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Springfield City Council sets policy for advance notice to spend taxpayer dollars for economic development projects

The six story building in Springfield's Court Square known as 31 Elm Street
WAMC
The project to restore and redevelop the historic former Court Square Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts nearly stopped in March 2022 because of a $13 million cost overrun, but was saved by a city and state bailout.

After Court Square bailout, Councilors demand to be kept in the loop

A new finance policy is in place in Springfield City Hall, as City Councilors demand to be treated as partners in the development of the city.

Demanding to be kept in the loop about major projects that might need financial support from taxpayers, the City Council voted unanimously Monday to pass an ordinance to require 30 days advance notice of requests to appropriate over $1 million from free cash or the stabilization account.

This new order is a direct reaction to the hurried vote the Council made earlier this year to authorize $6.5 million in free cash to bail out the project to redevelop the former Court Square Hotel building. The work was threatened because of skyrocketing costs for construction materials. The city administration knew about the project’s financial problems in January, but did not come to the Council until March when the developers threatened to stop construction and walk away.

City Councilor Kateri Walsh was so upset about how the administration handled it that she immediately drafted a resolution that the Council passed and then worked to turn it into a law.

“To me, that was an enough-is enough moment,” Walsh said.

With the new ordinance on the books, Walsh said the Council should no longer be forced to act as if it had a gun to the head.

“Unfortunately, in the past a lot of financial issues come before us and we don’t have the appropriate time,” Walsh said. “I think this will make us real partners in the development of the city.”

Under the ordinance, if a request for an order to appropriate funds for a project over $1 million does not arrive 30 days prior to it appearing on the Council’s agenda for a vote, it is automatically referred to committee. The requirement does not affect transfers or appropriations within the city budget.

City Councilor Trayce Whitfield, who chairs the Finance Committee, applauded her colleague for coming up with ordinance.

“It is needed and it is welcome,” she said.

Whitfield and City Councilor Justin Hurst were the only Councilors to vote against the $6.5 million for the Court Square project. They called it a “money grab” for millionaires.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.