SPRINGFIELD—A quiet agenda reached the City Council after a rollicking couple of weeks in February. If anything, what defined the March 11 meeting was what did not happen. The Council did not take action on a new version of a tree ordinance, opioid funding or two street discontinuances.
BOSTON—Governor Maura Healey announced Wednesday she would submit one of the furthest-reaching pardons of marijuana convictions in state history to the Governor’s Council. Barring Council opposition, the move could wipe out potentially hundreds of thousands of convictions for simple possession dating back to the dawn of the War on Drugs.
A touch under 300 employees at MGM Springfield have voted to join a union in an election the National Labor Relations Board held last week. The results from 247 poker and table game employees out of 282 eligible employees in the bargaining unit considerably expands the number of MGM employees with union representation.
UPDATED: The final vote was 130-117 in favor of a union.
Table game and poker dealers at MGM Springfield are about to play a very different hand this weekend. About 277 workers at the Springfield casino can vote over the weekend on whether to organize under the New England Joint Board of UNITE-HERE.
None among the legislative delegation in the Greater Springfield area have announced retirement, but the region could still see a big race. Springfield Senator Adam Gomez won his seat in a primary challenge. Now Springfield City Councilor Malo Brown could be on the verge of
A day after announcing his chief of staff would take over the Park, Buildings & Recreation Management Department, Mayor Domenic Sarno has named his communications director William Baker as his new top aide in what could be a defining year in the new mayoral term.
SPRINGFIELD—A long awaited departure in a key city department came to pass Tuesday when Patrick Sullivan, the executive director of Parks, Buildings & Recreation Management (PBRM) announced his retirement. A fixture of Council meetings and ribbon cuttings, Sullivan has been easily among the most respected and diligent civil servants on the municipal payroll.
Media coverage of Springfield municipal politics is at a low ebb, which is not unique nationally. Critics will say most outlets privilege Mayor Domenic Sarno’s version of events or subject his side to no more than contrasting he said/she said claims. WWLP, the Springfield-Holyoke market’s NBC affiliate, aired a garbled description of events that confused and misinformed.
The recent row over the nature and powers of the Springfield Police Commission and the superintendent of the Police Department has reached a conclusion for now. On Tuesday, the City Council made the final changes in ordinance, as part of a compromise with Mayor Domenic
SPRINGFIELD—Mayor Domenic Sarno and the City Council averted a political crisis Monday by agreeing to sunset what now amounts to suspensions of key parts of the Police Commission ordinance. The change ostensibly arose to ensure Deputy Police Chief Lawrence Akers, who would be the city’s first Black police leader, will have the same powers his four predecessors had.
However, the pair of ordinances, which reallocate most of the Police Commission’s power other than to mete out discipline, prompted sharp pushback.