A longtime activist and current-city councilor in Springfield, Mass. has been terminated from her role at a non-profit, dismissed under circumstances that still aren’t completely clear following a weekend announcement. WAMC spoke with Western Mass Politics & Insight editor-in-chief Matt Szafranski about the development.
For over four decades, Maria Perez has been a prominent voice in the city, working as a community activist, advocating for the city’s Latino residents and others along the way.
Over the last decade, she’s served on the city’s school committee and, currently, the city council, representing Ward 1.
It’s a district that covers much of the city’s North End neighborhoods – home to the New North Citizens' Council where she’s also worked for some 40 years. That is, until last week.
In a video posted Saturday, Perez appears to address a battle underway and that she intends to seek re-election in November. Hours later, the NNCC announced Perez had been terminated “following a thorough internal review,” and that the matter “has been referred to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Ethics Commission to ensure integrity and accountability.”
The press release goes on to say that the NNCC also “strongly condemns the embezzlement of federal funds and the misuse of 501(c)(3) resources for political purposes.”
As Matt Szafranski of Western Mass Politics and Insight says – it’s cryptic wording that also comes at a politically inconvenient time for Perez.
WAMC: … The wording is very specific here – her termination came after an internal review. A sentence later, they’re saying embezzlement isn’t tolerated…
SZAFRANSKI: Well, you can kind of take this two different ways - you can take it at face value, which kind of makes sense [that] in the current political climate, a group like New North would be trying to protect itself, and maybe they're being overly-cautious, but you can kind of understand it.
And an alternative - this is a storied institution that has stood in the middle of a lot of political fights that have happened in the North End … this could just be politics within the community in and all by itself.”
Szafranski was the first to report Perez’s termination.
Serving on the council since 2021, Perez is facing a challenge from School Committee member Joesiah Gonzalez, who also serves on the board of the NNCC.
Gonzalez has told local media that as a board member, hiring the executive director is one of the only employment matters the board is involved in.
He also told the Springfield Republican/MassLive the situation was “unfortunate” and that he would pray for Perez and her family.
He also told Szafranski that if allegations put forward by the NNCC are true, Perez should resign.
WAMC has reached out to Perez for comment. All the while, Szafranski says Saturday’s video shows the councilor is not taking the allegations sitting down.
WAMC: We hear the councilor mentioning the truth will be coming out, this is an attack on her family and that she will persevere and keep her head held high. How did that reaction strike you?
SZAFRANSKI: It's exactly what I would have expected from Councilor Perez. She commands a very deep following among a certain group of people - many of them are alumnae and members of Women of the Vanguard, but not exclusively.
The women’s advocacy group, Women of the Vanguard, figures prominently in Perez’s termination letter, obtained by the Republican/MassLive.
The group was founded in-part by Perez and multiple files relating to it were allegedly found on her NNCC computer following an audit – an apparent violation. How funds figure into the termination is not immediately clear.
As previously mentioned, the NNCC says it would be cooperating with the state the Attorney General’s State Ethics Commission as part of a review.
As others have pointed out, the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission and Attorney General’s office are two separate entities. WAMC has reached out to the NNCC for clarification.
For now, it’s a bit of a waiting game as questions linger, says Szafranski.
SZAFRANSKI: We’re just going to have to wait and see, and we got a little bit more clarity on what happened when The Republican published excerpts from her termination letter, but all that kind of really did was give us a better sense of the timeline, which does raise some questions about what New North Citizens' Council was thinking with that release…
The NNCC says its employees and board members have "no further public comment at this time."
