Next of pumpkin. (WMP&I and Google images)

Tragedy and the march of time itself undermined two ordinances before the City Council on Monday. Before the body was a proposal to automate electeds’ raises and another to double the time new hires have to move into the city. A majority of councilors present backed the raise bill, but not enough. The residency tweak ran out of time before the Council turned into a pumpkin at 10pm.

Council President Michael Fenton, who was a sponsor of both items, was absent Monday. At the meeting’s start, Council Vice President Melvin Edwards, who presided over the meeting, announced Fenton’s father had died that day. Nobody held the bill back so he could vote on it next time, costing it a decisive vote. Yet, both ordinances encountered opposition. Councilors objected to the hard sell for the bill and debate dragged on until the Council’s hard stop time.

In addition to Fenton, Ward 5 Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce was absent from the meeting. City Councilors Sean Curran, Zaida Govan, Brian Santaniello and Tracye Whitfield participated in the meeting virtually.

The Council’s 10pm meeting termination time alone did not get the residency tweak canned and kicked down the road. Ordinances typically appear last on the agenda and the Council wind became quite long during earlier, uncontroversial items. By the time the body reached the legislative portion, the meeting had entered hour two.

The drag did not begin right away, despite a late start. Committee reports were brief and clear. Among them was an Audit Committee report on the school busing contract. The Committee’s chair, at-large Councilor Jose Delgado, said he and others on the panel had received some reassurances, but still had concerns. Delgado said his committee would be meeting school officials to get more answers.

Acting Comptroller Steve Lonergan presented an unremarkable October Revenue & Expenditures report.

The Council authorized six utility petitions for Eversource gas and electric work across the city. Among them were work on Boston Road near the former Eastfield Mall where a new development is underway.

The Council greenlighted the transfer of two tax title properties to the city Conservation Commission. The city’s environmental resource manager said the parcels were unusable due to wetlands regulations.

Councilor also accepted an $18,300 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

As the grants grew bigger, the accolades from councilors grew longer.

Laura Walsh, of the Parks Department, presented a $1 million grant for Magazine Park. She noted the project grew out of Community Preservation Act funding. The grant received acceptance unanimously.

Elliott and McCafferty: a new police procedural streaming now on Focus Springfield. (still via YouTube/Focus Springfield)

Lt. Brian Elliott of the Police Department and Housing Director Gerry McCafferty presented a $1.3 million grant to connect homeless individuals with substance abuse services, working with Springfield District Court. They faced questions about the choice of Behavior Health Network as a partner.

Councilors did not have an objection to BHN directly. However, they highlighted the city’s tendency to give contracts to the same vendors over and over. (This is a real problem in Springfield and statewide.)

However, Elliott and McCafferty also indicated that state rules, not the city gave BHN a leg up. The Council accepted the grant without dissent.

The city’s adoption of the state HERO Act, an expansion of veteran benefits, did not face any Council challenges. It did invite speeches.

The bill has many provisions, including a section that lets municipalities expand veteran tax exemptions. Patrick Greenhalgh, chair of the Board of Assessors, told councilors it would double the exemption from $500 to $1000 for disabled veterans, depending on their disability percentage. Greenhalgh also said the bill provides excise tax savings. Although city revenue, the state administers that tax and its exemption.

City Veterans Services Director Joseph DeCaro added that the bill includes some technical changes. Among these was clarifying the kinds of honorable discharges that entitle veterans to benefits.

Beyond voluminous praise for the bill, debate centered around how to inform veterans about the benefits. There was urgency, but few ideas. The vote to accept the law passed unanimously.

The Council authorized $1.5 million from free cash for new police vehicles. Chief Administrative & Financial Officer Cathy Buono said it would buy about 20 new vehicles. She added it was preferable to pay cash. Bonding for them would weigh down the city’s borrowing capacity.

Buono: Waste not, bond not. (via Springfield City Hall)

Another $1.7 million moved into stabilization reserves. Buono characterized this as restoring reserves after the city used some funds to pay some police costs and to settle a lawsuit, pending certification of free cash. Free cash is leftover money in accounts from the prior year’s budget. The city may use it once the state certifies the amount.

