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Category Archives: Springfield City Council

Davila

Courting 36 Court: Justice & Some Common Cents on Davila’s Mind…

Courting 36 Court Street is a series of quick interviews with Springfield’s at-large candidates. **All interviews are edited and condensed for length.** Victor Davila is no stranger to Springfield politics. He majored in political science and economics in college.  Now the operator of a small transportation

Springfield Council chambers

Analysis: Two Open Council Seats…Who Will Be the Champions?…

This is the second of two-part series on the impact of retirements on the 2017 Springfield at-large Council race. SPRINGFIELD—Only hours before the deadline to pull papers, word hit the City of Homes that not one, but two open at-large City Council seats in this

Analysis: Fewer Incumbents Waving Their Banner All over the Place…

UPDATED 10:02PM: To add quotes published in The Republican. This is the first of two-part series on the impact of retirements on the 2017 Springfield at-large Council race. Capping off the longest continuous Council tenure in Springfield and giving this year’s at-large race yet another

Springfield

Take My Council, Please: Summertime & the Agenda’s Easy(ish)…

SPRINGFIELD—Its agenda was long and several items dragged, but the City Council’s mid-summer regular meeting largely featured uncontroversial items and housekeeping. Potentially big matters like an MGM request for more time to build its housing units prompted questions, but won acquiescence. Typically hum-drum matters hit

Take My Council, Please: Running into Springfield on a Rail…

SPRINGFIELD—Ahead of its summer slowdown, the City Council ripped through a potpourri agenda featuring new ordinances, support for added rail service and derailment of a labor contract.  Earlier in the evening, the City Council had unanimously passed Mayor Domenic Sarno’s budget without any cuts. Similar

Analysis: Once Totaled, Residency Ordinance Firing on (Most) Cylinders…

SPRINGFIELD—On December 3, 1990, amid disputes over the bargaining process, a grim City Council voted 8-0 to approve a contract awarded after “interest arbitration” that ended city cops’ obligation to live in Springfield. The move effectively killed what was left of the residency ordinance as

Springfield

Take My Council, Please: Firefighters Now Residing with Compliance…

SPRINGFIELD—Last Monday the City Council dispatched two big issues that had been hovering over it for weeks and even months. A revised version of a public safety measure aimed at reassuring undocumented immigrants passed unanimously. Meanwhile, the Council approved the first public safety labor contract

Briefings: Fired Up, Ready to Move to Springfield?…

SPRINGFIELD—In a historic vote Monday night, the City Council voted to approve a collective bargaining contract with one of the city’s major public safety bargaining units that includes operative language on residency. The pact requires firefighters hired after July 8, 2017 to live in the

Springfield

Take My Council, Please: Food Truck Ordinance Swerving toward Passage…

SPRINGFIELD—The mobile food truck ordinance swerved around an unexpected obstacle that appeared in its path at the last moment. Abutting property and business owners attended Monday’s Council meeting with the hopes of slowing down the ordinance’s momentum. Despite sympathetic councilors’s efforts, it passed with a rare