannot, or will not do the job they were elected to do. This is not the case with Mayor Rivera. The recall process in Lawrence has been used as a tool of political retribution by the losers of an election to undo the will of the people during a democratic election. Since the Lawrence charter went into affect in 1986, recall efforts have been used to try and nullify the elections of Mayors Kennedy, Dowling, Michael Sullivan, and even Lantigua himself. All of those recall efforts failed. But, this recall is different. This recall has a political genius, and thousands of rabid supporters desperate to achieve power once again, so they can fleece the taxpayers and settle political scores. We strongly condemn the recall effort by Willie Lantigua and his supporters to throw Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera out of office. He was duely elected as mayor in 2013, and if the Lantigua supporters do not like that, their ringleader is free to run again in 2017 to try to regain his seat. We do not agree with much of Rivera’s political agenda for Lawrence. He has been wrong many times in his first two years on some very serious issues; trying to farm out 911 dispatching services, micromanaging the police department, getting rid of the Trauma Intervention Team to save money, trying to move the registry downtown are just a few examples. But, despite our differences, we do not see even one single reason Rivera should be forcibly removed from office.	”
—The Valley Patriot (2015),

Path to the ballot

Petitioners had until October 9, 2015, to collect 5,645 signatures in order to move the recall forward. Recall supporters Louis Farrah and William Green filed 181 affidavits from supporters as a precursor to collecting signatures. The Lawrence Board of Registrars certified 136 affidavits, exceeding the minimum required total of 100 affidavits to circulate petitions. Supporters had until October 15, 2015, to submit signatures after City Council President Modesto Maldonado allowed recall petitions to be released from the city clerk's office.

Rivera challenged the validity of the affidavits and Superior Court Judge Mary K. Ames blocked signature collection in an injunction effective October 2, 2015. The Board of Registrars held a meeting on October 22, 2015, to hear Rivera's case against the affidavits. The board approved circulation of petitions during the October 22 meeting. Rivera appealed the decision to Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler, who suspended the renewed recall effort until Rivera's objections were heard in full by the Board of Registrars. Two petition drives were initiated by supporters of the recall in late November 2015. On December 11, 2015, The Valley Patriot reported that the first petition drive failed to achieve the 5,645 signatures needed to force an election after 3,070 signatures were determined to be invalid.

The second petition drive was defeated in January 2016 by the city's Board of Registrars. Organizers for the Foundation for Transparency in Government, which organized the first petition drive, sought to restore at least 1,600 names in an appeal to the board. Sal Tabit, the attorney for Dan Rivera, argued that the registrars are unable to restore names stricken from petitions.

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• Recall campaigns in Massachusetts
• Political recall efforts, 2015
• Political recall efforts, 2016
• Mayoral recalls