The ballot for Springfield’s first City Council special election since ward representation returned has now closed. All seven of the original aspirants for the empty Ward 5 Council seat have returned their papers for the race.
The hottest race involving Springfield at the end of summer could be one nobody saw coming. In the few days since the Election Commission released petitioning papers for the Ward 5 special election ballot candidates have flooded the field faster than Lake Massasoit has refilled its lakebed.
When word got around that now-former Ward 5 City Councilor Marcus Williams was resigning, councilors winced at what lay ahead. Last year, they had to appoint a replacement for Senator Adam Gomez after he resigned his Ward 1 seat.
Little did anybody in City Hall realize, councilors’ role in filling vacant ward seats no longer existed.
Springfield City Council President and Ward 5 Councilor Marcus Williams will resign both positions, thus triggering a new succession process. Just over a year ago, Williams oversaw the filling of now-State Senator Adam Gomez’s Council seat.
This week Springfield City Council President Marcus Williams released his committee assignments for the municipal legislature. It comes days after beginning his second year atop the Council and his fourth term as the Ward 5 Councilor.
SPRINGFIELD—With a lighter agenda on Monday compared to recent weeks, the City Council dispensed with a series of financial orders and legislation before the home stretch of the election.
SPRINGFIELD—This week the City Council revisited a troubled revision to a drive-through special permit that had hit the skids earlier this year amid an abutter’s complaints. The item has still not achieved passage amid a sluggish review. Frustratingly, the once-complaining neighbor has been MIA, leaving councilors to straighten things out alone with the applicant.
SPRINGFIELD—Despite roughly two hours of often passionate debate, the City Council here unanimously approved Mayor Domenico Sarno’s budget for fiscal year 2022 without cuts. With some help from the American Rescue Plan, the $756 million spending plan largely peels city government off the floor after going into a defensive fiscal crouch during the coronavirus pandemic.
SPRINGFIELD—Aside from a one-liner admonishing a permit-seeker’s counsel to not interrupt the Council president, the sequels to a few permit hearings last Monday were no better than the originals in the preceding weeks.
SPRINGFIELD—At its June 7 meeting last Monday, the City Council cut itself off. After some members had spent a third of their day in Council Zoom meetings—the body remains virtual for now—councilors agreed to execute the 10pm drop-dead rule.