10:17 am: Today’s Finance Control Board meeting taking place at Springfield City Hall includes the first of a regular 30-minute public speakout prior to meetings. An article in yesterday’s Republican by Peter Goonan described the process:
Under the newly established rules, those wanting to speak will have to sign up before the meeting on a first-come, first-served basis, and each speaker will be limited to three minutes. …[Control board Executive Director Philip] Puccia said the board welcomes the speak-out as an "additional venue for public comments."
In order to live-blog the proceedings, I’m watching the meeting as broadcast live on the local government access channel. Flashes of the room were shown a short while ago, showing the chairs set up as usual, but with a podium and microphone added in the center aisle, facing where the board members will sit.
10:31 am: It’s time for the meeting to start and the picture is just now coming on the air, only to go off the air again. The room looks busy.
10:33 am: City Clerk Wayman Lee is announcing the public speakout period and reads a list of five approved speakers. A lot of picketers are standing at the back of the room, holding signs, such as one that reads, "Mitt Romney’s control board and Mayor Ryan unfair to police supervisors."
10:35 am: The first speaker, whose name might be Lois Smith (the audio is bad), says, "This body has the power to control every department in the city of Springfield by its authority to decide upon contracts, salaries, bonuses and all funds. The continued support of our school district by this board, after many years of failure in our schools, is disturbing, moreso [for the] damning $25,000 report that you authorized from the [SUI Jordan-Johnson] firm. The report gave Dr. [Joseph] Burke [pictured below], the schools superintendent, a $13,000 raise and more. The census reports the age group not moving into Springfield are ages 24 through 35. This population is not moving here. This is the age of child-bearing and early child entry. We know why they aren’t coming. There is a path leading out of this mess that affects the entire city. Newsweek, before you—I have given you the gift of a Newsweek magazine, just off the stands the past week, that says it all: no matter how much evidence has been amassed before you, we have failed to make the changes required. Today is the day. I want to share numbers with you. By the tenth grade, all over this school district, here are the percentage of children who are, in English and math, either proficient or not proficient: 19 percent, a bare 19 percent, in tenth grade, can proficiently read, write and do math. That means that 81 percent can’t read, write and do math proficiently. And that doesn’t count the approximately one-third who have already dropped out of school. That 81 percent will be higher, and cannot function proficiently, once you include the drop-outs."
10:42 am: Still Speaker One: "The double-whammy is that these children, who are most likely to have been given ADHD drugs to keep them in their seats for six-plus hours a day, with no exercise or [extra] physical education. Please read the Newsweek article which I have provided for each of you; it’s science. I want you to know that quoted in this newspaper magazine is Dr. John Ratey. And Dr. John Ratey has taught at the medical school at Harvard for over 20 years. I brought this information to Dr. Burke and I want you to understand that it was explained to him that it could be provided to him from Dr. Ratey, which is currently in Newsweek, in October of 2006. Nothing happened. He doesn’t believe in science. He has added 180 hours of academic instruction time to that which the state requires. And all of this time is keeping kids in their classes in a situation in which they cannot learn. If you read in Newsweek you will see clearly that exercise is a requirement of brain development, and it also speeds up the learning and retention process. So what are we doing, continuing to do what we’re doing? And as far as the kids who are not functional, at 81 percent, and that one-third of drop-out kids that we’re giving ADHD drugs to, and as of two weeks ago, the government has put a forced label on this that says it kills kids, it gives them heart attacks, it makes them psychotic. Time up? Okay, may I just conclude with my last statement, if I may. Clean out this school district, pay out Dr. Burke’s contract, do what you did with the police department, find someone who can do the job. If 16 months of free research, which I have given, with a comprehensive plan, can’t do the job, then we need to personally see that this task is taken up now. We are having a failing school district in which we’d be better off with these kids off the street, at home. Thank you."
10:49 am: It took me a while to type all of that so I’m behind according to what’s actually happening in the meeting, so my time markers do not reflect how long it took the speaker to speak, but rather how long it took me to type and catch up. The control board has asked for a draft of the statement just given and City Clerk Wayman Lee announces the next speaker; his microphone is off so I can’t make out what he said.
10:52 am: Speaker Two: "Good morning, my name is Edward Geier, and I am currently employed as a lieutenant with the city of Springfield Police Department. In addition to those duties, I serve as the elected president of the Springfield Police Supervisors Association, the labor organization established to represent and negotiate benefits and working conditions of the 68 sergeants, lieutenants and captains of the department. Although most of the members are currently hard at work on behalf of the citizens of the city of Springfield, I am joined here today by many of my fellow brother and sister supervisors, each of whom has sacrificed valuable time from their families and personal interests to be here in opposition of the continued unfair, and unjust, mistreatment perpetuated by this board."