The final two transfers from free cash were two tranches of $2,127,5230—one each for the pension fund and the other for other retiree benefits like health care. For several years now, the city has set aside modest sums to supplement its statutory obligations to retiree programs. Neither prompted much debate, save a brief note about free cash being used to lower tax bills.

All free cash transfers passed without dissent.

The largest grant Monday was a nearly $20 million Community Change Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. A part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation, it will fund a number of green initiatives across the city. McCafferty, who also presented this grant, said it would fund the decarbonizing of buildings, plant trees and contribute to the redesign of West Street in the North End.

McCafferty noted that Springfield was the first city in New England to receive such a grant from the EPA. Climate watchers fear it may not have much company. The administration taking office next month is hostile to the IRA and may try to bottle up its remaining funds. Donald Trump, who once altered a hurricane’s projected path on a weather map with a magic marker, does not believe in climate change.

EPA Headquarters in Washington before an expected gutting. (WMP&I)

Springfield, however, will get its money. Councilors showered praise on the award. Councilor Delgado noted that the impact is not limited to climate. Noting he had asthma himself and the city’s unenviably high asthma rates, he said the grant’s work could contribute to cleaner air, too.

It was around then that the Council entered its third and legislatively witching hour. Ward 6 Councilor Victor Davila introduced the bill that would raise the pay of the mayor, city councilors and school committee members automatically. The increase would be either the cost-of-living adjustment city retirees received or 2%, whichever is lower.

“What this is seeking to do is put an end to this discussion,” Davila said, referencing uncomfortable pushes over the last 10 years to raise electeds’ pay.

Councilors said little after his introduction and in one sense, the discussion did end. Legislation requires two votes for passage and only the first step was before the Council. It failed 6-5. Councilors Davila, Edwards, Whitfield, Timothy Allen, Malo Brown and Kateri Walsh supported it. Councilors Curran, Delgado, Govan, Perez and Santaniello were in opposition.

Absent a veto, ordinances only require a majority. However, under the City Charter, the Council can only act when with majority of all members, not just those present.

The bill is probably not dead if its sponsors persist. They could raise it for reconsidered or simply redraft it. Despite references to 2025, the bill’s substantive provisions do not take effect until 2026. The Council cannot raise its own pay per se, but it can raise the pay for future councils.

Councilors were more vocal about their misgivings about the bill to expand the window for new city employees to move into the city. After decades as a dead letter, the city has begun to take its residency ordinance seriously over the last 10 years.

The City Council at 10:01PM Monday night. (via wikipedia)

While the ordinance has long had critics, complaints reached a fever pitch in June. A parade of department managers told the Council the rule had become an impediment to hiring. At the time, Fenton, an architect of the ordinance’s revival, expressed reluctance to dismantle the rule but did not reject any changes.

Councilors noted his absence Monday. That left only City Solicitor Stephen Buoniconti to press for the change, arguing some in important roles faces imminent termination. Buoniconti struggled to not identify them or their positions. It is generally verboten to discuss individual employees in open session.

That argument persuaded some councilors, but others disliked the rush. Still others disagreed with the very premise of the issue. Delgado noted that the issues in hiring were partly a function of the good economy and the tight housing marked in Springfield. He called these conditions a “snapshot in time” that could change.

“I got this blanket statement, ‘oh, nobody wants to work for the city,’” Delgado said. “I think we have plenty of people who want to work for the city.”

Instead, the city should focus on removing unnecessary credential requirements for city jobs, which drew support from several colleagues.

Councilors moved to send the bill to committee, but that effort failed 5-5. Allen, Brown, Delgado, Govan and Perez were in favor. Curran, Davila, Edwards, Santaniello and Whitfield were opposed. Councilor Walsh did not vote. The bill never received a first step vote. As Davila offered a final pitch, the clock struck 10.

(WMP&I)

The legislation that failed split the Council and would generate controversy across the city. Well, there may be some public consensus against any raise for councilors. Antipathy toward elected officials is not in short supply these days. In short, some may approve of Monday’s results.

However, the path to that outcome is hardly paved with glory. Add on the unnecessarily glacial pace of uncontroversial agenda items, and the Council’s penultimate meeting of 2024 is a sobering reminder. The days of the body asserting control of the municipal conversation seem like a relic of a bygone era.