SPRINGFIELD—The City Council’s first February meeting, lasting about four hours, made up for the meager agenda at the last regular meeting. The stage was set for breaking the logjam on the district fire chiefs. A solar farm tax deal advanced. The body confirmed Auditor Yong
For Springfield, 2017 seemed a year that confirmed some of the assumptions about the city. Despite a rare double-retirement at-large, voters did not turn out. But the changeover was consequential. Like the rest of the world, Donald Trump left an impact on Springfield, too. In
Are the stakes low in Holyoke’s mayoral election? Not in the least. The city will be, for the first time, electing a mayor for four years. That person will have twice the time to imprint their agenda onto the city before facing voters again. At
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
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—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
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—Donald Trump’s policies, like his “Mexico-financed” wall, face push back everywhere. It is no different here. However, an effort to urge Springfield’s Finest to stay out of immigration enforcement ran aground procedural complaints and clerical minutiae. The result was a flip from the prior regular
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—A short agenda sailed through the City Council’s Tuesday meeting here without any banality or vainglorious interrogatories. In addition to the usual financial housekeeping and grant acceptances, the meeting’s focused on a new library and new labor pacts set to last into 2020. The early