Burgo Won’t Seek Another Term as New Bedford City Council President

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — New Bedford City Council President Shane Burgo said he will not seek the council presidency for a second time.

Burgo will run for a third term on the city council; however, he said he prefers to return to his at-large seat rather than remain on the dais with the president’s gavel.

In his weekly appearance on WBSM Monday morning, when mentioning the council’s recent “Cut Night” regarding the city budget, Burgo mentioned that he did not plan to seek the council presidency again next year.

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Burgo was discussing the change he made to how cuts are proposed this year – having councilors submit their proposed budget cuts each individually, without seeing other councilors' proposed cuts in advance and allowing them to “sign on” to those cuts.

He was asked if he thinks that is the right way to continue going forward, and during that response, he dropped the news that he won’t seek the council presidency next year.

“I don't plan on running for council president again, so I won't have the burden of making that decision next year,” he said. “Breaking news, I guess, right?”

READ MORE: New Bedford City Council Elects Shane Burgo as 2025 President

Why Shane Burgo Won’t Run for Council President Again

Burgo said he wants to be able to speak freely from the council floor once again on issues that are important to him, whereas a council president needs to step down from dais in order to speak on a motion.

“I think that surprisingly, you know, people think that the council presidency is this really huge, like grandiose position, which in some cases it can be,” Burgo said. “But I've found that it has been very – I don't know the word I want to use – in some ways, it's really held me back.”

Burgo’s Face Told a Recent Story

Burgo said a case in point was the recent “Cut Night,” when the council voted 6-5 to reduce the city’s annual payment to the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center from around $500,000 to zero. Voting for the cut were Councilors Derek Baptiste, Naomi Carney, Maria Giesta, Brian Gomes, Linda Morad and Shawn Oliver, while Ian Abreu, Burgo, Leo Choquette, Joe Lopes and Ryan Pereira voted against it.

READ MORE: Restoration at Risk as New Bedford City Council Defunds Zeiterion

“I think everyone knows that I have been a very outspoken advocate for the Zeiterion Theater, and past ‘Cut Nights’ when a cut of this magnitude has been proposed, I have spoken out against it, but I wasn't able to this particular night,” Burgo said. “The only ability that I had was to roll my eyes and kind of huff and puff on the microphone, which obviously drew some annoyance from my colleagues.”

One councilor admonished him during the meeting for rolling his eyes, and he said others approached him afterward saying he shouldn’t have done it.

“I had a conversation with them where I said, ‘Well, it’s the only thing I could do,’” he said. “So in my mind, it was like, listen, let me roll my eyes. I didn't, you know, bang my gavel. I didn't scream or talk out of line. I think I followed the rules. There's nothing in the charter that says I can't roll my eyes. I'm entitled to my facial expressions.”

“I just feel that’s one example of many where I feel as though I have more power sitting on the floor of the council in regards to motions,” he said.

Burgo Is Looking Forward to Getting Back on the Council Floor

Burgo said he’s known as being someone who is very outspoken, and that is one of the reasons that he drew so much opposition to being council president.

“Often I would say, if anything, you should want me to be council president, so I'll shut up. One of the things I keep saying now is I can't wait to get to January, which I'm sure everyone else is so excited, until I can give up this gavel,” he said. “What I often retort back is, you're going to really be sorry when I give up the gavel, because I probably won't shut up once I get back to that floor and I can finally feel somewhat unburdened by this role, and can really start speaking up again for the people of New Bedford on that floor and not feel like I'm being gagged.”