The Holyoke City Council of this week may be best remembered for residents calling out City Councilors Kevin Jourdain and David Bartley for disrespectful behavior at the last City Council meeting and last election cycle.

Former City Councilor and public servant trailblazer Patty Devine said:

“I watched the meeting from home and cringed sometimes when I see how department heads and others are treated.”

At that meeting, Assistant Solicitor Jane Mantolesky was grilled in a manner that moved City Councilor Tessa Murphy Romboletti to whisper “decorum” to Councilor Jourdain.

The meeting began with Council President Todd McGee calling for a moment of silence to honor a beloved member of municipal government, Jennifer Martins from the Office for Community Development, who died recently.

“The city has lost one of its finest public servants,” said Councilor McGee, quoting a communication from the office’s director, Alicia Zoeller.

Her obituary is here.

The City Council approved a ballot question for voters to vote Yes or No on lowering the Community  Preservation Act tax for property owners from 1.5 percent to 1 percent.

Voters established the CPA in a 2016 ballot question. The CPA funds projects for historic preservation, low-income housing, land conservation and recreation projects across the city.

Councilor agreed on the value the CPA tax affords the city even as they voted to not put it on the ballot.

Following are some comments from councilors:

Councilor Kocayne Givner:  “I see these funds are needed for projects and we want everything to get done but we really don’t like paying for it.”

Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos: “I will not be voting on this and note because I disagree. I feel that something of this magnitude, if you’re going to be presenting it to the voters, then we should really be waiting for a larger voter turnout. And we all know that this year we will not have that turnout.”

Councilor Israel Rivera: “I actually value what’s going on throughout the community in regards to CPA. A lot of people who voted for me actually value (the CPA), too, and they have asked me to not vote in favor to this.”

Councilor Joe McGivern: “I think Councilor Rivera makes a very good point. (The proposed ballot question language) is not as simple as it was the first time. I don’t like referendum questions. We’re put here to make decisions because most issues don’t have two sides of a story, most issues have three or multiple sides of a story that need to be vetted out before you a Yes-or-No question. But I do agree that voters have a right to a choice.”

Council President Todd McGee: “I was one of the councilors who fought for the CPA. For me, it’s about the CPA does this, the CPA does that. I know what the CPA does. It does a phenomenal job. [This is]  about giving the people the right to vote whatever election cycle you want to point to.”

The proposal was approved to go on the ballot by a vote of 7-6.

PUBLIC COMMENT

A city resident pointed to the recently released review of the Holyoke Police Department by an outside firm that specializes in municipal affairs. The full report can be read here.

“The evidence is clear if you read the report: The surprises the report uncovers reflect neglect and negligence. The report is a scathing account and indictment of the management and leadership of Chief Pratt. I’m asking the mayor to follow through on his original intentions and remove all impediments so that this process, which requires timely and aggressive implementation can begin. The first and most impediment is Chief Pratt.”

Two women, both active participants in political and civics communities, railed against the tone and words used by Councilors David Bartley and Kevin Jourdain.

Former City Councilor Patty Devine, a mentor to both men and women in public service, said:

“My mother was born in 1916 without the right to vote, before the 19th Amendment [which enshrined the right for women to vote]. Although women have come a long way in their rights as Americans, I feel that after the last City Council meeting, we still have a long way to go. Today in 2023 Holyoke, we have four women on the City Council; women departments heads in the Law Department, Assessors, Personnel, City Clerk, Tax Collector, Library, Auditor, Community Development, Registrar of Voters, and Wisteriahurst (Museum), to name a few.

“Watching the interrogation of one of the newer attorneys in the Solicitor’s Office, I felt we were in Communist Russia. In this country, we do not conduct interrogations like the one at the last meeting. Show respect by at least letting Attorney (Jane) Mantolesky and others have a chance to answer questions. I watched the meeting from home and cringed sometimes when I see how department heads and others are treated.”

She said she was proud of the “maturity and intellectual responses” of  Councilors Tessa Murphy Romboletti, Kocayne Givner and Jenny Rivera “showed that night.”

“You certainly held your own against the bully in the room,” she said.

Also speaking on the way women were treated at the last meeting, and the last election, when she ran for City Council, was Anne Thalheimer.

Her original intent at the public comment was to again advocate for crosswalks to be repainted, as the lines have disappeared over time. Yet, she said, “There’s plenty of money for shamrocks to be painted on streets, but we need some crosswalks and we need them soon. This is bogus and is taking way too long.”

“What is also bogus,” she said, was how she was referred to by City Councilor David Bartley when she ran for the same Ward 3 position as he at the last election. “In a public meeting, I was called a ‘re-occurring nightmare’ and I saw that same kind of discussion and timbre happening at the last City Council meeting. … I was embarrassed and disgusted about how two members of this body talked to professional women.”

In another matter,  Richard Purcell called on the City Council to put on the ballot the establishment of a Police Commission. Twice before, in the 1990s and early 200s, the City Council has taken up the matter but both times, it was stalled in subcommittees.

The matter was on the City Council agenda’s items 48 and 49 this week. See the full agenda here.

See the documents the councilors were given in the relation to the agenda here.

“It’ll be an extra tool for the Police Department, it’ll be real community policing as citizens being part of the commission,” he said. “if the auditor is saying something is wrong, then let’s let the citizens be part of that decision, having a police commission that hires, fires,  promotes and listens to citizens’ complaints. It’s just what democracy is all about.”

Also, Nathan Chung, from the Office of Planning and Sustainability, spoke as a private citizen on several items:

• Kmart Plaza building rezone request: The new owner of the plaza has requested building changes that don’t appear to adhere to the city’s charter rules.

• Rezone for, quoting item 22D on the agenda, to allow “smaller, independent residential dwelling unit located on the same lot as a stand-alone (i.e., detached) single-family home. Recommended that the order be adopted.”

“Many of the applicants who are going for the ADU’s (Accessory Dwelling Units) will likely be Mom and Pop property owners hoping to create multi-generation homes for family members,” he said, urging the councilors to make the rezoning requests as streamlined and transparent as possible.

• CPA on the ballot. “I just know the numbers. How much am I saving?” he asked if the CPA tax is reduced.

Another resident, Spenser Fox Peterson, asked the City Council to keep remote Public Comments available, as it is a path for residents to participate in City Council meetings.

He also spoke in favor of the establishment of an Office for Tenants Rights.

He concluded by calling out the Police Department controversies, which include the suspension of a police captain under investigation for sexual harassment. View MassLive story by our colleague Luis Feldman on this matter here.