This week, Holyoke City Councilors convened a full meeting and three committee meetings, resulting in a busy summer workload. The Ordinance and Development and Government Relations also met this week.

Below are links to the full meetings for the latter two committees.

City Council

The City Council voted for city voters to either support or oppose moving the position of city Treasurer from an elected seat to an appointment. The question will be on the ballot this November. Another ballot question for city voters is how much to fund the Community Preservation program based on a single digit — 1 percent from 1.5 percent —  surcharge on property taxes. Exempt from paying this surcharge are  residents with low incomes and seniors with moderate incomes.

Regarding the Treasurer’s post, currently held by Rory Casey, who was elected, the City Council will request that the Legislature allow the city to add the position.

“Those are the only two questions for a municipality that can go on the state ballot. If you want any other local ballot question, it has to be deemed a special election to have. And you run that election alongside with the state elections,”  said City Clerk/Registrar of Voters Brenna Murphy McGee.

Murphy McGee added that her office will send out 5,000 mail-in ballots in November, which includes the candidates for president of the country.

More information about the CPA here. Information about what projects are seeking CPA funding can be reviewed here.

The proposal for the Treasurer’s seat to be an appointment has the backing of Mayor Joshua García.

City Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos

The Council also considered a motion to adopt a new rule that instructs councilors to always speak in respectful terms about one another, whether in public meetings or social media platforms.

Meg McGrath-Smith, chair of the Charter & Rules Committee, said, ” I think everyone believes that it is best practice. I think all of us need to be speaking in respectful terms, whether inside or outside of city council, including on social media. but there were concerns about censorship and also concerns that we actually cannot say what people can do outside of city council chambers, and that we would run afoul of different issues by saying that in our rules.”

City Councilor Linda Vacon suggested that the language include the word “intentional,” as in a councilor intentionally making indecorous comments in chambers or in the public.

City Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos opposed the entire measure, saying, “Quite a few jobs I’ve had in the past that told me if I write such and such on social media, that I could be fired. And I told myself, moving forward, I don’t want to have a job where they’re going to hold that against me. Silencing someone. Freedom of speech is freedom of speech. We are all targets. First of all, as elected officials, we are all targets.

I can oblige, I can I can follow the rules in this room. No problem. But over my dead body. Am I going to allow this body to tell me what I can and cannot say on social media? Are we a dictatorship? Like no. What is wrong with people? No. This is this is crazy. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Don’t silence one another. Because sometimes you need to hear the things that are written on social media, because it makes you think about your actions. And sometimes that’s probably what the problem is, that your actions, you don’t want to be reminded.”

City Councilor Kevin Jourdain said he was for the motion because it has to do with leadership, the public’s perception of the city and the work environment in which councilors work together in te chambers.

It “doesn’t mean we got to be hanging out, going out for drinks afterwards. But the basics of decorum means you can’t sit there blasting people for two weeks and then walk in, and then it’s like, what type of environment, what type of work environment is it after that legitimate?”

Vacon’s last word on the matter: ” To be clear, there’s nothing in this order that controls content of speech at all is strictly relative to decorum. And for the record, I do not post personal posts on Facebook about any city councilors, nor have I. I’ve been a victim of anonymous hit pieces, but my point is not that there needs to be enforcement or punishment. My point is that the way that we conduct ourselves in these chambers should be the same when we are not in these chambers as a matter of leadership and professionalism.”

In the end, the council voted 6-6 on the item, effectively killing the motion.

Charter & Rules Committee

The members of this committee discussed whether and how to create a Police Commission. Assistant City Solicitor Michael Bissonette guided the committee on the steps that would have to be taken in order for such a commission to be created.

“You have to change a charter to create a police commission. And that would go under the same organizational structure as Board of Public Works, Fire Commission, electric Light Water Commission. so there’s already a structure in place,” he said.

Committee Chair Meg McGrath-Smith said that if the councilors want the commission to be purely advisory, then there would be no need to ask state Rep. Patricia Duffy and State Sen. John Velis to seek the votes in the Legislature to create a commission. But if the councilors want the commission to have legal teeth, then the lawmakers would be asked to move forward with the proposal to change the city’s charter in accordance with commonwealth rules.

Councilor Patricia Devine urged her colleagues that if a police commission is created, that it not be heavy-handed.

” The one thing that the fire commission didn’t do was tell firefighters how to fight fires. And my only objection with a police commission is we shouldn’t be telling them how to be police and what they go through,” she said.

The committee voted to send the proposal to the Public Safety Committee to take up at its next, still to be scheduled, public meeting.

The complete agenda from Charter & Rules can be viewed here.

The complete meeting of the Ordinance Committee can be viewed/heard here. And here is the agenda.

The complete meeting of the Development & Government Relations Committee can be viewed/heard here. And here is the agenda.