Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register
The Springfield City Council in a 6-4 vote decreased the minimum contract amounts for which council approval is required. The amount goes from $50,000 to $10,000, generally considered a rebuke against Mayor Jim Langfelder.
Aldermen Shawn Gregory, Roy Williams Jr., John Fulgenzi, and Joe McMenamin voted against the ordinance while aldermen Chuck Redpath, Andrew Proctor, Kristin DiCenso, Erin Conley, and Jim Donelan, joined Hanauer to support the measure.
The ordinance was amended to exclude City Water, Light & Power. An amendment would also require each city department to submit an ordinance with its spending request at each meeting.
Gregory wondered how it would affect “the speed of ordinances” and doing “the business of the people.”
“I don’t see why,” Williams added, “we would do this type of this ordinance at this time.”
McMenamin contested that ordinance was taking authority away from department directors and putting the responsibility on the city council “to look at the minutiae, look at the small stuff.
“I think it’s more important for this council to look at the big spending issues that come before us.”
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Langfelder again maintained the $10,000 threshold would go under even the state statute of $15,000 that is allowable.
“What we don’t want to see coming out of a pandemic,” Langfelder said, “is slowing things down 30 days or even more than that. This definitely, regardless of how we package it, will slow it down.”
After the meeting, Langfelder said action like the council took Tuesday usually happens when times aren’t going so well.
“We haven’t furloughed anybody, laid anybody off,” he pointed out. “We’re in good financial health. You want to maintain it, of course.”
Langfelder could veto the ordinance, meaning that the council would have to take another vote to override it.
The mayor would have until the next city council meeting on May 4 to veto the ordinance.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council unanimously approved a resolution of affirmation of Ten Shared Principles between the Illinois NAACP branches and the city.
The shared principles, which include valuing life, treating people with dignity and respect, rejecting discrimination and supporting diversity in police departments, are designed to promote trust between communities and police officers.
The initiative started after unrest erupted in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. The Illinois NAACP State Conference and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police signed the affirmation in 2018.
Police Chief Kenny Winslow led the effort to get all 26 law enforcement agencies in Sangamon County to adopt the principles at a ceremony in the Old State Capitol. Winslow, who earlier Tuesday was named Chief of the Year by the ILACP, has also incorporated the principles into policy and training for the SPD.
Winslow was joined by Illinois and Springfield NAACP president Teresa Haley in reading the shared principles.
An ordinance authorizing the renewal of a cable television franchise agreement with Comcast of Illlinois/Indiana/Ohio LLC also passed the council unanimously, though the length of the renewal was amended to three years.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 