A federal judge in Springfield has agreed to dissolve the consent decree that the city of Springfield and the federal government had agreed to in 2022. On Thursday, Judge Michael Ponsor granted the joint motion to end the agreement, which the parties had filed about 10 days ago. The ruling was not a surprise.
Just over four years after the City of Springfield, the Springfield Police Department and the federal government reached a court-monitored settlement, the pact may be coming to an end. Springfield and the feds jointly have filed a motion to terminate the agreement. If the court agrees, it will end a saga that has cast a pall over Pearl Street and City Hall for years.
On Wednesday, a Hampden County jury delivered a significant victory to Darryl Moss, a former aide to Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, that simultaneously rebuked his former boss. After a weeklong trial, the jury agreed that by firing Moss, Sarno, and by extension the city, had
SPRINGFIELD—A crowd of hundreds—and perhaps well over a thousand—here joined protesters across the 413 and the United States for the “No Kings” protests aimed at Donald Trump. Hours before Trump’s sputtering military parade in Washington, Americans rallied to oppose his increasingly monarchical tendencies.
Demonstrators gathered at the Federal Courthouse on State Street, filling the plaza at State and Elliot Streets and lining State nearly a block in each direction.
Last Monday, the Springfield City Councilors chewed over an unusual batch of appointments to the Water & Sewer Commission: all of them. Before the body at its regular meeting were confirmations for all three members of the body.
SPRINGFIELD—Lawyers for former Springfield mayoral aide, Darryl Moss, and his old employer, Mayor Domenic Sarno were in court last month to argue over whether Moss’s discrimination lawsuit can proceed. The parties, which include the city itself as a defendant, had not been in open court for months.
SPRINGFIELD—There is plenty of precedent for police officers to fill the City Council chamber. Usually, it is to oppose or support some substantive policy. This past Monday the room was full, if not packed with cops. Ostensibly, they were there to support Superintendent Lawrence Akers’s body camera financial package.
If 2023 in Springfield was defined by its election, there is ample irony that transitions would define 2024. They just would not be transitions in municipal elective office. The pieces had been moving below deck for some time.
On Monday, Springfield city councilors will consider a negotiated contract with the Springfield Police Supervisors Association (SPSA)—a contrast from the terms a state panel imposed last year. The new pact ostensibly addresses inadequacies both city officials and the supervisors had identified in the arbitration award.
Generally, when the United States Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) comes up in Springfield, it is about the Community Development Block Grant program. At worst, it is usually middling news, such as a lower Congressional appropriation. On July 25, however, HUD came knocking