The city council in Springfield, Massachusetts has, momentarily at least, blocked the use of taxpayer money to keep the city’s police department in line with a federal consent decree.
The City Council voted 9-1 during a special meeting Monday night against authorizing the transfer of $550,000 from a reserve fund to a police department account to cover costs required under the settlement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice over the police use of excessive force.
$500,000 was to pay for a compliance evaluator – a firm that will track and report publicly on the progress of the police department toward implementing the reforms demanded in the 96-page court order. The rest of the money was for paying an attorney to advise the police department’s Internal Investigations Unit.
Councilors said they had no problem paying for an independent monitor of the police department’s compliance with the consent decree. That firm is being jointly selected by the DOJ and the city through a public procurement process. Councilors objected to hiring a lawyer for the police department through a no-bid contract.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said City Councilor Justin Hurst, who was the first to voice concerns about the plan to hire attorney Kevin Murphy to advise the department’s internal investigations.
He said Murphy may have a conflict of interest because he has represented cops accused of misconduct.
“There are many people who are relying on this agreement to have restored faith in the police department and they won’t be able to do that if this particular attorney is hired to assist the IIU,” Hurst said.
City Solicitor John Payne defended the selection of Murphy as the IIU attorney.
“Attorney Murphy is a highly respected member of the bar in this community and he has been for decades,” Payne said. “He is a person of high character and integrity.”
When it became clear from the debate the Council was not going to approve the requested transfer of funds, Chief Administration and Finance Officer TJ Plante said he would file an order for a future Council meeting just to pay the $500,000 for the compliance evaluator.
“This was not a nefarious attempt to combine the two,” Plante said. “We looked at it as a cost that both resulted from the consent decree. It was not my intent to ‘jam this down the throat of the City Council’.”
According to the terms of the consent decree, the compliance evaluator is to be hired by July 28th.
The city and the DOJ presented two finalists for the position at a virtual public forum last week.
