GREENFIELD — Mayor William Martin has vetoed the safe city ordinance passed by the City Council last month.
Martin said Tuesday the passage of the ordinance is unnecessary because an executive order directing the Police Department not to ask for immigration status as well as other requests has been in place since 2017.
Martin said in his veto that since the executive order was issued, “the city of Greenfield remains a safe city. Crime has decreased; violent crime is absent; and no city resources, human or otherwise, have been allocated to state or federal initiatives relative to 287(g) whereby a city opts in to assist immigration officials other than for Judicial Orders.”
The City Council will now take up the veto in its Sept. 18 meeting. To override the veto, the City Council needs a two-thirds vote or the approval of nine councilors; otherwise, the veto will be upheld.
However, the status of the ballot question, including whether it is binding or nonbinding, is unknown, according to Martin.
In addition, Martin said that the process the safe city ordinance has gone through until now “did not allow the mayor to exercise the authority granted in the charter.”
The July 17 safe city vote by the City Council was temporarily suspended when Precinct 1 City Councilor Verne Sund submitted a motion to reconsider. Following that motion to reconsider was a citizen referendum submitted to the clerk’s office Aug. 12 to overturn the July 17 vote.
At its Aug. 15 meeting, City Council voted to reconsider the July vote, thus nullifying it, according to Martin.
The council then affirmed its vote in favor of the safe city ordinance again, creating an August vote, which is the subject of the mayor’s veto. At its August meeting, the council also accepted the citizen referendum petition to put the July vote on the ballot.
Martin said Tuesday that the status of the petition is unknown because the July vote was nullified in the council’s August meeting.
The ballot question as it was approved in the Aug. 15 City Council meeting is as follows:
“Shall the following measure, which was proposed to be rescinded by citizen initiative procedure, charter section 7-8, take effect?
“That the Greenfield City Council amends the code of the city of Greenfield by adding Chapter 353 to establish the city of Greenfield as a safe city, as attached hereto and further amends the table of contents and index of contents of the code and further that nonsubstantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be in compliance with the numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield.
A “yes” vote would uphold the City Council vote and allow the safe city ordinance to go into effect. A “no” vote would rescind the vote.
Four agenda items relating to the safe city ordinance were on the agenda of the Aug. 21 council meeting: a motion for reconsideration of the safe city ordinance vote; a citizen referendum petition on the safe city ordinance vote; a rescission of the council’s safe city ordinance vote from July 17; and a ballot question for the safe city ordinance.
During the second vote, which created the August vote referred to by the mayor, Councilors Mark Berson, Timothy Dolan, Sheila Gilmour, Otis Wheeler, Penny Ricketts, Ashli Stempel, Verne Sund and President Karen “Rudy” Renaud voted in favor of keeping the safe city ordinance.
Councilors Brickett Allis, Wanda Pyfrom and Isaac Mass voted to rescind the ordinance.
Martin said the city of Greenfield is a safe, welcoming place.
“We welcome the legal process and encourage others to engage in that process to become American citizens,” Martin wrote. “I suggest that the city provide and fund an access point for this path to citizenship by partnering with the Center for New Americans, or other like entities, to facilitate new immigrants in the area. In addition, for those who would like to see changes to the legal process, I encourage them to engage with our federal legislative delegation. Let us move to a middle ground to practice compassion and refrain from divisive dialogue.”
Reach Melina Bourdeau at 413-772-0261, ext. 263 or mbourdeau@recorder.com.