This week Springfield City Council President Marcus Williams released his committee assignments for the municipal legislature. It comes days after beginning his second year atop the Council and his fourth term as the Ward 5 Councilor.
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.
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—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
SPRINGFIELD—The City Council approved a multimillion settlement to conclude ongoing litigation that stemmed from a wrongful imprisonment dating back decades. Mark Schand had claimed that four city officers, in effect, framed him for a crime 30 years ago, resulting in a prison sentence. Upon his
SPRINGFIELD—City Councilors voted Tuesday to accept legal counsel from a pair of Northampton-based lawyers in the ongoing dispute with the mayor over the Police Commission. Some 42 months after the body revived the Commission over Mayor Domenic Sarno’s veto, it remains in limbo. Sarno has
UPDATED 3:15PM: To include apparent confirmation the mayor supports the bill. SPRINGFIELD—After months of debate and false starts, the City Council approved a moratorium of sorts on the city’s use of facial recognition software. After a marathon session at the last meeting, the body set
SPRINGFIELD—The growing ambition of the City Council beached itself onto the body’s widening political gulf, amid procedural and substantive disagreements on civil liberties and a public works project. While the Council ultimately voted to kill an order that could frustrate the X intersection project, it
SPRINGFIELD—If sparks were flying at the first City Council meeting of the year, they had manners. Equipped with three new members after last year’s elections, the Council moved ahead on a now-moratorium on facial recognition software. The body also formally requested the help of the