SPRINGFIELD—Emotion and politics ran high at Monday night’s City Council meeting as a labor pact with district fire chiefs failed and the food truck ordinance returned to committee. Both items faced months or even years of anticipation. The rejection of the labor pact with the
SPRINGFIELD—City councilors called Mayor Domenic Sarno’s bluff and overrode his veto of an ordinance reviving a commission to oversee operations of the city’s police department. The veto had come within hours of the Council’s initial approval of the changes two weeks ago, but Sarno has signaled
UPDATED 8:35PM: The Republican reports that Sarno has vetoed the ordinance. Tells paper on his flip-flop from 2007, “Quite frankly you learn that campaigning is much different than governing.” SPRINGFIELD—Edging closer to its second major rebuke of Mayor Domenic Sarno this year, the City Council
SPRINGFIELD—City Councilors here turned back an already-expired labor pact covering only ten employee in the latest battle over the issue of residency for city employees. The pact covered a four-year period ending this past June. That outstanding gap has been an impediment to future labor
When Springfield at-large City Council Justin Hurst released his General Government Committee’s Thursday agenda, there were signs that the Council was inching toward a Rubicon. The meeting will discuss compliance with the city’s residency’s ordinance, expiration of waivers and the applicability to the fire chiefs,
SPRINGFIELD—With MGM off its docket after weeks of reviews and hearings, the City Council returned its focus to its normal duties. Greeted with a lengthy and technical agenda on bond authorizations and contract approvals, the meeting opened with a push from the community for the
SPRINGFIELD—There may not be much debating in the mayoral contest with the incumbent resisting public accountability, but the City Council races are far different. At least three at-large debates/forums are planned and the first, last week’s debate at American International College, offered a window into
SPRINGFIELD—With a more competitive than expected race for City Council rapidly developing here, at-large City Council candidate Jesse Lederman sought to foment further momentum by rolling out high-profile political support. State Representative Benjamin Swan endorsed the young, upstart candidate, whose campaign has drawn attention in
SPRINGFIELD—Lighting a menorah on Court Square in downtown, a 35 year tradition, seemed unlikely to make world news. Local rabbis joined city officials, the mayor and US Rep Richard Neal to mark the first of eight days the temple menorah burned with only a day’s
SPRINGFIELD—As it capped off 2014, the City Council formally and narrowly approved the tax rates for residential and commercial property following the annual deliberation over which group of tax payers were more in greater need of relief. On a 7-6 vote, the Council approved rates that