Brenden Moore
The State Journal-Register
It may have started with the youth of Springfield, but the cause of Black Lives Matter has found new allies in city government in the past few days as leaders search for the proper response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
As they basked in the sweltering heat in front of the State Capitol Sunday, the young activists found themselves joined by a cadre of local elected officials, including Sen. Dick Durbin, Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder and five of 10 sitting city council members.
The politicians showed up to listen, march and, in the case of Langfelder, join protesters in kneeling for an eight-minute, forty-six second moment of silence in memory of Floyd in front of the Springfield police department.
“We can be the lightning rod to show America how we should live as one community,” Langfelder later told those gathered. “But it’s going to take each and every one of us. It’s city government, it’s private sector, it’s the ministry, it’s social service, it’s the school district, all of us working as one together. Because this all starts with one individual, just like the coronavirus.
“It starts with one infection and it could go across the masses. That’s the same thing with racism, but we’ve been living with racism a hell of a lot longer than coronavirus,” Langfelder said. “So it’s time that we find the vaccine for racism. And it begins with every one of us working together to make it happen.”
But how the city officials translate this symbolic protest of racial inequality and police brutality into measurable public policy changes is still coming into focus. And though it’s clear that reforms are on the way, the mayor and aldermen have already ruled out some large-scale changes such as defunding the Springfield Police Department as some protesters have requested.
Starting the conversation
Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory and Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner say they are in the middle of a listening tour aimed at gathering feedback from across the community on how to move forward. Turner said the pair are working on a comprehensive package of solutions based on those discussions and their own ideas. They hope to wrap up that phase of the process by the end of next week.
Though not wanting to delve too much into specifics, Turner said some of the proposed changes they hope to bring forward would impact the police department, the makeup of city boards and commissions, entrepreneurship opportunities in the community and economic reinvestment.
Turner and Gregory’s wards cover most of Springfield’s east side, an area of the city on the forefront of its massive racial and economic disparities.
Though previously hidden in plain sight to many, Floyd’s death has once again forced Springfield residents and elected officials to confront these hard truths.
A similar discussion took place following the January 2019 publishing of a four-part series in Governing magazine that put a spotlight on segregation in the capital city.
Langfelder, who served as the Community Reinvestment Act coordinator for First of America Bank prior to being elected to city office, said that though policing has recently been the flash point, he agreed that addressing economic disparities will be key to addressing structural racism in Springfield.
The mayor touted the redevelopment of Poplar Place, an east side development of duplexes that are being converted into single-family homes as part of a nearly $22 million overhaul.
And Langfelder said he would like to encourage more residential housing and commercial redevelopment on the east side through grant programs and the expansion of the area covered by the Far East Side tax-increment financing district.
Langfelder said the city is working to secure grants to further expand broadband access and he also hopes to improve the pipeline into the building trades for minority residents of Springfield.
Other proposed policy changes to respond to Floyd’s death include providing financial incentives that encourage home ownership and repair among minority and low-income residents, which has been suggested by Gregory and Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin.
McMenamin suggested that the city could pay for it with new revenue sources such as by imposing a municipal real estate transfer tax.
McMenamin also suggested that the city once again fight to include a city residency requirement in the next police union contract.
The Police Benevolent and Protective Association, Unit 5, which represents Springfield police officers, is the only union that does not have residency language in their contract, which expires in 2022.
Though Langfelder’s administration fought to include that language during negotiations with the union, an arbitrator denied the city’s request in February.
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 