Some Stearns warnings from the Council. (WMP&I and Google images)

A week before the Springfield City Council was to consider tax rates for residential and commercial properties, members briefly clashed over funding to close deficits from prior years. In fact, the issue was not closing the deficits. Rather, it was spending money on small dollar gaps—totaling less than $100,000—rather than allocating more to reduce property taxes.

Mayor Domenic Sarno has since offered millions of dollars more to lessen tax bill increases, a teaspoon of ocean relative to next year’s property taxes. There was another mayor-Council flashpoint last week, albeit one that took the guise of old school political territorialism. The removal of the historic Stearns Square bench had reached the Council. However, the body punted on a resolve at the request of one councilor.

At-large councilor Jose Delgado was absent from the November 18 meeting. Councilors Malo Brown, Sean Curran, Zaida Govan, Brian Santaniello, Kateri Walsh and Tracye Whitfield participated remotely.

The Council’s agenda was not especially fraught or complex. Whitfield dissented from some findings of one committee and voted against accepting committee reports. However, much of the early agenda passed easily.

A six pack of Eversource utility petitions—which let the company open the street for work—passed with few questions. All of Monday’s grants on the agenda for acceptance were below $100,000. Therefore, they passed the Council with one vote and no debate.

The Council authorized payment for $12,238 in bills from prior years using this fiscal year’s money. It greenlighted the quarterly $137,636 payment to Focus Springfield, the city’s public access provider.

Councilors approved a technical change in the School Department budget. Technically, the Council can do no more than approve the School’s topline budget. The rest is under the School Committee’s control. However, the final state budget included a bit less for charter school tuition reimbursement. The School Department found the money elsewhere, but the shift in figures formally required Council approval.

The body also approved the termination of a tax incremental financing deal for a Taylor Street building that was going to host a Loophole Brewing space. Deputy Director of Economic Development Brian Connors said that the property owners never actually benefited from the agreement before the project fell apart. The building has been sold.

Buono Fortuna (via Springfield City Hall)

These items all passed without dissent.

The first speed bump in the meeting, however was $99,517 the city was proposing to transfer to balance old accounts for grants from prior fiscal years. Chief Administrative & Financial Officer Cathy Buono told councilors that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue asked the city to reconcile the funds.

According to Buono, the not-quite $100,000 spread across 15 different accounts, some dating to fiscal year 2014, which ended on June 30 of that year.

Councilors Govan and Whitfield raised some objections to the transfer, noting that residential property owners were facing hundreds of dollars in increases to tax bills next year. Govan had held a press conference earlier that day calling for more relief.

The administration had planned to use free cash—unexpended funds from the prior fiscal year—to reconcile the old accounts. Buono said the state had certified $21,275,296 in free cash for the city. The Council had already approved $3.3 million for the Law Department to settle a suit. Other transfers would probably bring that below $17 million.

Buono noted that the administration was open to more transfers to reduce the property tax burden. Since then, Mayor Sarno has agreed to transfer $4 million from free cash to defray the property tax levy. This is $1 million more than a tax rate recommendation panel had accounted for. This is on top of $2 million the city had previously committed from investments.

In essence, the city is reducing the size of the total amount of money it expects to collect from property taxes. The city had projected collected $275 million from property taxes this fiscal year. It is not yet clear how this number will change with the newer commitments from free cash.

The transfer passed 11-1 with only Govan in opposition.

The final item was a resolution calling for Parks, Recreation & Buildings Executive Director Thomas Ashe to deliver a plan to return Stearns Square’s bench to its rightful place. Ward 8 Councilor Govan took the lead on the resolution. Many residents attended public speak-out to back the resolution.

Now a historic void (since bricked over). (WMP&I)

The bench is one of two architectural features installed in Stearns Square in the late 19^th century. (A third, the statue of Deacon Samuel Chapin, now stands in Merrick Park next to the Central Library.) The Parks Department removed it over the summer. The alleged reason was safety arising due to its condition. Historic preservation advocates have met the explanation with skepticism.

In October, advocates went public with their concerns. The city showed the disassembled bench to The Republican, although its full condition is unclear. What is clearer is the city has not identified funding or a means to restore the bench.

Govan was not alone in expressing concern about the historic feature. At-large Councilor Brian Santaniello, a former chair of the Park Commission, suggested the administration did not adhere to normal processes.

“The Park Commission should have been notified of the plan to move that bench before it was moved,” he said. “So, I’d like to get an estimate. Who’s going to repair that bench? Who’s technically capable of repairing that bench?”

The resolution’s fate would not be passage. Ward 1 Councilor Maria Perez, a close ally of the mayor, urged it go to committee. Essentially, she argued that as the ward councilor whose district encompasses Stearns Square, her colleagues should grant this wish—for now, at least.

Point of personal privilege. (still via YouTube/Focus Springfield)

Perez registered her objection via prepared remarks. She repeated assertions from the Parks Department that the bench was sinking and presented other dangers to the public. As for the resolution, which called for the city to lay out a plan and timeline, Perez said it should go to committee until the city has a chance to present…a plan.

“I have spoken to the chair of the Maintenance and Development Committee for the need to establish a venue in order to monitor and create a plan for outcome/solution for the return of the bench to its right place as well to hear from the director of the Park Department and all other the city departments for the time frame and all other issues concerning the return of the of the bench in order to inform our constituents,” she said.

Perez also appeared to take a shot at the resolution’s sponsors, suggesting she was kept out of the loop.

“I take very seriously any issues that arise in the city, specifically in the ward that I represent,” Perez continued. “For my colleagues in government, let’s not undermine each other com each other communication collaboration and consistency.”

Councilors Whitfield and Victor Davila came to Govan’s defense and suggested that there was no downside to passing the resolution while calling a Maintenance & Development meeting.

Govan welcomed Perez’s claim that Ashe was open to finding a solution. Still, the Ward 8 councilor defended the resolution. Residents both inside and outside her ward had approached her about the matter. She did not otherwise address Perez’s apparent sniping except to question whether her colleague read the resolution.

Perez replied with a concern there could be too many resolutions about different benches and suggested the officials address historic benches citywide.

As debate wore on, it was clear a referral to committee would pass. When the vote came, the motion carried 11-1, with only Govan in dissent.

It can be easy to forget that ward representation in Springfield is not even 15 years old yet. To say that there is a norm to universally defer to a ward councilor is not quite correct. Certainly, permits or other matters that would typically involve neighborhood association receive such deference. Care of a historic asset that belongs to the whole city is not the purview of any one ward or neighborhood.

(WMP&I)

As a practical matter, letting the nonbinding resolution pass would not have undermined Perez as ward rep. Nor does a pause necessarily frustrate the goal of historic preservation advocates. Resolutions grab attention. The Council debate essentially achieved this.

In that sense, it is not clear Perez accomplished much more than hurling her body between public demands for accountability and the administration of Domenic Sarno, her ally.