FINANCE CONTROL BOARD, March 27, 2008  

Present:  Chairman Christopher Gabrieli, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Robert Nunes, James Morton, City Council President  Bud Williams, City Clerk Wayman Lee

Public Comment

City Clerk Wayman Lee:  [Explains speak-out rules.]  Try to keep your comments to three minutes, please.

 

Lois Smith:  [Praise for Gabrieli and control board.  Springfield should learn from other communities, e.g. KIPP schools in Lynn MA.  School committee problems puts school improvement in limbo; wants control board to supervise school committee.  Praises Markey/Stebbins proposed Ethics Ordinance.]

 

Tony Taylor:  [Supports William Fitchet as police commissioner.]

 

Vonn Morris:  [Supports William Fitchet as police commissioner.]

 

Daniel D’Alma:   [Building trades union business manager; union supports William Fitchet as police commissioner.]

 

Steven Villanueva:  [Teen pregnancy is a big problem in Springfield, bigger than elsewhere.  A member of the Adolescent Advisory Board, he advocates better sex education in public schools.  Invites board and citizens to an April 7 meeting on this subject in Holyoke.]

 

Donna Seymour:  ...I would like to know when will you institute another community meeting so members of this city can get together with you fellows to let you know what our concerns are about.  When is that going to happen again?  That’s it.  Thank you.

 

Approval of Minutes   

 

**MINUTES APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Approval of Project: 311

 

Executive Director Steve Lisauskas:   Item III on the agenda: approval of a project 311.  As you may recall from the last control board meeting, we conducted a presentation that described the 311 system, the improvements it could provide to customer service as well as its ability to serve as a significant accountability mechanism for the city.  It would allow a determination of service turn-around time, benchmark services and the responsiveness of city departments to those services and allow the city to implement improvements by improving quality of work, the quantity of work and the efficiency of work conducted.  It would also allow the city in future to tie into work order systems which, when you look at the first work order system implemented in the Department of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management did with no additional resources, it increased the amount of work being conducted by over 25% just by having the work order system in place.  So the system is both one for substantial improvement and accountability and citizen service...improving citizen service both of which are priorities of the Mayor and, of course, priorities of the board.  Funding for this item is proposed to come from existing funding in the information technology department budget so there is no funding order required, though I would ask...I would request the board approve the implementation of the system as well as that the control board and city personnel take whatever steps necessary to adopt 311. 

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, thank you, Steve, and done a lot of research on this project and the accountability factor, the tracking factor, the efficiency, it’s a clearing house for basic services and quality of life issues, but I think that really what put me over the top are two things.  Number one, after speaking numerous times with Mayor Curtatone of Somerville (I know he’s looking forward he wants Paul and the rest of the crew to come out for dinner) he is resoundingly so impressed in how this has helped out the city of Somerville and his recommendation was very important to me.  He indicated to me, “Dom, I know exactly what you’re going through when something like this new comes in, the trepidation and wondering about the bureaucracy, etc.  It has been tremendous.”  Two, to our hardworking men and women in blue, our Springfield Police Department, the...and I think, Steve, I might be wrong on the percentage rate, the cut down of really non-policing calls going to the police department is vast.  And that really helps free up proper calls going to proper divisions and, as this becomes...as the evolution takes place, as we’re flexing quality of life squads and other departments tracking is important.  We’re getting to the point in time I believe, Steve, that you can literally have a ticket—you will have a number—and you will get to the point 24 hours, 48 hours, whatever is going on and it might be one call to a certain division or it might be multitudes of calls, but that way, the clearing house knows where to direct those calls.

 

The last thing I’ll say about this: this does not preclude anyone from calling the mayor’s office directly, city council, school committee, school department, any of the various divisions of the city if more information is required.  This is building on what the United Way does with their 211 for non-profits, information, clearing house, but mainly getting you the quality of life services, basic services, with efficiency and getting you a turnaround. So I would like to move forward on this, Mr. Chairman.

 

BW:  Through the chair, Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  Just a couple of quick questions, Steve.  The...in terms of implementation.

 

SL:  Yes, sir.

 

BW:  Dates, times and also really sensitive to the public relations piece that has to go along with this, so our citizens can be educated so we can really take advantage of what I think is an outstanding system.

 

SL:  Yes, well I think, Mr. President, we’d be looking at a spring turn around for some of the major departments.  So for instance DPW, which already has a call center, what you can do with 311 is instead of advertising immediately is 311, you can start “cutting over” the existing seven-digit phone numbers so that the phone number for DPW can move over to 311.  And then when the call center is ready to...when you’re ready to go live with that, you can announce that as 311.  So in terms of public communication, I think I see it really as “rolling thunder” almost: that you roll out a piece, and then roll out another piece, and roll out another piece as your staff gets trained on the core basic functions performed by those operating departments.  So I think your sensitivity to making sure that the public is informed and also to make sure that it goes extremely well are very well placed, and it’s something that we’ve been paying particular focus on.

 

BW:  And what’s the cost?

 

SL:  The cost is between $80,000. and $100,000. depending on how much training time is necessary.

 

BW:  That’s per year?

 

SL:  No, no that’s to implement the system.

 

BW:  Just implementation.

 

SL:  Correct.

 

BW:  And what’s it going to cost to...

 

SL:  Actually all it will cost...I think’s it’s under $20,000. per year, well under $20,000. per year for the system and then there’s the personnel cost of the call center people.  that’s just the cost shift, because there are people taking these phone calls already (people in the clerk’s office, treasurer collector’s office, DPW who are taking these calls already), so it aggregates these calls in one single location, so it’s easier to see, but it’s just a...it’s mainly a cost shift. 

 

BW:  And any additional staff needed?

 

SL:  We don’t anticipate at this time.  We anticipate taking...there are four call center employees over at DPW.  We anticipate shifting two of them over, and there may be the need for additional staff in the future, depending on how the transition goes.  And we’d obviously bring that back for discussion if there were need for additional staff.

 

BW:  Just want to take you back to what the Mayor said in terms of taking the pressure points from police department, because a lot of times they call the police department for just about any and everything from barking dog to cat up a tree to any violation.  So [unintelligible] take the pressure off the police department, that would be tremendous.  Thank you.

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, I [unintelligible] on the police the percentage, it was either 43 or was higher than that less than non really policing calls that tie up our men and women in...was it...

 

SL:  I think 43% was the number of policing calls received by the police department, 43%.  So it’s between 50% and 60% of the calls...a decline in that, yes, sir. 

 

DS:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

CG:  Any other questions or comments?  I want to praise you and your staff, Steve, and, obviously, working closely with the city executive staff, I think that one of the goals we have as a control board is not only to get to the fiscal stability we have.  (I might note, I believe that the city of Boston’s decision yesterday to move reserves out means that we have moved up one more level, and we may now have the most reserves of any city in the state of Massachusetts.)  But not just fiscal stability, but also to improve operations and to make government more responsive to people.  The fact that Springfield...I still continue to think that’s exciting to think of Springfield as ahead of Boston, following cities like New York in making government practically available to people through 311.  So I’m really pleased that you’ve been able to find the time that you’ve helped the city to look at these other places.  I really praise Mayor Sarno for jumping on board with this and the city council for supporting it, and I’m enthusiastic to vote yes.

