The Springfield City Council remains a sea of relative political calm even as the mayoral race begins to make waves. Fortuitously, Monday’s meeting included three challengers to Mayor Domenic Sarno—two incumbent councilors and a former councilor all of whom support a bill to make a local singer’s tune the state jazz song.
Despite the big figures involved, the Springfield City Council scampered through its regular February meeting uneventfully. But with looming costs for current and future retirees, the meeting was a sobering reminder of Springfield’s future fiscal challenges.
SPRINGFIELD—Beyond selecting a new colleague, the City Council’s Monday night remained within the normal. Still, there were a few standout items. The Council approved the first components of the city’s new master plan for downtown, namely around MGM and the MassMutual Center. A discernable vision
SPRINGFIELD—The City Council virtually returned from August’s semi-recess Monday to find a massive pile of fresh items on the floor requiring attention. The vast majority were financial, but several were also complex. Others fell under the Community Preservation Act (CPA) demanding more scrutiny than the
SPRINGFIELD—A relatively straightforward Council agenda experienced some delays due technical difficulties rather than legislative loquaciousness. For example, the meeting paused briefly as one councilor’s connection to Zoom was severed. Then there were the pauses between recognition of councilors. Overall, though, the meeting proceeded with little
SPRINGFIELD—After a years-long pursuit, the City Council approved funding for the institution of body-worn cameras for the Springfield Police Department. The funds, in the form of a bond, were among the final steps necessary to begin the program, which will require officers to wear cameras
SPRINGFIELD—Queasiness about the city’s marijuana process had seemed set to dominate Monday’s meeting of the City Council. However, ratification of the first four host community agreements (HCA) flew by with little trouble. Instead, the struggle to reform police oversight stormed back to the fore, exposing
SPRINGFIELD—City councilors continued their legislative blitz on April Fool’s night, passing a new array of laws to reign in pawn shops and tax incentives. But it was no laughing matter. In fact, the bills were extensions of existing rules. Yet they were notably for the
SPRINGFIELD—The reconstruction of a key, but ancient intersection in the city dominated the February 4 meeting of the City Council. In comparative terms, the issue did not drag out. However, the project did glean a crash course in eminent domain law. This is to say