SPRINGFIELD—Despite roughly two hours of often passionate debate, the City Council here unanimously approved Mayor Domenico Sarno’s budget for fiscal year 2022 without cuts. With some help from the American Rescue Plan, the $756 million spending plan largely peels city government off the floor after going into a defensive fiscal crouch during the coronavirus pandemic.
SPRINGFIELD—Aside from a one-liner admonishing a permit-seeker’s counsel to not interrupt the Council president, the sequels to a few permit hearings last Monday were no better than the originals in the preceding weeks.
SPRINGFIELD—Gladys Oyola, the head of the Springfield Election Commission, will be the next City Clerk after the City Council unanimously selected her. Last week, a search committee had slimmed down a field of 72 applicants down to three. On Monday, Oyola, an unsurprising though eminently qualified choice, prevailed.
Barring any signatures challenges, the midterm ballot in Springfield looks ready to go and two prominent open races will want for competition. Moreover, the field will be thin enough to avoid the need for a preliminary. Still, a full complement of contenders will challenge at-large councilors and half of the ward Council seats will have races.
SPRINGFIELD—In what may have become a pattern, the City Council here held a second regular meeting in sequential weeks. This occurred in March, too. Its May 10 meeting consisted of financial orders and leftovers from the prior week. Thus, the meeting sped along an unusual
SPRINGFIELD—The wards were the highlight of Monday’s City Council virtual meeting. Early on, the Council considered a crush of utility petitions that received an unusual amount of scrutiny. Oddly most of these items happened to fall within Ward 2. Its councilor, Michael Fenton, raised the
SPRINGFIELD—Rare are week after week regular Monday meetings of the City Council here. Normally, the next meeting after a regular session is for permits and one did appear on the agenda. Yet, this week, there was another regulation session with its own clutch of legislation
SPRINGFIELD—During the pandemic, the City Council has been remote including its laborious special permit hearings. The slower virtual events lead some permits to receive final vote, usually quickly, at the next regular Council meeting. That did not exactly work out as planned this past Monday
SPRINGFIELD—The City Council here Zoomed into its first regular meeting of 2021 armed with a light agenda. However, the body also had to approve its rules for the term’s new session. That matter had not been settled at its organizational meeting last week and the
by Adam Bass Correspondent-Intern Springfield City Councilor Marcus William’s was officially sworn in as Council President on Monday afternoon, as the city begins its legislative session of 2021. Williams, who represents Ward 5 in the city, was elected unanimously by his colleagues as the city’s