10:54 am: Speaker Two continues: "These hard-working men and women represent the first-line supervision and mid-level managers of the department. They are directly responsible for the smooth, orderly and successful running of the department’s day-to-day policing operations. As has always been the case, they will continue to serve this city and its citizens with pride, honor and distinction on a daily basis. Unfortunately, that distinction has now been defined as being the only 68 remaining city employees, amongst thousands, that continue under the provisions of a city-imposed wage freeze: clearly not a very desirous or flattering distinction."
10:58 am: Speaker Two continues: "As police officers, we accept this job knowing that injury or death can victimize us at any given moment. We were abruptly reminded of that fact with the shooting and wounding of one of our patrolmen just over two weeks ago. However, what none of us could ever have anticipated, expected, or predicted, was that the most grievous mistreatment and victimization possible over the last four years would come at the direction of our employer, and not that of the criminal element. In simple summary terms, the city and the union entered into the provisions of an agreed-upon contract in 2001. In 2003, the city of Springfield breached the terms of that contract by freezing the wages of all city employees, irrespective of contractual language and obligation, an action subsequently deemed to be illegal by a justice of the Superior Court."
11:01 am: Speaker Two continues: "However, since 2004, the Springfield Finance Control Board has continued to maintain this wage freeze over the objection of its employees. Contracts are part of the basic fabric of everyday life, and the main root of all business in this community, this state, this country, and all around the entire world. It is truly not believable, and not an accepted practice, for parties to just disregard the terms and provisions contained within them. For example, could any of us call our bank and tell them that we are not going to honor the provisions of the loan contract we signed regarding our mortgages? A very unlikely scenario. A contract is a dual-ownership document. In this case, the men and women of this Association have lived up to, and honored, and continue to complete the terms of the agreement, and the city of Springfield and the Finance Control Board has failed to act in kind. It is not fair that we should have to negotiate a contract twice, and it defies basic logic and common sense that one would actively negotiate a new contract with someone, when they have not fulfilled their obligation under the terms of the first agreement. In closing, I would like to thank and commend City Council President [Kateri] Walsh. Since her arrival on this board, she has been able to accomplish what previous to today had been the impossible: this public speakout forum. Please continue your miracle workings by convincing this board to live up to the terms of our agreement. Until that time, I promise you that I will be here every month updating our situation, three minutes at a time. I thank you for your time and kind attention." [Applause]
11:06 am: City Clerk Wayman Lee calls Timothy Collins to the podium. Collins corrects him by saying, "Timothy T. Collins."
11:07 am: Speaker Three: "I’m wearing three hats here today. My first hat is as a member of the Public Employees Committee relative to the group insurance. We have a signed Schedule 19 agreement with you, but in that agreement, there was agreement that we would define how the Public Employee Committee operates. I got an extension from your lawyer, Mr. [David] Connelly; I have copies of all three agreements in here. It was signed by all the union presidents on October 27. We had an October 1 deadline. I ask you to sign this agreement, especially since you’re talking about insurance rates, and by law, you should be speaking with the Public Employee Committee. That’s hat one. Hat two: as the president of the Springfield Education Association, I want to make you aware of the fact that over the last three years, due in large part to our failure to negotiate a contract, we have lost nearly 50 percent of our teaching staff. There has been an 85 to 90 percent turnover in the administration, in the School Department. We are under tremendous pressure."
