It is a mathematical fact that the closer Election Day gets, the more prolific city councilors become, shooting out media releases and holding press conferences on whatever issue they can dredge up for a quick sound bite—just in case, you know, voters need some proof that they’re earning their keep.
But even as skeptical political observer as I will issue passes to the councilors who’ve been agitating over the past few days, given the substance of their concerns. Yesterday, eight councilors publicly called on Steve Desilets, the city’s Building Commissioner, not to issue a building permit to the developers who want to build a controversial wood-burning power plant in East Springfield—noting that, hey, the Council just revoked the developers’ previous permit this spring. (As Pete Goonan reports in the Republican, it looks like Desilets will go ahead and issue the permit anyway.)
And today, another group of councilors—at-large Councilor Tim Rooke, Ward 8’s John Lysak, and José Tosado, Council president and a candidate for mayor—are raising a stink about a plan to rent space to house the School Department’s Parent Information Center.
Right now, the Parent Information Center is at the Milton Bradley School. But the city maintains that that space is inadequate—a School Department spokeswoman told the Republican the site has “issues with capacity, parking and overall accessibility for parents”—and is seeking proposals from landlords for a new space of 9,500 to 10,000 square feet.
The councilors maintain that giving up the free space at Milton Bradley to pay rent to a landlord would be a waste of taxpayers’ money. While City Hall has countered that the city would earn $85,000 by renting the empty space at Milton Bradley to the South End Community Center—which lost its home in the June 1 tornado—the councilors say that wouldn’t offset the cost of renting new space for the parent center, which they estimate would cost about $130,000 a year.
Adding to the intrigue over the fight are a couple of overlapping political contexts: Several years ago, Rooke had been critical of an arrangement under which the South End Community Center rented its now-destroyed home from the city for $1 a year, but then collected and kept rents from other tenants in the building. At the time, the SECC was run by then-City Councilor Domenic Sarno, who in 2007 went on to be elected mayor.
Rooke has been one of the Sarno administration’s sharpest critics, including questioning the administration’s 2009 decision to move the School Department offices from the run-down building it used to occupy on State Street to the former federal building on Main Street. Ironically, given the new request for bids for the Parent Information Center, in that case, the city opted against seeking competitive bids to see if the city could find a better lease agreement elsewhere.
