Despite a ruling from the highest court in Massachusetts, the controversy over who controls the Springfield police department is not over.
Decrying a lack of public input in the appointment process, about two dozen people protested in front of Springfield City Hall Tuesday demanding “a do-over” by Mayor Domenic Sarno in the naming of the new five-member Board of Police Commissioners.
The protest was organized by Massachusetts Senior Action Council. The same group rallied last summer at City Hall demanding the removal of Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood complaining the 40-year veteran of the department was not the right person to reform it.
Last month, the Supreme Judicial Court in a unanimous decision ruled Sarno must appoint the civilian board to oversee the police department as called for in an ordinance passed by the City Council in 2018. The Council sued Sarno in 2020 after he refused to make the appointments.
A week after the court’s ruling, Sarno announced the appointments to the board in a press release. Four of the appointees were members of a now-defunct civilian panel that held hearings on police misconduct complaints. A fifth appointee is a 20-year employee of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department.
Sarno said Clapprood would continue to direct the police department under the new title of superintendent.
Speakers at the rally, including Emurriel Holloway, called on Sarno to rescind the appointments and launch a new selection process that includes consulting with community members and City Councilors.
“We thought it was an opportunity with a new board to have some engagement with the mayor and having not gotten that we feel ignored and insulted,” Holloway said.
Also speaking at the rally was City Councilor Justin Hurst, a potential mayoral candidate in 2023. He said he had heard from a number of people who were interested in serving on the new board, but Sarno gave them no opportunity to apply.
“When the light was shining on the city of Springfield the brightest, Mayor Sarno still insisted on a closed-door process to appoint five police commissioners without any community input or even a vetting process,” Hurst said.
The rally happened as the City Law Department began to investigate if one of Sarno’s appointees to the board, Robert Jackson, has a conflict of interest because the private security firm he owns has a contract with the Springfield Parking Authority and has bid for a contract to provide security at city library branches.
Sarno issued a strongly worded statement supporting Jackson and accusing Hurst and City Councilor Tracye Whitfield of orchestrating a “charade” and, along with members of the senior advocacy group, promoting controversy for “their own dishonest political gain.”
In a written response, Whitfield said the mayor’s comments about her were “untrue and very hurtful.”
Hurst also denied his criticism of the process used to appoint the new board is self-serving.
“I never have political motives,” Hurst said. “I do it on behalf of the people, always, and I will always continue to speak the truth on behalf of the people. That’s the bottom line.”
Likewise, Holloway insisted there was no ulterior political motives on the part of Mass Senior Action Council.
“We are not puppets,” she said.
Activists started circulating a petition calling on Sarno to rescind the appointments to the police board.
