SPRINGFIELD—Past, present and future orbited around two major items at the City Council’s Monday meeting. The body passed first step on an ordinance to step up election education notifications. It also reallocated $1.5 million from bonds to finance upgrades to Symphony Hall, nee the Municipal
UPDATED 9:37PM: On Tuesday night, the Holyoke City Council voted to advance the two-school debt exclusion question to voters on November 5. HOLYOKE—Not quite two weeks ago, supporters of a debt exclusion ballot question rallied on the High Street lawn outside City Hall here. Buffeting
SPRINGFIELD—Taking a break from lawmaking per se, the City Council approved several orders that signal the start of budget season. The body accepted its major federal grants including the meaty Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
UPDATED 12:54PM: To more accurately render Hinds’s UN service & correct a reference to Kurds’ negotiating partner. It was the rest of Iraq, not Israelis. NORTH ADAMS—Not quite a week after Beacon Hill’s great document dump—more formally, the bill-filing deadline—Pittsfield Senator Adam Hinds was discussing
SPRINGFIELD—After nearly two months of kulturkampf seizing the city and local body politic, Springfield councilors took final action to enact the Welcoming Communities Trust ordinance (WCT). Mayor Domenic Sarno had vetoed the measure hours after the Council passed it last month, but Monday the City
SPRINGFIELD—It is possible 2018 may go down as one of the most legislatively active years for the City Council in recent memory. Though not all efforts succeeded, the body aggressively moved multiple bills Some passed. Some did so over the mayor’s veto. Others did not
For those obsessively following every whimper and groan of the Springfield City Council, the revelation that some councilors were plotting to raise their own pay was not a shock. Five years after the last hike, councilors were again lining up into a spectrum of eager
SPRINGFIELD—After nearly two hours of debate, City Councilors nudged Springfield closer toward new rules that would keep the city away from immigration enforcement. The Welcoming Communities Trust (WCT) Ordinance did not pass final step as expected after councilors raised some concerns. Despite the slowdown and
SPRINGFIELD—Days before Thanksgiving, the City Council ingested parts of its massive agenda Monday night while leaving some leftovers for later. Although the sprawling to-do list included myriad financial items and orders, the legislative prerogatives had the most attention. Some were continuation of prior approvals while
Over the last few years, the Springfield City Council has expressed increasing boldness in its lawmaking power. Discarding the long-believed and largely false trope that the Council is principally a land use body, councilors have now put forward legislation regarding diversity, police management, and the