 

**MOTION TO APPROVE PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Approval of Project:  Time and Labor Management System

 

SL:  The next item on the agenda is item IV, approval of a project, time and labor management system.  As we discussed at the last control board meeting during the presentation about TLM, time and labor management is essentially the second phase of MUNIS.  It was originally bid, originally proposed, as a second phase of MUNIS, the city’s core financial management computer system.  And this takes us from accounting to the actual personnel aspect of things.  The TLM system will allow the city to analyze and control personnel costs, ensure compliance with union contracts (which is now done in a manual process).  You can ensure that the city is at all times complying with the provisions of the union contracts because it can be hard wired into the system.  The system will provide the city, as well as the employees on their paycheck, time accrual information which is not currently provided.  It is anticipated that it will dramatically reduce payroll errors, over-use of leave, under-use of leave by people who may think they have less time than they actually do.  We anticipate that the system will pay for itself in under a year, based on the savings due to payroll errors and other factors.  The implementation cost of the system is estimated to be $800,000. with a $350,000. a year annual maintenance and up-keep for the system.  The funding for this project is earmarked in the capital bond issuance which is planned for May or June, so to the extent that the board is comfortable proceeding with this project, there’s no need for additional funding. We can take it out of that bond issuance which has received approval. 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, again on this...this is simply what’s common practice that’s been done.  Within my time---Buddy can tell you--my time in the district attorney’s office...Buddy with the courts, South End Community Center that you have all your information every week, every month, bi-week, every month on there indicating your time accrued, vacation, sick, everything so that if there’s any questions or comments, so it moves away from just getting a separate check now without any information on it at all except what you’re being paid, and I think this’ll be about streamlining and any corrections that have to be made.  So this is not an uncommon practice and again moves toward more efficiency and at times you have to spend money to make money, but I agree with this wholeheartedly.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

BW:  Through the chair.  So the start-up cost is $800,000.

 

SL:  The implementation cost, yes sir.

 

BW:  The implementation...$350,000. per year

 

SL:  Per year, yes.

 

BW:  And what’s the anticipated savings in terms of being able to do it all the time?

 

SL:  Based on the...based on very conservative estimates conducted, we’re looking at approximately $3.1million in annual savings, and that comes from a reduction in the time you save no longer having to manually calculate payroll, manually transmit the payroll (which delays things), lost time and calculation errors which every week the city is redoing, re-issuing paychecks to employees, because there were errors.  (It’s a manual process, and that happens.)  By automating the process, you can reduce and hopefully eliminate those errors to provide a better system and to provide better information for managers and for the employees.

 

BW:  So $3.1million per year.

 

SL:  That’s correct.  That’s the anticipated savings.

 

BW:  That’s impressive.  I’m going to just comment on what the chairperson had said earlier of we might be number one in terms of reserves now, but we’ve been going through a very painful situation in the city of Springfield and I said it four or five years ago, we’re just ahead of the curve.  Every municipal-...most municipalities are going to go through what we had went through.  I just think we’ve been able to rebound and rebound in the right manner, so I’m just impressed that another $3.1million for the taxpayers of this city.

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, just the reserves have come up a number of times, and that’s moving in obviously the right direction.  We need to be cognoscente, and we’ve told all our department heads of and I appreciate the [unintelligible] legislative delegation and legislative leadership has to be pursued this extension of the payback loan just as the caveat here, because we right off the top, we are obligated to pay $6.2million  these...this fiscal year and on and we do have a $26.4million balloon payment awaiting city government at 2012 whether I have the honor or privilege or being mayor or he or she or someone else at that point in time.  So it is good to operate with reserves, but we have to be cognoscente and we have to and we will pay this money back, because the extension of the loan is extremely important to the welfare of the city of Springfield.  that could free up anywhere from $3.8million to $4.2million which could be pumped back into making our streets safer and cleaner.  So we need to be cognoscente of that, because we want to continue to be fiscally conservative.  If we have to dip which would be a public safety issue and/or capital expenditure for revenue generating.  And that’s about it, so I don’t...the chairman has brought it up and Council President Williams want to clarify that, you know, all hands still need to be on deck, this extension I appreciate the local delegation and the legislative leadership and we’re very hopeful that something can break and that would continue our movement forward.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

CG:  Spoken like a man in the middle of drafting a budget.  [laughter]  Better you than me.

 

**MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Appropriation Order: Self Insurance Reserve Fund

 

SL:  Thank you.  The next item on the agenda, item V, is an appropriation order for a self insurance reserve fund.  The city of Springfield is self-insured which means it does not maintain insurance policies for liability and for other potential loss or damage.  The preliminary review has indicated that that has been and continues to be a cost beneficial decision for the city.  It pays out less in claims than it would in premiums.  Obviously, that’s something that we need to continue to review to make sure that remains the case.  The financial policies of the city of Springfield as adopted by the control board in June sets forth the requirement to create a self insurance reserve fund.  That self insurance reserve fund would be used to make payments to cover unbudgeted losses.  So, for instance, if there were a large car accident that was not anticipated (clearly, you can’t anticipate a car accident), but beyond the city’s ability to pay for that settlement if there was major damage to city infrastructure and we needed to get that infrastructure up and running immediately so you...there was a loss of information technology (lost all the servers) or there was a major flood downtown you needed to get things up and running again, you need seed capital to do that.  And the self insurance reserve fund is designed to provide you capital to get going so you can get city hall back up and running or the police station or whatever infrastructure was damaged or impacted.  The policy indicates that 5% of the assessed value of the city hall complex (which is one of the larger groupings of municipal value in Springfield) that 5% of the assessed value of that complex be set aside in a reserve, again, in case there is a settlement claim, there is damage to municipal infrastructure, there is a flood or some other form of disaster.  The order before you, 32705 2008 would transfer $843,090. from free cash to a stabilization reserve fund for self insurance reserve in compliance with those policy requirements. 

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, this is something that Mr. Lisauskas and Ms. Vinchesi and we have discussed three things.  One, when we go to the rating agencies, Moody’s does look at this: “Are you, God forbid, catastrophic, how do you keep city government going?”  And two, a lot of times for, you know, for those accidents that might occur with a city vehicle and being able to deal with the costs that are incurred if this city is found at fault and someone, you know, God forbid needs that money for medical, etc.   So, one, the Moody’s bond rating that we can handle it, God forbid it happens; two, catastrophic, and three, for meat and potatoes type issues, because of the self-insurance aspects we have.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

 

BW:  Yes, Mr. Chairman.  Just so happy that this is happening.  When I first came on the council years ago, I realized that we were self insured.  There are a lot of claims that exist in the city: a pot hole, tree falls on a citizen’s car, those small things in which the city always took the position of not wanting to settle or to pay.  This is very important; I mean it just really is.  And I know that the big picture, the car accident and all that, that’s great, but the smaller cases where the meat and potatoes of these particular claims now hopefully will be settled in a very friendly manner. Because it had not been friendly for individuals, our citizens, as I said the pot holes, tree falls, just the typical where the city is responsible for the liability.  Our position has always been: we’re not going to settle, take us to court: it’s been a stall tactic.   So I just want to commend you and the organization and the Mayor for advancing this.  This is important to a lot of little people who really...it’s hard to fight city hall for $300. or $400.  You can’t hire an attorney; it doesn’t make sense to them (it’s too much money) and the city’s position is just...just wait.  So I just wanted to commend you and thank you for bringing this process into place.

