Are you talking to me? (WMP&I and Google images)

SPRINGFIELD—Relatively routine school matters occupied a substantial amount of councilors’ attention at its recent Monday meeting. Generally, school matters are not within the Council’s wheelhouse, per state law. However, there are notable exceptions. The city builds and maintains school buildings and essentially controls the financing thereof. The Council also approves certain school contract terms.

The meeting featured some quirky items, such as a collective bargaining contract with an empty bargaining unit. Councilors also sent several utility reports, which allow companies to open streets, to Committee. The ostensible reason was to probe whether these costs are passed onto consumers, but it clearly comes in the context of uproar over recent high energy bills.

Councilors Maria Perez, Brian Santaniello, Kateri Walsh and Tracye Whitfield participated remotely.

The Council received the January Revenue & Expenditure report from Acting Comptroller Steve Lonergan. Lonergan again stated that there was not yet any indication the erratic dismantlement of the federal government had upended Springfield’s budget.

When the Council came to the utility reports, one for Verizon received approval. However, at the motion of Ward 4 City Councilor Malo Brown, the body sent the remaining for Eversource to committee.

“We’re just paying for a lot of this stuff without knowing how this will actually reflect on the actual consumer,” Brown said.

The expectation is the Council will extend an invitation to Eversource to explain what the work is for and who will ultimately pay for it. It was not immediately clear whether the work is for specific customers or lines that feed into several customers’ properties.

Brown in campaign mode, but for a different office, last year. (WMP&I)

Given the public debate about utility bills, the referral is timely. Politically, however, it could be valuable for councilors facing opposition in this year’s election, as Brown is. However, four of the five Eversource requests were for gas.

It is not clear if all this work pertains to gas leaks. However, activists including onetime City Council Jesse Lederman pressed Eversource’s predecessor to agree to fix leaks across the city in 2017. In addition to affecting climate, gas companies essentially pass the cost of the lost gas on to customers.

The Council approved four grants, each at or under $100,000 for the Community Development, Elder Affairs and Library departments. Councilors also accepted the quarterly $132,748 payment from Comcast for public access. The city directs that money to Focus Springfield.

The body also greenlit payment of a $484 bill for service to a municipal vehicle.

HR/Labor Relations Director William Mahoney presented a labor contract between the city and the Springfield Public Health Nurses Association (SPHNA). Technically two contracts covering four years—the first from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025; the second July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2028—it provides raises and updates to language around grievances.

The issue is that nobody belongs to SPHNA anymore. Mahoney said that the last official member left the job after the agreement was inked. It nevertheless has union approval predating her departure and the Council can sign off on it. This would keep the agreement binding on the bargaining unit, namely public health nurses Mahoney said the city is trying to hire.

Councilors focused on how the city had few or really zero public health nurses. Public health nurses help with vaccinations, tracing infectious disease and other aspects of health in the community. Mahoney said at one time Springfield had about four public health nurses. That began to decline with time. The nominal supervisor of the nurses is a former member of the public health nurse union herself. She and school nurses were filling in for the dearth of formal public health nurses.

Mahoney urged passage, but he was ambivalent enough to make committee referral uncontroversial. (still via YouTube/Focus Springfield)

Much of the discussion appears to have focused on public health nurse pay. Mahoney indicated that Springfield is comparable to other communities. However, many councilors expressed interest in reassessing salaries, especially since approval of the agreement would not have any impact on anyone right now.

The item moved to committee 12-1. Ward 7 Councilor Timothy Allen dissented.

Councilors also had a lengthy discussion about authorizing a four-year contract for laptops at city schools. While independent in many ways, the City Council must greenlight contracts longer than three years.

The contract for laptops is somewhat familiar now. The School Department has a schedule of four-year laptop leases. These are staggered so a different segment of the staff and students receive a replacement laptop each year in the four-year cyclce. This four-year request, in one form or another, has been coming to councilors for years. The Council usually only care if the School Department has an actual contract for longer than three years or just the bid for one. Putting the latter forward often irks councilors. They have said it limits their opportunity for review the actual savings the city derives from a longer term.

Nevertheless, the Council dugs into the details of the contract, lengthening debate on a routine item.

Councilors were equally loquacious, less probing and more laudatory about a list of school construction projects. The city is forwarding 12 statements of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The affected schools are Alice B. Beal, Boland, Brunton, Dorman, Kensington, Liberty, Mary Lynch, Talmadge, Washington and Zanetti elementary schools and South End and Van Sickle middle schools. The body approved the list without dissent.

The last item on the Council’s agenda was an amendment to the city’s pawn shop ordinance. For many years now, the city had a moratorium on new pawn shops. That has expired, but the rest of city’s law on pawn shops need updating.

Council President Michael Fenton stepped down from the dais to speak on the item. Because Whitfield, the body’s Veep, was remote, she could not take over the meeting for him. Instead, it passed through seniority, landing on Ward 3 Councilor Melvin Edwards, who had been vice president last year.

Fenton explained that the updates were mostly codifying current practice, such as Criminal Offender Record Information checks and a $200 filing fee. After some debate, the Council approved first step without dissent.

(WMP&I)

Perhaps it would be too cynical to say councilors emphasized what they did because the election cycle is beginning. However, it would be equally naïve to say the election played no role. The biggest question is whether it will matter.

Midterm elections in Springfield get even less attention than mayoral ones. Will voters recall a few comments in chambers or even a utility hearing when November rolls around? Perhaps, or maybe not unlike the city and the public health nurse union, councilors are just talking to themselves.