More than four months after oral arguments, a panel of federal judges have effectively revived a suit that seeks to restore the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change (ECJCC) grant program. Last year Springfield and a motley band of municipalities and nonprofits sued the Environmental Protection Agency for illegally terminating the program.
At its June 15 outing, the Springfield City Council took a significant step toward curbing councilors’ remote participation at meetings. Formally, the item was a resolution and not a rule change. Therefore, the body did not bind its members. Yet, the push marks an attitude shift for the body, which was among the last to return to any in-person operations.
SPRINGFIELD—The first City Council meeting of June featured an agenda of the usual fare. Grants and orders were plentiful but typical. There was an appointment to the Springfield Redevelopment Authority (SRA), one of the few positions where the Council has a gatekeeper role. However, there
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.
SPRINGFIELD—City councilors hurled disapproval and invective, at times in an apparent violation of the body’s rules during Monday’s tempestuous meeting. In the end, however, it signified nothing—at least for now. The Council voted down a resolution of no confidence in Council President Tracye Whitfield but not before trading fire amongst themselves for some time.
Supporters of Whitfield filled the chamber, but there had been signs before Monday the no-confidence push might peter out.
As announced, the Springfield City Council held a special meeting Friday to purge its “tainted” vote to discontinue a stretch of Wallace Street. Essentially a street only on paper, the body had approved the discontinuance on February 2. That would return the land to abutting property owners. One of those owners was JETS Property Development, LLC. City Council President Tracye Whitfield owns part of JETS.
The trouble erupted after City Council Tracye President Whitfield failed to immediately recuse herself from consideration of a street discontinuance. She co-owns the entity that owns a property that would grow once the city discontinues the street. Plus, her son was presenting the item. While she did not vote on the item, her time briefly presiding during consideration means the Council must purge its vote to terminate the street.
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
They’re not giving up yet.
On September 19 the parties attempting to restore the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant (ECJBG) filed an appeal with an appellate court in Washington. Some weeks before, a federal judge in district court dismissed the class action lawsuit, which the city of Springfield had joined.
On August 29 Judge Richard Leon dealt a blow to the efforts of Springfield and other municipalities to recover billions Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency illegally rescinded. As had seemed likely after a Supreme Court ruling days before, Leon found that he lacked jurisdiction over the claims and therefore dismissed the case.
Earlier this year, the EPA essentially refused to disburse billions in the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants