A Scintillating Day at City Hall
Posted on Thursday, January 17 2008 by Heather Brandon
Come learn alongside Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and members of the Springfield City Council all the dazzling details—or at least what can be disclosed to the public—behind how a city investment with Merrill Lynch plunged in value, last said to be a loss of about $12.6 million.
At 11:00 am the City Council is set to meet with various other officials for a debriefing, some (or all) of which may be limited to executive session.
At 12:30 pm the Finance Control Board will host a public comment session prior to its regular meeting, which is slated to begin at 1:00 pm. This newer iteration of the control board, as of last spring, has run somewhat looser and more talkative sessions than the previous version, sometimes starting meetings late and occasionally running very long. Nonetheless, the meetings continue to be very lively and informative, and today’s certainly promises to be that way.
Heather Brandon http://urbancompass.net
January 17th, 2008 at 11:13 amUpdate: the City Council meeting today will begin at 2:00 pm, not 11:00 am as was reported in the Republican earlier. It will primarily be a closed-door session.
Heather Brandon http://urbancompass.net
January 17th, 2008 at 11:26 amThe Finance Control Board is meeting now in an executive session with legal counsel, receiving a briefing on the Merrill Lynch case. Later today the City Council will hear essentially the same briefing. Bob Arieti in the City Council office told reporters that its 2:00 meeting will open to the public for “about 15 seconds” and then go into an executive session. Aside from City Council members, Arieti said attendees will be control board executive director Stephen Lisauskas and a representative of the board’s legal counsel.
tomj
January 17th, 2008 at 11:41 amIt’s become obvious that the Patrick FCB represents a major step down in quality and performance from the Romney one.
Heather Brandon http://urbancompass.net
January 17th, 2008 at 12:05 pmI don’t think it’s so much a step down as a step across, a lateral change in tone and approach and stated mission. Some gains, some losses in that change.
Bill D.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:24 pmThe word “scintillating” makes my hair stand up on edge!!!
Bill D.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:33 pm- I mean end!
Heather Brandon http://urbancompass.net
January 17th, 2008 at 5:37 pmChairman Gabrieli apologized today, at the end of the meeting, for keeping everyone waiting (again) at the beginning.
There were a bunch of kids present from the Renaissance School, along with parents it looked like, many holding signs protesting the potential splitting up of the school body (space constraints). The meeting got started maybe 30 minutes late, which is better than last time, when I think it was more like 45 minutes late. During the middle of the day like that a lot of people have other places to go and are sometimes just waiting for their chance to speak during the public comment portion. A wait that long can be painful.
I wish they would adjust the start times of the meetings to accommodate all the time they have to spend in executive session dealing with legislative matters lately.
Today’s meeting also took longer than it might have otherwise because of the new mayoral administration adjusting. There were lots of questions and concerns brought up on items that in the past might have just gone through very quickly. That said the public also got a bit of perspective and more information on items that otherwise might have just gone through very quickly.
The meatiest item before the control board today had to do with an on-street parking management contract, and some questions about how the Springfield Parking Authority operates and relates to the city’s administration, as a quasi-public entity under the state, but appointed by the mayor, if I heard correctly.
The SPA has selected one of a few bidders from an RFP process to manage on-street parking, including the issuance and collection of tickets. Board members weren’t familiar with the bids or why the company awarded the contract had won it. The winning bid was submitted by a company that also did not happen to submit the lowest bid.
Mayor Sarno was particularly concerned about that and wanted to know more. Gabrieli echoed the concern, which appeared to relieve Sarno. The board requested more information and context on the other bids and the companies that submitted them. ProPark was not the winning bidder, although it did submit a bid. More on that later. It will probably come up at a future board meeting.
I know people are dying to hear about on-street parking.
Regarding the on-street parking enforcement issue, Sarno was particularly concerned about the four people in the traffic division of the police department who may lose their jobs while the management transitions to a private company. There is no guarantee these people will be retained, and both Sarno and new board member Bud Williams dwelled on this concern. Gabrieli did not echo the concern on this subject, and executive director Stephen Lisauskas essentially said that the board’s perspective is focused on efficiency, not maintaining the pay rate, benefits and pension of these four employees. Lisauskas also noted that the issuance and collection of tickets is well below where it could be and that there are four staffers in the traffic division where there could be six, and that several discussions have taken place with officials in the police department regarding this concern and the revenue the city is not collecting.
Lisauskas said that the estimate for increase in revenue is between $1.5 to $2 million if the city got on the ball with its on-street parking enforcement.
On the Merrill Lynch issue, city officials are being tight-lipped, as they probably should be, but they face a hungry media at this point.
Gabrieli repeatedly stated that he believes ML is in the wrong on this and that the city has a good case to get its money back. He also believe the Attorney General’s office is handling its investigation just fine thank you very much, and that its tendency is normally not to share much information at all while it is investigating.
Two items were removed from today’s agenda and postponed until later because the meeting was dragging on for a while, and had only been allowed an impossible 60 minutes to cover the material, that is, if it had started on time in the first place.
The items were a presentation on CitiStat by Paul Foster, and a presentation by Matrix Consulting on its inspectional services survey, both of which promise to be very interesting when they do finally get to appear before the board.
We also heard updates on the searches for a police commissioner and a schools superintendent; nothing major but a few details emerged. James Morton mentioned that the interview process for a police commissioner will be public, after the initial applicants have been vetted, which I thought sounded very positive. Public interviews are anticipated to take place during the week of March 10.
The Springfield Intruder » Commish Search Heats Up http://www.springfieldintruder.com/?p=429
January 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am[...] Board meeting, as the FCB announced that, following a weeding-out of the initial applications, interviews for the post will be held in March [scroll to bottom], and will be public. Meanwhile, the Springfield Republican has let its opinion [...]