The Springfield City Council was back at city hall for one of its few summer sessions Monday night. Business ranged from approving millions of dollars in grants to boosting benefits for an officer severely injured in the line of duty.
Councilors convened Monday night for their only regular meeting until mid-August.
The agenda featured the usual bevy of grants needing council approval, including a $2.8 million annual grant from the Community Mitigation Fund (via the Massachusetts Gaming Commission) and $1.1 million from the state to support the city's emergency communications center.
Before that, the council moved to vote on a pair of orders – both involving a police officer who survived a violent assault and retired from the force as he recovered from the severe injuries.
During public comments, Springfield Police Patrolman’s Union President Martin Curley described how Officer Misael Rodriguez suffered life-changing injuries in November 2020, adding that he had been a model officer with a love for his work.
“Misael was on a call, trying to help someone, trying to help someone who’s in - a severe psychologic episode, like many calls we’re on,” he said. “During that episode, a 6’1”, 300 lb. man struck Misael on the top of the head, with all of his might. [It] changed [Misael’s] life forever - changed his career, changed his life as a father.”
Rodriguez, who was at the meeting, says the incident involved a man who was in crisis.
Curley, and later City Solicitor Steve Buoniconti, urged the council to pass a special act regarding the disability pension for Rodriguez.
Citing the severity of injuries and other factors, Buoniconti said city leadership, including the mayor and members of the council, were looking to “do something extra” for the officer.
Rodriguez, who was on the force for over 28 years, is currently retired through the Springfield Retirement system. Buoniconti says the act will give the officer additional benefits that are “not afforded to him under state law currently.”
“What this will do - [it] will allow Mr. Rodriguez to, in fact, receive all of his accumulated deductions back – 100 percent of his accumulated deductions that he put into the system,” the solicitor said. “He'll receive 100 percent of - a salary benefit upon the date of his retirement for a regular police officer’s salary. And then, upon reaching the age of 65, that will be reduced to 80 percent. But, if you think about it, and the time value of money, by the time Officer Rodriguez reaches the age of 65, 80 percent of what the current salary of an officer [at] the Springfield Police Department’s going to be - will be, in all likelihood, more than the 100 percent that he's receiving today.”
The act, which contains other unique benefits for Rodriguez, would require approval from the state legislature. Buoniconti anticipates state lawmakers taking up and passing the city’s request sometime in the fall.
In the meantime, the councilors approved the order, as well as another involving $500,000 in free cash being transferred to the City Retirement account to cover the act.
Among the proponents was Ward 5 Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce, who introduced the special act Monday.
“- you go to work one day, and you're doing your job and you just you get violently attacked, and being a police officer in this day and age isn't easy,” Click-Bruce said. “But when you have good officers doing the right thing, and this happens - it's up to us to do the right thing.”
Springfield police and behavioral crisis situations came up again at Monday’s meeting.
Among the grants needing council approval was a “Jail/Arrest Diversion Program Co-Response grant from the state’s Department of Mental Health worth $369,000.
It is not the first time the city’s received the grant, used to fund “clinical co-response staff and a clinical supervisor” via an agreement with the Behavioral Health Network, a western Massachusetts behavioral health service provider.
“The co-responders will ride with Springfield Police Department [officers] to behavioral crisis calls when possible, and they would be non-ride-alongs - it's co-response, where if there was a call for service, the BHN worker would respond but not in the same police vehicle, they would respond in their own vehicles,” Toledo said. “And when officers are dispatched to calls that would require a co-response, the Springfield Emergency Communications Dispatch will dispatch officers and a clinician during these circumstances.”
The department has operated a "Crisis Intercept Co-Response" program in some form since 2019 – giving those at the center of a crisis or mental health call an opportunity to speak directly with a clinician.
The council largely supported the grant, though Ward 6 Councilor Victor Davila questioned why the number of clinicians had remained the same when he understood there would be an increase at some point.
Councilor At-large Tracye Whitfield also brought up the idea of increasing clinical support, while requesting response data and suggesting agencies with various cultural competencies be involved to service the city’s broad population.
Also in favor of more response teams was Ward 4 Councilor Zaida Govan.
“We could probably use five more co-response teams in our city, maybe at least two on each shift, but BHN does send out clinicians all day, every day, without the police most of the time,” she noted. “But a lot of times, the police are necessary, especially when they do Section 12s and things like that.”
The council approved the grant, with Ward 4 Councilor Malo Brown and At-large Councilor Brian Santaniello abstaining.