 

CG:  Mr. Lisauskas, will the fund get replenished or used over time?

 

SL:  The fund is pegged to the assessed value of the municipal complex, so Symphony Hall, the campanile, and City Hall, so as the assessed valuation of that property increases, there’ll be a need to appropriate money into that account.  Now, as a stabilization reserve fund, all interest earnings from the corpus of the fund are reinvested in the fund.  So it may be able to sustain...largely sustain...it’s own growth.  And to the extent that money is appropriated out of the account for a large vehicle accident (a DPW truck plows into a school bus, for instance) then you would need (empty school bus) you would need to appropriate into the account from free cash or another available service...another available  source.   So it would require a simple appropriation.

 

BW:  Mr. Chairman, what is the assessed value of the campanile, City Hall and the entities that you talked about? 

 

SL:  It’s about $16million to $18million.

 

BW:  Thank you.

 

JM:  Question, Mr. Chairman.  Are there other communities near us that have their own fund like this or are we going to be unique in that regard as well?

SL:  I don’t know what other cities and towns do.  I could certainly find that out for you.  I think this makes Springfield somewhat unique.  The city does appropriate on an annual basis some money for the on-going claims.  This provides an additional reserve, as the Mayor indicated, that the rating agencies are really looking to see.  So I could certainly find out what other cities and towns do.  Some do maintain insurance, because their loss history is such that it makes sense for them to do so.  Springfield’s hasn’t been there.

 

JM:  And is our action, as you’re requesting it, is that in response to Moody’s?  Are we trying to set ourselves up so that we can look the best we can or do we feel that there is an independent need for this kind of a fund?

 

SL:  Well, I think there’s an independent need.  It was included in the financial policies which were reviewed by all city finance people and some experts statewide as well...as well as the rating agencies had opined on them previously and who had opined positively on an earlier draft of them.  So I don’t think it’s...it wasn’t included in the financial policies based on the specific feedback from the rating agencies, though their specific feedback is “That’s a really good thing for you to have.”

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman like [unintelligible] come back with we discussed [unintelligible] how do you handle catastrophic situation occur?  Council President Williams is right.  When you’re putting the budget together, there’s a lot of time there’s not a sufficient amount of money and, with claims, you deal with them as they come, but how would you deal with a catastrophic issue occurring at that point?  Would you, if you didn’t have reserves, would you...you’re in a tough spot...bond?  How do you deal with it?  So it’s just another card in the deck when we go down there.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

**MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Inspectional Services Presentation by Matrix Consulting

 

Control Board Executive Director Steve Lisauskas:  Thank you very much.  I’d like to turn the next item over, item VI to Chief Development Officer David Panagore for the presentation by Matrix Consulting Group regarding Inspectional Services.

 

Chief Development Officer David Panagore:  Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, board members.  I’ve distributed the morning’s presentation, and I have with me this morning Susannah Leigh of Matrix Consulting Group who’s completed for the city an assessment of our inspectional services departments: Health, Building, Fire and Housing.  And without further ado, I’ll turn it over to Susannah and we’ll answer any questions you may have at the conclusion. 

 

Susannah Leigh:  Thank you, David, gentlemen.  Just going to talk to you about our organizational study of our inspectional services.  As David mentioned, it involves Code Enforcement, Housing, Building, Health and Human Services and Environment inspections and Fire Department (fire prevention inspectional services).  Just going to tell you a little bit about what you asked us to do since it’s been some time since I’ve been here. 

 

            We were asked to look at all of those functions, to look at how you’re staffed,  how you’re organized, how you operate, what your use of technology is, look at those services, compare them to other jurisdictions (we looked at 12 different other municipal agencies and how those services are provided), compared those to best practices, those we’ve developed as a firm, working in hundreds of municipalities throughout the country.  We had focus groups talking to applicant or development community as well as neighborhood associations to get the impact—or in put—on issues from their perspectives.  And then we took all those steps and looked at some of the opportunities, both the strengths that those organizations were doing well as well as some opportunities for improvement based on those comparative benchmarks and data. 

 

So with that said, I’ll start with kind of a summary, some of the good things you’re doing, because in every organization, there are some things that you’re doing well, and we should at least note that.  Again there are four different departments, so they are doing things a little bit differently, but you have done some things in terms of provide some tools and resources like cars, cell phones.  Housing Department was pretty progressive in its use of technology: using PDAs in the field to enter data as well as the results of inspections, issue violations, things of that sort.  All of your departments to a certain extent collect fees; some collect fines where appropriate.  Most of your departments were geographically deploying staff.  (And again, that cuts down on things like impact of travel time and increased productivity, familiarity with inspectional zones, things of that sort.)  And then they’ve created an informal, a manual process, such as to say, for interagency referrals, because the departments that go out into these...into community facilities are going to come across jurisdictional responsibilities of other agencies, and it’s good to let them know what the issues are and to get them involved, so they have created that.

 

To take kind of a big picture review of some of the issues:  Again because they are four different department, there are some issues that relate to all of them as well as specific departments in terms of how they’re operating.  As I mentioned, Housing was pretty progressive in its use of technology; other departments not so much.  A lot of manual systems.  You know some departments’ inspectors were sharing vehicles which meant you’re cutting down productivity, because you’re having two inspectors out there hitting the same number of stops or you having an inspector in the office not out there in the field where they should be.  And use of equipment: the PDAs in Housing, excellent; not used in any of the other departments.  Use of information systems: Housing has developed a system; some of the other departments were using Macro to warehouse its data and Excel to kind of compensate for some analysis, things like that, use of manual files to...tickler files to stay on top of case management, things like that.  Again, the manual systems:  I think it’s something as we’ve worked with this community a lot, we’ve seen.  I know we’ve seen.   I know it’s changing, but in the inspectional services side, particularly, it’s one of the weaknesses or one of the “impedments” to its success. 

 

Again, user fees:  I think the last time some of them updated a couple years ago, I think as late as the late 90s, 1998, I think, for Health, so just to understand kind of what the cost of services are, an ability to either set the policy decisions or, you know, where you’re going to collect those fees, but to know what they actually cost is something that we think should be done on an annual basis.  And again because of these manual systems, there was limited communication, coordination of delivery, of provision of services.

 

So I’ll talk about some of our opportunities in each of the departments, and I should say before I get started, one the biggest findings I think we should say is that, for the most part, you’re well-staffed.  There are some opportunities in some areas to add some staff, but, with that said, a lot of our findings are how you’re managing your operations and how you’re using staff and providing them with some tools and resources to make it a little bit more productive and to manage the workload and process better.  So for the most part, we’re not recommending a lot of changes to staff; we’re really changing how you’re operating or doing your business. 

 

So with that said. Building we did find a need for some staff, particularly as it is now.  You don’t have a plan review position, so you’re using your senior inspectors to staff the front counter to deal with walk-in customers, to do the plan reviews and not out in the field where typically we like to see them.  Right now they’re spending probably between 25% and 30% in the office rather than out in the field, and we felt that plan reviewer would help get them out there, get them out on job sites, get them doing the inspections, and streamline some of that process from the customer service side in terms of having that resource being in-house to do the plan review and to deal with the walk-in customers and things of that sort.  Again, so increase the time of inspectors out in the field, use your senior inspectors more to handle the complex projects as well as the quality control to ensure that there’s consistency in the different inspectors’ zones, to code interpretation, making sure that staff are providing a consistent and high level of service and really get out there and make sure that these individuals are providing the same level of service and the same interpretation of codes and there’s consistency from different zones to zones. 