11:11 am: Speaker Three continues: "I plead with you to no longer be the lowest community in meeting its obligations from the city side of the budget. We need more than the minimum requirement, and that’s all we’ve been getting. And now, my third hat, as a citizen: I ask you publicly, as a board, to support Deval Patrick’s call for us to have the ability to raise our own revenue. This city cannot afford to provide the services that its citizens and children need off the property tax. We have over 100,000 young people from the age of 25 to 35 who come into our city Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Raising the cost of a drink by a dime, or the cost of a meal by a couple of dollars, is not going to keep them away, and it will give us the ability to raise some revenue. We also, as reported here last year—78 percent of our multifamily units were bought by people inside of 495. We need home rule legislation to tax that property at a different rate, and let that tax go above the Proposition 2.5 limit. Let’s put money in the code enforcement, and stop the deterioration of our neighborhoods. We also have a sludge digestion tank across the river, which is sitting fallow. We could divert some of our sludge into that sludge digestion tank, create methane, burn that methane to create electricity, and sell it back to the power companies, raising revenue for the city. There are things that we can do. I ask you, please, get out of the business of running the day-to-day departments of the city, and concentrate on two things: economic development and community development. You want to solve the problems of this city, we need living wage jobs. It will solve the problem of crime on the street; it will solve the problem of poorly-performing schools; it will solve all of our problems. Thank you for this time, and I have one more suggestion for you: when you put aside a half an hour for public speakout, and you only have five people to speak, give them six minutes instead of three minutes, so they can say what they want to say, appropriately. Thank you for your time." [Applause]
11:19 am: City Clerk Wayman Lee announces the next speaker and again it’s unintelligible because his microphone is off.
11:20 am: Speaker Four: "My name is Alex Nickett. I live in Springfield, and I’m coming here to speak for the libraries. I live in Hungry Hill, and right now, if I went to the library, I would see a sign, ‘Closed.’ Imagine that, how would people feel? Now it is time to put the libraries back on a full weekly schedule. Recently, I read an article in the Springfield paper that Springfield is the center of culture and education. True, we have four colleges in the city, but how about the libraries that are open half-time? How can we claim to be a city of culture when the libraries are only open part-time?"
11:23 am: Speaker Four continues: "What would Andrew Carnegie [pictured] say, if he came and saw ‘Closed’ on his libraries? I don’t have too much to say, but I only wish that the libraries were put back on a full weekly schedule, as they were before. Thank you." [Applause]
11:24 am: City Clerk Wayman Lee announces the last speaker, Frank Brunton.
11:25 am: Speaker Five: "I used to refer to you guys, and the lady on there now, as the white big five running the city of Springfield. But I just want to point out to you, the city of Springfield is not going to fly any higher than the school system is going to carry it. I go to bed every night and I pray that Holyoke and Lawrence, Mass. don’t go out of business, because if they did, our school system would be on the bottom. There’s also another thing you should understand, that Springfield, for a city of its size, and on the northeast coast, they have the strongest white belt around it. Also, Springfield has a mayor, who made a speech the other day talking about the 65,000 jobs in Springfield, well, over half of those jobs go home every night. Right now, for example, in Springfield, the population’s about 180,000. Tonight, at 9:00, it’ll be down to 144,000. But, those are things you have to look at. I was in court regarding the ward representation for the last couple of weeks. The fact is that there is a cloud that hangs over Springfield. And that cloud is racism."
11:30 am: Speaker Five continues: "People move into the city of Springfield [concerned with] safety, good police, and good schools. We don’t have either one. We have good police but they aren’t getting paid. Those are some of the things we have to look at. I think it’s time that you take a high look at the city of Springfield and what it is. We are now the second-largest [sic] city in Massachusetts, and it happens to have a minority population. Thank you." [One person claps]
11:32 am: Chairman Alan LeBovidge, "Is there anyone else—I guess those are the five individuals that are signed up. Is there anyone else that wants to speak out?" A pause. Mayor Charles Ryan leans over to talk to Councilor Walsh and she laughs. Timothy T. Collins steps back to the podium, this time with his black bowler hat on.
11:33 am: Collins: "I just have one other thing to say, and I think it’s important." LeBovidge gestures to Collins as though to say, go ahead. Collins gestures to the police supervisors union picketers at the back of the room. "My brothers and sisters back here are asking for their contract. They’re the last one left. This isn’t just about them. Quite frankly, every worker under contract in the city of Springfield is watching what you’re doing. If you don’t honor their contract, how can we trust that you’re going to honor our recently-signed contracts? I don’t want the bleeding off of my teachers to surrounding communities to continue. Bringing settlement here not only helps them; it helps every worker in the city of Springfield." [Applause]
11:36 am: City Clerk Wayman Lee announces the close of the public speakout period and says that the board will reconvene at 11:00 for its regular meeting. Everyone in the audience looks at their watches and the audio for the broadcast is turned off. Philip Puccia gets up, smiling, and walks around a little, while Mayor Ryan puts on his glasses to read the papers in front of him intently. The broadcast then defaults to a static image of a painting mounted on the wall above where the board sits, depicting Augustus Saint Gaudens’s statue downtown, "The Puritan," said to be Samuel Chapin, overlooking the noble city.
