A Springfield City Council meeting this week saw officials re-appoint members of the water and sewer commission – but not without scrutinizing the process first. Councilors also continued their criticism of Eversource.
At its latest regular meeting broadcast by Focus Springfield, the council faced what read like a no-frills agenda, featuring the usual types of business.
The DPW sought to reduce a trash container-related fine from $250 to $50, the spending of over $5 million in Chapter 90 funds needed authorization, and a Labor Relations Director report was up for approval – after the Springfield Public Health Nurses Association ratified a new collective bargaining agreement.
The items and others would be approved without issue (the DPW request needs a future vote to be finalized). However, Monday’s votes and more came after an hour-long debate involving the local water and sewer commission.
The mayor’s re-appointments of commissioners Vanessa Otero, Daniel Rodriguez and Matthew Donnellan were near the top of the agenda – all three currently serving at the Springfield Water & Sewer Commission, the regional water utility serving much of the southern Pioneer Valley.
Normally, it’s a staggered affair, with one commissioner being re-appointed each year. The change prompted concern from Ward 6 Councilor Victor Davila and other councilors, some of whom also learned a week prior that one commissioner needed to be "retroactively reappointed."
“One of the things that we did find out at the meeting, which I find extremely concerning, is that this commission's terms [are] supposed to be staggered, and the obvious question is - why are they all being [brought] up now?” he said before the council, referencing a March 31 meeting of the General Government Subcommittee, which he chairs. “It is my understanding … that somebody forgot to re-appoint them.”
While Otero’s term ends in June, S&W Commissioner Executive Director Joshua Schimmel explained at the subcommittee meeting, Rodriguez’s three-year term technically "expired" in 2023.
Meanwhile, Donnellan would not be up until 2027, having replaced a retiring commissioner, Bill Leonard, in 2024.
When asked why the delay in Rodriguez's appointment and why all three re-appointments at once, Schimmel posited that after Leonard retired and S&W notified the mayor’s office – as they do whenever a commissioner’s term is ending - it appeared “renewal notifications failed to get through” afterwards.
If renewals don’t occur for whatever reason, Rodriguez told councilors in March, commissioners technically stay on until replaced or re-appointed. At the same meeting, Schimmel noted that regardless, re-appointments were of importance, and can apparently have an effect on bond ratings.
Whatever the source of the delay may have been, re-appointment letters signed by Mayor Domenic Sarno emerged in mid-March, attached to Monday's agenda docket.
All three commissioners would be greenlit by the council with their terms re-staggered - Rodriguez's term ends in 2026, Donnellan's in '27 and Otero's in '28 - but not before members like Council Vice President Tracye Whitfield spoke on the re-appointment process in general.
The councilor at-large said she found the current system unfair, and not allowing much chance for potential board members to make their case.
“I just think it's unfair that other people do not have the opportunity to submit resumes or express interest in being a commissioner on the Water & Sewer Commission,” she said. “I think the process is not fair because it should be a re-appointment process - not you notify that the term is already up and then automatically, the people that are in place are reappointed - that is not how it should go.”
Other business that night included the councilors continuing to air grievances over electricity bills and utility company, Eversource.
Springfield was one of multiple communities to demand answers for high rates over the winter. It continued Monday as the council voted on a resolution, "Increase Cost of Gas And Electricity," read aloud by Ward 5 Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce.
Not unlike multiple letters sent to and among state officials earlier this year, it calls for the legislature and Department of Public Utilities to “initiate a comprehensive investigation into the recent increases in gas and electricity rates that are significantly impacting the residents of Springfield.”
“Be it further resolved that the investigation should assess the fairness of these increases, the causes of the escalation and the potential for legislation and regulatory actions to mitigate the financial impacts on our residents, who are struggling,” Click-Bruce read.
The resolution was met with approval across the board.
The councilor says he also has other issues involving Eversource he hopes to bring up in the near-future. According to him, as well as Ward 4 Councilor Malo Brown, the city has a fair amount of streetlights out that either aren’t being fixed fast enough or at all, creating a public safety hazard while the city's already dealing with an uptick in shootings.
Click-Bruce claimed when he’s heading home, he can sometimes count 15-30 such lights being out, and that he’s considering filing something about it, believing the city shouldn’t be charged for a streetlight that isn’t working.
On the topic of utility bills, Eversource previously told WAMC this winter was a cold one and that on top of customers using more energy for heat, the rates they were charged were approved by the state late last year.
The company did not respond to requests for comment about the streetlights.