 

One of the issues, too, is in the Zoning Ordinance where enforcement we’re asking for one additional inspector, but some improvements to how you’re managing the cases.  Again it’s really impeded by the fact that it’s a manual system: it’s inspection reports and a tickler file to prompt them of when to go back out and do second inspections, third inspections, issue notices, things of that sort.  We’re saying change the way you’re managing the case load, prioritize the complaints that you’re getting, and set targets in terms of how quickly you’re going to go out there and inspect them by priority, and to monitor that and manage against that.  And again, it’s being primarily impeded by the lack of a good automated information system to provide that data, real data.  And then some of the administrative positions are a little outdated, and I think that as we progress and the department continues to modernize, I think we need to look at that and look at the clerk/stenographer position and change that to more appropriate given the use of technology that we’re hoping the department goes to.

 

Then, in Housing, like a I mentioned, Housing has done some unique things.  They’ve got an information system they’ve created for their internal use, and it has some opportunities there for how they’re managing their workload, how they’re assigning it, how they’re tracking it to a certain extant.  We think they should continue on the path that they’re going.  They’ve really taken some progressive steps given some of the limitations they’ve had with some of the other systems.  So we think they should continue doing that.  We feel like inspectional workload, inspections, inspectional staff’s adequate to meet the current workload and how they’re assigned.  They’ve done some good things about assigning people regionally, about using floaters to deal with peaks in different neighborhoods and being able to flexibly staff people.  Again, they’re doing things like PDAs in the field , so they’re really getting their inspectors out there, and doing a lot of work in the field and not having spent a lot of time re-entering data while in the office.

 

 There’s one inspectional services position, inspector position, that we really feel is more of an analytical position. It’s in the office; it’s helping legal do research for Housing Court.  We think there’s a little capacity there to do some of the analysis on the performance and the management and the work load to keep managers up to date and things of that sort.  So we’re just saying, reclassify the position, but there’s not a significant change in cost.  And then we’re also saying to do a better job of measuring and to responding to reactive work load, so in terms of from first inspections complain, from complaint rather to first inspection to shorten that time frame.  One of the issues: they only have two kind of classifications of complaints: non-emergency and emergency, and again, like in the zoning ordinance enforcement, we’re saying break those out a little more.  Some things are of a higher priority and deserve a faster and quicker response and some not so much.  So we’re saying develop those priorities and manage your workload and response accordingly.

 

In terms of Fire Prevention, again we think there’s a right balance of staff there given their public education workload as well as their response in permit and fire inspection workload.  We just think there’s a couple of best practices they can implement.  One, they don’t all have the right tools.  For example, as I mentioned, they’re sharing cars, so they’re not out there independently depending on if someone’s sick or not, being able to go out there and deal with the workload; same with cell phones, things of that sort.  They’re also very manual.  I mean their scheduling system involves a day planner that if you call in and cancel, they’ll white it out and write in another name over it, so some opportunities there as we talk about some system-wide opportunities.  That’s a department that would really benefit from it.  Geographically deploy staff; right now they’re kind of dealing with the workload as it comes in, and we think that there’ll be some opportunities there to ensure consistency among interpretations of code and things of that sort, familiarity with what kind of activities that are going on in their inspectional zone and things of that sort.  And again, we’re thinking use the assistant fire marshal to do something similar that the senior inspector would do in building to do some of the quality control and training in the field programs that I think most organizations can benefit from. 

           

            And then again Environmental Health. We think they’re adequately staffed.  What some of the opportunities we think they should do is, you know, during the permitting process, provide better information, more information to food service establishments in, you know, temperature control documents, things like good food safety practices, things of that sort.  So that when you go out and on inspections, these are establishments that are educated about what the standards are and things of that sort.  [unintelligible] quarterly reports so you know where you are in terms of your workload, in terms of the type of violations that you’re finding, to target the high-risk establishments, those that you find critical violations, do a little bit more than the biennial requirements of inspections.  So to really be a little more pro-active, a little bit more aggressive where appropriate on some of the inspectional services.  And, again, we think the staff is there to do it. It’s just about how they’re managing the workload, and instead of doing things on a daily basis to do things more on an annual work plan (quarterly, monthly, and so on) and measure that and stay on top of it.  And again one of the issues in health is just to make sure they’re aware of new establishments and that goes to the ability to communicate with the departments, so, you know, ways to keep them informed of new building permits, new business licenses, things of that sort. 

 

I’ll talk a little bit about some of the cross things, because there are a couple.  One of the things we’re recommending here is the creation of a code enforcement committee, something that steps back and looks at all of the issues, something that coordinates issues that pertain, that effect, all of the departments: things like you know looking out hot spots in the area, looking at data in terms of “Where should we do some pro-active targeted enforcement?”  You know, “What are issues, what areas really pervade, placing demand on public services, whether it’s public safety, whether it’s housing complaints, whatever it is?”  We’re saying you know there needs to be someone to look at those issues and to look at how do we better coordinate and better attack those hot spots or better areas that can use a little bit more city attention.  Another really important one is the automated information system, a permitting system, to really enable those departments to live, live data, to be able to manage their operations, to be able to analyze it, to be able to stay on top of it and to become more pro-active than reactive where appropriate.  And then we say conduct user fees again.  Set, you know, set the policy guidelines in terms of what you want to recover, but know what it costs to provide those services and know where you want to be.  In some cases, there might be life safety or public safety areas where you don’t want to be 100% cost recoverable.  There might be areas where you do, like in your health or food establishment permits, so, but just to know what the costs of providing those services are and to update it and look at it annually.

 

And then another interesting one is to create the pro-active multi-family inspectional unit.  This is something that’s been done in Boston, Barnstable, Gloucester, Merrimack.  It’s something that we think is important for communities where you want to stay on top of the housing stock, where you want to identify violations in the sanitary code, you want to prevent deterioration of your housing stock.  It’s something that you’ve got flexibility to do in terms of how you set out: whether it’s fee-based per unit, whether it’s based on the turn-over, whether it’s cyclable, you know every unit’s going to be inspected every four years what have you; we presented a couple alternatives.  And it’s something that you can once a property owner has had no violations or a certain number of violations, they can go to self-reporting.  So there are a lot of ways to work with your property owners, but we feel that it’s an important way...a program that can be fee-supported and can really make sure that you’re staying pro-active in terms of your housing and code enforcement workload.  And then before you look at the organizational alternatives, we really feel opportunities to fix how you’re managing your inspectional services first and then look at some of the organizational alternatives. 

 

And then I’ve just briefly gone through and kind of done an action plan and I think the most important part is I think we need someone to step back, someone that’s part of the senior management, someone that can work with all the departments, that knows what’s going on to really serve as a guiding person, someone to facilitate this process.  And then we think establish the permitting software I think is essential for how you’re managing...how your departments are managing operations and how they’re going to communicate, the automated permitting system really important in terms of the performance measurement management analysis, the basic tools (just getting them cars and cell phones), get them out in the field, user fees and then, you know, give the departments the tools that make them accountable and make staff accountable for how they’re managing operations and then again look at the overall organizational alternatives. 

