This is a developing story. One of the few remaining Springfield financial officials who date to the Control Board era is leaving city service at the end of the week. Chief Administrative & Financial Officer Timothy “T.J.” Plante has worked for the city of Springfield
SPRINGFIELD—Mayor Domenic Sarno and City Councilor Justin Hurst’s advancement to the mayoral preliminary was the result the city’s chattering classes had been expecting for nearly a year. However, a reductionist understanding of what happened risks missing real lessons in the wake of the election.
It was just a line in The Republican’s election profile of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, but it was a reminder of one of his longest-running falsities. Sarno still “maintains the court order gave the commission power only over discipline, and not as an overall supervisory body.”
SPRINGFIELD—In the waning weeks of the preliminary campaign here, candidates for the five at-large City Council seats face a big challenge: standing out. Two Council retirements and a competitive mayoral race has yielded a historic 20 candidates for the September 12 at-large preliminary.
With $3 million on offer this year, the Springfield Community Preservation Committee (CPC) has released its recommendations for fiscal year 2024. The nine-member CPC reviews proposals for funds the city raises from a property tax surcharge and state disbursements.
Over $21 million in bonding was before the Springfield City Council last Monday, weeks after Mayor Domenic Sarno successfully pushed his budget through. Nearly all of these were normal capital projects that do not belong in the budget anyway.
On June 20, for the first time since the shroud of the coronavirus fell upon Springfield, city councilors confronted Mayor Domenic Sarno, faccie e faccie, in chambers as he presented his budget for new fiscal year.
The budget process is always political. This is true whether the context is the hottest set of races Springfield has seen in a decade or not. Yet, on display at the City Council meeting last Monday was proof that chambers had become an area in the city’s political battlefield this cycle.
Although meetings have become much more fluid since going hybrid last year, the Springfield City Council’s outing hit a snag on Monday. The body trudged through a permit for the Student Prince to close Fort Street during summers.
The Springfield City Council faced a light agenda this past Monday. Once more the Council held off on final passage of a historic district for the former Isolation Hospital. The body continues to meditate on the owner’s litigation threat. That limited the meeting to uncontentious items. Among them was a revote on the firefighters’ labor contract due to a drafting error.