Along with a mayor, voters in the city of Springfield will elect a City Council on Tuesday.
With the eight Ward Councilors firmly entrenched and two incumbent At-Large Councilors bowing out, the citywide race for the Springfield City Council is where the action has been with 10 candidates competing for five seats.
The dean of the City Council, Kateri Walsh, whose current tenure began in 2003, is running for another two-year term. At the final candidates’ forum, Walsh said the top issue she hears when campaigning is public safety. Her platform calls for more community policing and more visibility by the cops in the city’s neighborhoods.
“People need to see that presence, they need to have that feeling that they are safe in Springfield,” Walsh said.
Fresh out of college and making his first bid for elected office, Gerry Martin endorsed the idea of a gun court for Springfield.
“This will expedite the legal process in cases revolving around gun violence so it can make sure that people who have illegal firearms are held accountable,” he said.
With rents, property taxes, and water bills all rising in Springfield, incumbent City Councilor At-large Sean Curran said there’s been talk of giving people a break by eliminating the $90 annual trash fee.
“But I don’t see any path forward that is going to eliminate the trash fee,” Curran said. “I wish I could tell you differently but we have to be transparent with the voters.”
Juan Latorre, who is making his second run for a Council seat, agreed the trash fee is here to stay.
“It generates over $4 million a year, it is dramatically lower compared to what other municipalities pay, we expect great services from our municipal workers and the trash fee helps to provide that,” Latorre said.
But struggling homeowners need a break, said incumbent City Councilor Trayce Whitfield.
“ We hear it over-and-over again that (the city) is in the best financial place its been in history, and so I think there is a way that we can if not eliminate it we can reduce it and we need to look at those creative ways,” Whitfield said.
The most significant vote recorded by City Councilors is on the annual city budget that this year totaled $878 million. Nicole Coakley said if she’s elected to the City Council she’ll follow up to see that the amounts budgeted are spent as intended.
“So it is important that somebody is following up to make sure things are getting done and its not favoritism that is why you are getting this money,” Coakley said.
Also promising to be a fiscal hawk, if elected, is first-time candidate Jose Delgado.
“You have to make strategic investments in our city that will make us prosper and go forward,” Delgado said.
When it comes redeveloping empty buildings and vacant lots in Springfield, there needs to be “housing, housing, housing,” said candidate Juan Caraballo.
“We need these developers to make quality low-income units,” he said.
With only four recreational marijuana retailers open in Springfield, the so-called “green rush” has clearly passed the city by and that is OK with candidate Will Naylor, an ordained minister and licensed alcohol and drug counselor.
“It should be closely examined before we move ahead with more cannabis stores in our community,” Naylor said.
Brian Santaniello, the former City Councilor and Parks Commissioner who finished in fourth place behind the three incumbents in the September preliminary vote for At-large City Councilor, did not participate in the final candidates’ forum.
The program was produced by Focus Springfield Community Television and took place on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College.
The forum can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zckLjva62OY