 

DP:  With that, that’s a brief summary of the report.  We have copies of the full report here.  I would mention during this study we went back and forth with the departments numerous times [unintelligible], getting everybody’s comments, getting everyone’s engagement.  All of the recommendations have been shared and commented on before the final by each of the departments.  And we’ve begun working already on many of these fronts: obtaining the vehicles, Mayor, the flex squad, you see how it all works exactly alike, whatever the title becomes a coordinating committee, working with CitiStat in terms of the data driven, the software, Tom Collins working with Carl Dietz and Steve Desilets are well underway with an initial draft provided by Matrix on a software package which we hope will be a first piece in terms of helping to coordinate all the departments so that you can have a gis, a geographically based system, where all the inspectors will be able to know everything that’s going on in a particular property in one data base.  And as well it had been something that had been discussed, and we’d particularly tasked Matrix to give us some cost analysis, the idea of permitting on an up-front basis the rental multi-family units.  And the study has particular numbers about what it would be if we were to take that approach, so we now have some solid data to think about as we continue to consider that.  I know, Council President Williams, that some of the city council’s been looking at it as well.  So, with that, be happy to answer any questions we can or make any notes of things we need to get done. 

 

Mayor Domenic Sarno:  Mr. Chairman, thank you.  Three things:  I’m very happy you highlighted the good that the current workers, professionals city of Springfield, are doing.  Two, as David indicated, the push has been on the flex and attacking quality of life issues and coordinating the right hand knows what the left hand is doing and funneling out to the proper divisions.  And then, three, on the...I know back I think it was 17 years ago, we had started or done the merge of Housing Code Enforcement, the Building, but I’m glad we’re really re-looking at it again, because it was never really fine-tuned, and this is going to fine-tune it, but that was back in 1991 or 1992, we merged those two divisions together, but I don’t think the fine-tuning was ever directly looked at, so appreciate your efforts.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

Member Robert Nunes:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  Are there any weaknesses in the collection of fees?  Any areas where there needs to be improvement...do they go to the department or pay by mail or...?

 

Susannah Leigh:  Right and each department has its own...

 

RN:  ...collection?

 

SL:  Right...procedure.  I think the issue like in the Housing side, for example, is getting people to voluntarily comply and getting people to pay those fees.  So I think that Housing, for example, has done things like use city ordinances to do liens and things of that sort to step up its enforce-...or its collection of fees.

 

DS:  Mayor, you’re right, we do have to do a better job on following up.

 

SL:  Right and I think one of the good points about the gis based system is that you can tie it into your financial system and be able to not issue a permit if there is a hold on a property for lack of payment and things of that sort, so it gives you...it gives other departments better tools for citywide issues or citywide...or other department holds.

 

RN:  Do the consumers have to pay by check or is there a limit on how much cash is involved in payment?

 

SL:  I’d have to check on that.  I think it’s typically by check if I’m not mistaken. 

 

DS:  Mayor, we do by...Mr. Chairman, but we do by time on the council, Council President Williams, do have attachments now to special permits and/or zoning, Mr. President, I believe a number of years ago we enacted that if you are owing the city any money in fees or taxes, etc., your special permit and/or your zoning issue will not go forward unless it is paid and/or there is a concrete agreement.  Am I correct, Mr. President, we did that a number of years ago?

 

City Council President Bud Williams:  That’s correct, yes.

 

DP:  I think it’s a part of the...

 

DS:  ...the ticketing we need to do better...

 

DP:  ...getting better at that in terms of having all the data bases together, but in terms of the...in terms of the checks and on-line, etc., we’d have to get back to the board on the particulars of our cash management.  Because I do know that work’s been done with the treasurer’s office to improve that and that system, but I don’t know right sitting here what our cash management limits are.

 

RN:  I’d be interested.

 

DP:  OK.

 

RN:  Thank you.

 

Member James Morton:  Mr. Chairman, is it possible for us to have a report three months from now regarding the status of these major efforts and the progress you’re making in all these different areas?

 

RN:  And an organizational chart, too, of these departments?

 

SL:  [unintelligible] recommended down the road if you want to revisit it, but the “as is” organization is provided in there.

 

City Council President Bud Williams:  [unintelligible] 12 municipalities did you look at to compare Springfield?  Do you remember?

 

SL:  Worcester, Albany, Providence...

 

BW:  Hartford?

 

SL:  ...Hartford, New Haven, Lowell, Waterbury...

 

BW:  That’s good enough.

 

SL:  OK.

 

BW:  And the only other I had on the “cross department” issue it says [reads] “merge code enforcement inspectional programs by transferring Housing Department Building Departments.”  That was just, I mean, I was always against that, now wasn’t....didn’t we just do this a couple of years ago take the neighborhood inspectors and pull them out, put...

 

DP:  We did split them and that’s one of the items that I myself, you know,...was one of the, in terms of the commenter...that I commented on...I, I would suggest that first looking at....  Classically, merging all the departments as one makes sense. But what does happen and what I’ve seen uniquely in Springfield (and I have to say there’s value in this) is that by having the Housing Department which produces the housing and owns the issue of housing also be in charge of the inspectional pieces, you’ve now basically divided your work functionally so it seems to be...there’s value in our current set-up, and I would hope that by looking at implementing technology, you might be able to get most of the improvement of a merged department.  In smaller cities what you wind up do having...and we did this actually in Chelsea...was you had a single inspectional services department where each of the inspectors were certified as housing inspectors, building inspectors, health inspectors, so it was one shop and you could basically assign staff.  But in a city of Springfield’s size with as many housing units, you start having to specialize the functions and it may not be as easy to do.  So the idea in the recommendations in the report would be first try technology, see how it works, and then if you need to do the second phase...

 

BW:  Let me ask you a question: Steve Desilets is in code enforcement...

 

DP:  Building inspector...building commissioner.

 

BW:  Building.  He has a sign-off on virtually everything by the nature of his title?

 

DP:  Yes, he is the senior inspectional official in the city.

 

BW:  Because what tends to happen, because when departments were doing all the inspections to code, people normally call Code Enforcement for every single thing.  Now the neighborhood inspectors are, you know, overgrowth, the litter, that kind of stuff.  How do you separate that?  I mean...

 

DP:  Functionally today, the way it...there’s a very good working relationship between each of the code...Fire, Building, Health and Housing.  But between Building and Housing, essentially the Housing department inspectors inspect the interior of housing units and some of the quality of life pieces at the residences.  The Building department really is doing the structural violations, the zoning violations, the electrical and the plumbing.  So much more in the...the more structural, deeper items.  And the Housing is really in the...in the...in the condition and the quality of our neighborhoods.  And it appears to be functionally working, and they do have an overlap and they do sometimes move cases between each department.

 

BW:  But that’s the point, I think.  That’s the point you made earlier in the whole overall scheme of things utilizing individuals and not overlapping, because it become very redundant at times, because they go out “well it’s not our job it’s the code enforcement.”  I mean how do you...?  I mean..[unintelligible] look at that.

 

DP:  It has been a day-by-day management.  I think that they’ve a good working relationship now, but certainly one of the benefits of merging the departments would be basically that single structure, but I believe in the past (and I wasn’t here), although they were “merged,” they really weren’t.  There was still a Housing side, still a Housing Code side and a Building side.  In departments where they really do merge, everyone is actually sitting together as a group with a one department head.

