Addressing the body he once presided over, Springfield State Representative Orlando Ramos summed up the linchpin that appeared to secure enough votes for city council items involving incoming Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers, as well as the Board of Police Commissioners.
“That it be a 'revert' back to the old system, not a revisit – one word can mean a world of difference," Ramos said before a city council special meeting on Monday, Feb. 26.
At its previous meeting, the council was tasked with voting on three items relating to Akers. One item was a home rule petition that would allow the current deputy chief to serve as superintendent past the mandatory state retirement age of 65.
That item passed without issue, but when it came time to vote on amendments to current city code, several councilors voiced concern over items that would codify the powers of the superintendent and the Board of Police Commissioners, which offers civilian oversight of the department.
Language that was updated shortly before the meeting outlined how the superintendent would be able to take actions such as hiring and promoting – a role that councilors said was stripped from the Board via a memorandum of understanding board members had agreed to with the city.
The item empowering Akers passed by a slim majority, while the third item, which would essentially reduce the board to mainly conducting disciplinary actions, was referred back to committee.
However, that was before Mayor Domenic Sarno signaled he was interested in compromising with the council, allowing a sunset amendment that would allow the council to “revisit” the superintendent’s powers at a later date.
Ahead of the city council meeting, though, Representative Ramos as well as Representative Carlos González, State Senator Adam Gomez, and Bishop Talbert Swan reiterated the lengths the council had gone to re-establish the Board of Police Commissioners over the past few years, taking the fight all the way up to the Supreme Judicial Court to affirm its establishment.
Sensing that revisiting the issue was not sufficient, some of the local leaders demanded councilors opt for an all-out reverting of the changes once Akers, the city’s first Black officer to serve as top cop, finishes his term as superintendent.
“You have a vote and I hear that there may be a solution that we sunset without revisit," González said. "And please be clear, because I’m a man of my word - if you’re going to come back to this game of politics and 'revisit' this when Superintendent Akers decides to move on, you have no blessings from me. If you sunset it when he leaves [and] it just goes back to the police commission, you have my 150% support.”
Speaking during the council meeting, Mayor Sarno addressed concerns raised over the commissioners board, reiterating the power that it would retain.
“I’ve enlisted and appointed – you have a board that deals directly with discipline," the mayor said. "They have the final say on discipline. Period. Independent – independent board.”
Akers also spoke at the meeting, describing how his own father, a Springfield police officer, had avoided seeking promotions for reasons shared by officers of color – a sense that because of skin color or heritage, the commission at the time would not bother with their applications.
“- and he said to me, ‘you know, it doesn’t make sense because I wouldn’t be able to get promoted on this job. I don’t look the right way and I don’t have the right last name,'" the deputy chief told the council. "I’ll never forget that.”
Akers, who is 64, is a veteran of the force with 38 years of service, and would replace Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood, who is slated to retire in April, weeks before turning 65. Akers himself turns 65 in December, according to the Springfield Police Department.
With an eye on legislating in the future and hoping to make sure another MoU stripping the board of power never happens again, the council voted to amend both items with language stating that changes made this week would revert after Akers’s departure, ditching the more subjective “revisit.”
Additionally, Councilor Tracye Whitfield was able to amend the item that would re-codify the board and address MoUs specifically.
The new language holds that “the Board of Police Commissioners shall not forfeit the authority to hire, discipline, or promote to the police superintendent or chief or any other individual by MoU or any other means unless approved by majority vote of the city council.”
“What I’m trying to say is now or even when it reverts back, that the MoU cannot be created without a majority vote from us, which means we will have the authority to review the MoU before it’s signed by the police commission," Whitfield said.
By a vote of 11-2, the amended item empowering Superintendent Akers passed its final vote, with the amended item regarding the board of commissioners passing by the same margin.
The second item will require an additional vote, which is expected to come Tuesday night when the council convenes again for a special meeting on the matter.
