Democratic Party politics and the presidential contest experienced upheaval Sunday when President Joe Biden announced he would decline the nomination for president at the party’s national convention next month in Chicago. Biden immediately turned to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, who has already won the support of delegates who will represent the 413 in the Windy City.
As summer heats up, the Springfield City Council begins to slow down, holding fewer meetings than during the rest of the year. The body’s July 8 sitting was its only scheduled regular meeting until September. Despite the policy and finance-heavy agenda, there was little of major controversy before councilors last Monday.
The two surprise legislative races anchored in Springfield may yet rock political foundations in the city. However, on the fundraising front, the races are proceeding more or less typically for incumbent challenges. Both State Senator Adam Gomez and State Rep Bud Williams maintain healthy fundraising leads.
After years of stuff reductions, farming out of printing to Springfield, and closure of its physical newsroom, staff at the Hartford Courant have received some good news of their own. The Courant Guild secured a contract with Tribune’s owner, Alden Global Capital, that will guarantee raises and retirement benefits.
On Monday, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Service reported out the age waiver to allow Springfield Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers to serve until age 70. As WMP&I reported last week, the Committee redrafted the home rule petition, which the Springfield City Council and Mayor Domenic Sarno had forwarded in February. The Committee’s changes essentially reverse those the city had made.
A joint session of the Holyoke City Council and School Committee met Tuesday to fill the vacancy created when at-large Committee member Erin Brunelle resigned. After interviewing applicants, the joint session voted to appoint former at-large School Committee member and onetime Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) President Devin Sheehan to fill Brunelle’s spot.
The attempt to gut the Police Commission was part of a broader legislative package that would facilitate Lawrence Akers’s appointment as superintendent. Another piece was a home rule petition to let him remain a cop beyond the state’s mandatory retirement age of 65 and cap his pension. That bill, too, went to the rewrite desk. Now the original language could make a return.
SPRINGFIELD—The Community Preservation Committee’s (CPC) recommendations for the coming year constituted much of the City Council agenda on June 10. However, consideration of the projects did not invite the rancor the other items before the Council did.
A transfer of free cash to reserves veered off-topic and became heated. By contrast, the sale of a city-owned railroad parcel prompted a barrage of accusations and nonplussed the chamber.
SPRINGFIELD—Alongside normal business at its June 10 meeting, the City Council greenlighted a list of projects that received funding under the Community Preservation Act (CPA). In 2016, voters authorized a 1.5% surcharge on tax bills.
The Committee’s chair, Robert McCarroll, announced nearly $3 million in projects for fiscal year 2025.
WESTFIELD—While introducing Bridget Matthews-Kane Tuesday evening at the Shortstop Bar & Grill, former Springfield Mayor, one-time Governor’s Councilor and retired judge Mary Hurley touted the candidate’s biography. She explained how the three-term city councilor and State House hopeful has deep family roots here and across Hampden County.
Upon taking the mic to speak for herself at her kickoff, Matthews-Kane shifted to her granular work on the Council.