 

BW:  But even though they were merged and separate one department head which the Building...he was the one department head for both departments...still have one department head.  OK.  Thank you.

 

DP:  Thank you very much.

 

Presentation of Personnel Policies

 

SL:  The next item on the agenda, item VII, is a presentation regarding personnel policies by HR director Marilyn Montagna.  Just as Ms. Montagna joins me here, just to set the stage a little bit, the board was presented some draft policies some time ago, perhaps last month or the month before.  What is before you today, Ms. Montagna is just going to do a general summary of policies: why they’re important and a couple of other related issues.  We are in the process of, and she may have some updated information to let you know about, meetings with employees scheduled to gather their feedback.  The final draft that will be presented for your consideration, tentatively scheduled for April, but it may be a little bit later, depending on the amount of feedback we get.  We’ll incorporate all of that feedback (and, of course, your feedback as a board), but also discussions with employees and inclusion of employee feedback as appropriate.

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, just a quick thing [unintelligible] to thank you for that, that was a request that I had and I have the memo that’s gone out to all the department heads non-bargaining for their input, their comments, their questions and how we can, you know, get this done before the board, so thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.. 

 

Robert Nunes:  Mr. Chairman.  So the employees have not seen this presentation?

 

Human Resources Director Marilyn Montagna:  Correct.  I’ll go through the communication plan in detail.

 

SL:  The document before you is a change summary.  You have the draft financial policies as they have....excuse me, draft human resource policies.  I wanted to be able to get your feedback.  This is a change summary that’s before...that you have as a document, and we’ll be going with the employees over those changes over the course of the next couple of weeks. 

 

BW:  Through the chair, that is a concern of mine.  I think it’s the Mayor’s also.  I talked to...the memo’s gone out.  They are planning to meet with the non-bargaining individuals involved as part of this process.

 

SL:  The purpose of...

 

RN:  They should have been...seen it first, and then [unintelligible] to us.

 

SL:  Absolutely.  Thank you for that.  The purpose of  today is not to go through the changes in the policy specifically; that’s for your edification as you review the policies.  I think Ms. Montagna would like to sort of set the stage for you, for the policies that you may be considering in the...at the April meeting.

 

BW:  Let me...through the chair...you [unintelligible] going forward? 

 

RN:  I yield to the board on that.

 

CG:  Well, I think we’re interested...not too sure, but I think what I understand is we’re not going to talk sort of publicly about this set of materials you’ve distributed to us.  You’re going to go through it with employees as a source of feedback.  We’re being [unintelligible] to provide feedback independent of that.  You’re just going to talk about the broad overview right now.  I think that’s, Mayor...the Mayor’s point which I so heartily agree that we would like to have that feedback as part of our consideration rather than going the other way around.

 

SL:  That’s correct.

 

Marilyn Montagna:  What I intend to do...I’m sorry.

 

JM:  And also we’re going to hear what the process is going to be by which you’re going to converse with employees. 

 

MM:  Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  OK.  What I was...wanted to share with you today was really just the rationale, why we undertook this effort, why we started to do what we did, just give you an update on specifically which subset of employees this would apply to in the first implementation and then finally to share with you the communication plan and where we’re going from here.  It was our intent when the first set was distributed to you I believe prior to your last meeting, those were draft policies.  Certainly, they are not...and  so that is just the working set as it exists right now.

 

            Let me start by just sharing sort of why we did, why we undertook this and how we went about it.  I think that the sort of overwhelming rationale for getting into this was the fact that prior to this point and as we sit here currently, there is not a single set of commonly used HR policies in place throughout the city departments.  In many cases there is certainly with some topics, there is certainly some commonality of in what happens, but there are also many areas where there is not commonality.  And that is in as broad an issue as the state’s mandated Small Necessities Leave Act whether that is paid or unpaid.  There is inconsistency there, and it gets down to sort of such very detailed issues as what constitutes someone being tardy.   (Is it five minutes?  Is it ten minutes?  Is it a minute and a half?)  So there really was compelling need for there to be consistency and commonality in those kinds of issues. 

 

The other thing that clearly we wanted to take a look at is that in many of the policies that are in place seem to date back certainly you know longer than we were able to determine.  I mean I found some that seemed to go back as far as 20 or 25 years.  And certainly in the course of a period of time like that, employees’ needs change, competitive considerations as we try to recruit and retain employees change, and our needs to conduct business change as well.  So there was certainly an element of making sure that the policies we had in place were current, were sort of the state of the employment market today and served us as we...as an employer are trying to recruit and retain employees.  Obviously we wanted to be sure that what we were doing and that our policies were fiscally sound and were supporting the financial objectives and plans that the city had.  And finally we wanted to make sure that we were still compliant with state and federal regulations as those had changed over the past “x” number of years. 

 

            As we went through the process, we looked at several places.  We worked very closely with a representative from the MAPC [Metropolitan Area Planning Council], we looked at other municipalities, we looked closely at the policies in place at the state, and we also looked at policies in place with employers (private sector employers) who are competing for some of  the same kinds of talent that we are. 

 

These policies will impact about 240 non-bargaining employees throughout the city.  And these are employees in the city departments, and I want to indicate not those under the jurisdiction of the school committee, so these really are for city employees at this point.  The other group of employees who these would impact would be the vast majority of employees who are hired under grants.  Unless, in fact, there are provisions in the grant that would dictate otherwise, those employees would also be subject to these policies.  And so we would envision, again, that this would be for all of the city departments that fall into those categories.

 

            The final thing is I really would like to share the communication plan.  We are going through this, and our intent is to invite discussion from all of the non-bargaining employees who will be impacted by this.  On Monday March 31, we have a set of meetings scheduled throughout the day whereby we will go through...we will present the draft policy document and some summaries really which are designed to facilitate discussion with all of the city department heads.  So they have been invited to attend one of two sessions that will be conducted on that day.  Starting the following day (which is April 1) and right now scheduled for a week, so ending on April 9, we have a series of meetings.  We are asking each cabinet head to convene a meeting of their non-bargaining staff, a group of us from Human Resources Department will go to those staff meetings.  They’re scheduled for 1½ to 2 hours, depending on the size of the group, and we will do a brief presentation and then the majority of the meeting, we’ll be looking for feedback, questions, clarifications, complaints, endorsements, whatever it might be from the employees in that group.  We then will consolidate that feedback and make our recommendations for changes to the draft policies if in fact there are some (and I suspect there may be) to Steve and the Mayor.  And then the next step would be to share that with you.  And at that point I guess we would be looking for approval. 

 

CG:  Thank you.  Good luck.

 

MM: Thank you.

 

BW:  Mr. Chairman, just nothing...just...as a side bar.  In terms of you said this is not going to apply to the school department.  I would hope that we would come to grips in this city one day that we have two personnel directors; we have two chief financial officers that we have a one system as we have a one money system in this country, you know, that we can one day hopefully have one personnel director, chief financial officer.  You know we have...you couldn’t run a corporation like that.

 

CG:  Are you looking for advice from me on how to work effectively with the school committee?  [laughter]

 

BW:  I would just hope that some day we come to grips with that in this city and streamline so we can all be accountable under one system.  [unintelligible]

 

CG:  That makes a lot of sense and, hopefully I can respond to that to the extent there are similar employees in the school department, I’m sure there may be an opportunity to...for them to benefit from...I see many of the changes I see glancing through this are kind of modernizations, they’re not sort of points of controversy and some of them are things that people care a lot about, so....

 

JM:  Steve, may I ask one question?  Are these proposed changes consistent with the bargaining contract terms? 

 

SL:  In certain areas they are, and in certain areas they are not.  So there are...with the bargaining contract there’re instances in which, you know, all 28 of the unions...I mean there’re 14 different variants. So in some instances they do, and in some instances they don’t; we have to bargain those. With the non-bargaining folks, you don’t have to, so you have some more flexibility to modernize there. 

 

JM:  Thanks.

 

Appropriation Order: LEF

 

SL:  OK.  Thank you very much.  Next item on the agenda is item VIII, an appropriation  order to fund the creation or the establishment of a local education fund.  There was a presentation, as I’m sure you all recall, at the last control board meeting by Mrs. Walachy of the Davis Foundation who has joined us here again today.  And the appropriation order is before you to fund $25,000., a portion of the start-up cost of the local education fund which would go towards supporting the establishment of a local accountability measure in that fund for the school department. 

 

CG:  I defer to you only because I...

 

BW:  I had the unreadiness last time, so but I did meet with Mary Walachy from the Davis Foundation and she gave me...brought me up to speed in terms of giving me an understanding, and my only interest was that I thought there should be broader participation through the broader community.  And what I meant by that were the neighborhood groups, the civic associations, parents, the head of the early childhood individuals such as Michael Denney from down in the North End and Janice Santos from Headstart.  And I think we’ve reached an agreement.  I think that had been part of their plan anyhow, but that will be the only way that I would support that, that this initiative is inclusive and it doesn’t become divisive in this city and I know the Davis Foundation is really try-...has always been for quality education, and they’ve been on the forefront in this community. 

 

But as I alluded to, there have been several initiatives; you have Step Up Springfield going now; you have Cherish Every Child, and I know that the chairperson would appreciate this being I mean education is his forte, that I think that you need...you need to try all kind of different things to see if we can come up with something that to get our system back on track.  As the Mayor always says, something revolutionary which means to get it back on track.  So I plan to support this endeavor and I plan to continue to work with them, but I do think that it needs to be inclusive and there needs to be ownership from all the major stakeholders in the city, especially the parents.  I think that piece needs to be there, and the business community obviously needs to be involved.  So I’m prepared to support this initiative today.  But I’m going to pay very close attention to this and also they’re going to meet with which I think is probably most important component which is the school committee and the school department.  Because we’re doing an initiative and they have not really signed off on it.  And in my opinion I’ve been in government a number of years and anything dealing with the school committee, I try to let them have their say that that is really their domain.  But I’m prepared to support this today so we can keep the process moving forward.

 

CG:  Just to clarify, our appropriation here would support the exploration of the feasibility of advancing.  It was not necessarily a commitment to do so.  I think it would express our support for the value of these institutions when communities have enough consensus, as the council president points out, and capability, we know these can work in cities.  Whether that’s the right thing for this city is, you know, to be determined not by us.  So our support is only to say this is the kind of institution that has worked in other cities, could work here, and I think is both financially meaningful, but also hopefully symbolically meaningful in terms of our endorsement that it’s a good thing to be exploring.  As to whether in the end it succeeds, we wish it well, but it’s not our...certainly not our call.  And we don’t wish to have a...I want to be really clear, our contribution here is, you know, comes with no strings attached and no desire to approve or disapprove of the ultimate decision from the community whether to do this.

 

DS:  Motion...Mr. Chairman, if that’s OK.

 

CG:  I’d welcome it....welcome a motion.

 

DS:  Motion to...in favor...to accept.

 

WL:  Roll call.

 

[CG and DS vote yes]

 

BW:  I do have just a little bit of unreadiness.  I do apologize.  I know we’re going to grant this $25,000.   Is that going direct to the Davis Foundation?  Is there a conduit that they’re going to use?  But that would be my only question.

 

SL:  The $25,000. would be put into the finance department with oversight of the CFO and the executive director of the control board.  I believe it would be granted to the Davis Foundation from there.

 

BW:  So...

 

CG:  Actually, I think you’re looking for a conduit, right, Mary?

 

Mary Walachy of the Davis Foundation:  [from the audience] I’m sorry?

 

CG:  You’re looking for a conduit I think, right?

 

MW:  Yeah.  We’ve talked to the Chamber of Commerce.

 

CG:  You’re not a grant receiving [unintelligible]

 

BW:  That was my point.

 

SL:  My apologies.

 

CG:  You’re authorizing the use of the $25,000. to an appropriate c3 organization that can act.

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, does it have to be amended then or is that already in the?

 

SL:  The motion covers the appropriation to research and develop a plan for the LEF.  It does not say...the appropriation is for that purpose, so I think it’s covered; it’s for that purpose.  It’s for the purpose.

 

DS:  So continue the vote then?

 

SL:  I believe so, yes, sir.

 

BW:  So, so TJ Plante will be in his budget under his jurisdiction.

 

SL:  In his capacity as CFO, that’s correct.

 

BW:  Make the appropriate

 

SL:  Yes.

 

BW:  OK.

 

SL:  Transfer and oversight, yes.

 

**MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Recommendation of Police Commissioner Search Committee

 

SL:  Item number IX on the agenda is a recommendation of the police commissioner search committee.

 

CG:  I’d like to start off with asking for an update on process and outcome.  Not that I think...it’s been well-reported and televised, but nonetheless, appreciate, Mr. Morton, if you could update us.  Thank you, but I want to thank you for a lot of extra work.  I noticed you’re not signing up for any extra committees lately. 

 

JM:  Thank you.  I’d be happy to provide a summary of what our process was.  Let me indicate first and foremost that the search committee for the police commissioner’s position was comprised of Mayor Domenic Sarno, Chief Alan DeNaro of Haverhill, Colonel Thomas Robbins of the B[oston]U[niversity] police department and formerly with the state police, Dr. Lucy Lewis of Springfield Technical Community College and myself.  And I’d be remiss if I didn’t indicate that Mr. Councilor President Bud Williams attended every meeting that we had regarding this search and provided guidance of his own right, and I thank you for that.  We will send out thank-you letters to each of the committee members who were involved in this process.

 

            What we did is we reviewed 35 resumes and we did that review on February 4.  then we met again on February 15 at which point we discovered through the process of vetting which of those candidates were most appropriate for us to pursue from a preliminary standpoint.  We selected four to five at that point—there were four that we were certain we wanted to look at; there was a fifth candidate that we needed a little bit more information about his abilities operationally, and we had our consultant, Mark Morris of MMA Consulting Group, do that additional vetting.  We then remet...reconvened I should say...in executive session on February 25 and began the preliminary process of interviewing candidates and determining which candidates we were going to interview and confirm that list of preliminary candidates.  We finally then met on March 14, and we interviewed in executive session three candidates at that point.  We had intended to interview four candidates; one candidate withdrew his name from consideration. 

 

After the interviews on March 14, we then decided to conduct, as we had promised, public interviews of the three final candidates.  Those public interviews took place in this chamber on March 20, the evening of March 20.  We interviewed those candidates in the open.  Each candidate was informed beforehand that we would ask them to make a presentation regarding their skills and qualifications, that we would ask each of them to indicate what their vision was for the city of Springfield and that each of them would be offered an opportunity to make a closing statement.  Aside from that information, that was the only information that they received.  Those of you who were present that night, you discovered that we asked each candidate as much as possible the same series of questions so that the public could see what their responses were to those questions.  They did not know what those questions were going to be.  We shared those questions among ourselves. 

 

Once that process was concluded, we then deliberated.  We asked one another to present that candidate that they felt most comfortable with in terms of their skills and qualifications to serve in the capacity as police commissioner for the city of Springfield.  Through that deliberation process, the initial vote was three to one in favor of  acting Commissioner Fitchet. 

 

We had further discussion and agreed that there would be unanimous consensus and that we would make a recommendation to the Springfield finance control board that the candidate who met the best...who best met the qualifications for the position in question would be the acting commissioner, William Fitchet.  That was the process we employed, and we are now prepared to make a recommendation to this body that Commissioner...acting Commissioner William Fitchet be appointed as the next police commissioner for the city of Springfield.  And what I would suggest is that we could either have a motion to that effect or and then this discussion with an opportunity to speak with acting Commissioner Fitchet himself.  He’s present, has been asked to be present in case members of the board had questions of him.  Or we could have him come forward, ask our questions and then entertain the motion, and that would be your choice, Mr. Chair.

 

DS:  If I may first of all I wanted to...first of all I wanted to thank the control board.  I want to thank Chairman James Morton for the process, James.  I want to thank Dr. Lucy Lewis, Chief DeNaro, Colonel Robbins, and I  want to thank Steve Lisauskas and Trish Vinchesi also who were very instrumental in this process.  This was a very arduous, tedious and long, thorough process.  And we had talented candidates.  Again it reaffirmed what we had right here in our own back yard.  And if you think it’s appropriate, Mr. Chairman, I’d love to make the motion.  Or if you want to go into discussion first, but I just want to thank everyone involved.  I also like to thank the finalist candidates, acting Commissioner William Fitchet, Chief Pawlina from Chatham, and Assistant Deputy Chief Rittenhauer for their efforts.  But again to the committee, I thank you for your dedication, thoroughness.   And it’s up to you, Mr. Chairman, I’d love to make the motion [unintelligible] discussion.

 

CG:  Well, I think that I would like to give any members of the committee an opportunity to from a process point of view you know I’m prepared to entertain the motion and I think already but I do want to make sure that as important a decision as this is...

 

BW:  [unintelligible]  Commissioner.

 

CG:  Yes, absolutely, so...

 

CG:  You’d like to ask a question of the commissioner.

 

BW:  Yes.

 

[CG motions toward acting Commissioner Fitchet who then approaches the speaker’s table and receives a standing ovation from most of the audience.  An unintelligible exchange among board members followed.]

 

BW:  First of all I just want to commend the process and I know there was a move throughout the city that we should by-pass the process.  But I think it’s made the city better.  I think it’s made the commissioner-elect better. I think it’s made this control board better.  Now no one can say anything.  You had a process, it was fair, he became the number one candidate, and I just want to commend that, because, as I spoke to the commissioner, and we spoke and we thought that it was the right thing to do.  He even thought it was the right thing to do which I think he’s a fine, outstanding man.

 

            Just a...commissioner, we...just a couple things that I just wanted to ask.  Back when Mayor Flynn was here...I mean, Mayor Ryan and Commissioner Flynn was here, I had talked to him about in terms of recruiting, trying to get more women, more Hispanics,  and more blacks into the department, because I realize now it’s most departments nationwide are having a hard time getting individuals to get involved in the criminal justice system at the police level.  And I just want to know what would be some of our thinking in terms of the recruiting, because I know what they did in Boston actually went to the churches, they went to the community centers, they went to the synagogues.  They just did everything, the blitz, to try to get the word out so we can get some of our citizens involved in wanting to become police officers.  Now Flynn had given me a commitment that he would do that, but I don’t think he ever really meant to do it, because he didn’t do it.  So I just want to know what your feelings is in terms of recruiting.  

 

Acting Police Commissioner William Fitchet:  Yes, sir, well, I would commit to that and, just so you know, we are still under the Castro [v.] Beecher consent decree which is one majority candidate for one minority candidate.  That in and of itself does assist in diversity within the police department.  One plan that is in place right now is the mentoring program at Commerce High School.  We can thank the acting principal, Mrs. Lewis, and also Beth, Mrs. Rogers, at that location.  We have ten police officers at that location above and beyond the Quebec team that are meeting with youth up in that school every Thursday.  I also have a plan to name a minority officer as a community policing recruitment liaison, and that police officer would report directly to the commissioner’s office. 

 

            I can tell you also that the cadet program is a recruitment program.  We have 23 cadets at the Springfield Police Department right now.  Eleven of those cadets are minorities.  You should also know we have two minority cadets that are serving in Iraq right now that I’m very proud of them, so that would bring the total up to about 13.  That program is actively recruited by Sergeant Sicard.  He goes into the schools, and we try to get a good, solid recruitment from the schools.  Another thing that we’re doing is the colleges have intern programs, all three colleges have interns that come into the police department.  And that’s another method of exposing some of the younger people, the college age people, to what’s happening in the Springfield Police Department.  So with all those different programs and with my commitment to have that minority officer as a recruitment officer, I think (and you can check with me on that in the next few weeks) we can make a commitment that we will earnestly try to recruit and diversify within the police department. 

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, I want to let you know, too, he’s a humble guy, we’re also looking to reach out to the Vietnamese community also we’ve discussed that also too.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

BW:  Just and I want to commend the Mayor for the flex-squad.  I believe in that, them responding you know to various emergencies.  In terms of community policing, no matter where I go in this city, if it’s 16 Acres, the South End, Hungry Hill, the North End, Mason Square, it’s always the same—we just don’t see enough police officers.  And I had talked about community policing, the way we used to do community policing, when you were in charge of community policing back in the day.  Then it was changed.  And I know Boston through Mayor Menino has gone back to real community policing.  The officers are really in the community.  Could you just speak to that?

 

WF:  In fairness to the past chiefs, we had 76 lay-offs at the Springfield Police Department.  It did devastate not only the community policing initiative, but our whole structure at the police department had devastating effects.  My concept is to get back into the communities, into the sectors.  We divided the city into nine sectors about 12 or 13 years ago.  They were pretty much along community lines.  And they were natural communities that seemed to have a lot of similarities, each community being different within the city.  My concept right  now is to try to get back into those communities, the reason being the Forest Park sector, or lower park, doesn’t feel they have that much in common with 16 Acres, even though it’s in the South Division.  My thinking is to try and localize that more, get more geographically deployed, a little more finite in the deployment, which is what we had done—it’s not anything that’s new, it’s just getting back to the way that we seemed to have a lot of customer satisfaction with that type of deployment.  So that’s one thing that I intend to do and try to do.  If we can...certainly if we get this new recruit class, it’ll facilitate doing that, but I think we can still move forward with that type of thing, Councilor. 

 

BW:  And I think it makes a difference, because when we did have it—I see retired Captain Foley out there, I see Delaney—we had the community actually had their cell numbers.

 

DS:  See Spellacy there.

 

BW:  Spellacy, yeah, he was running things then, Dan. [motions toward the audience] But we actually, Mr. Chairman, they actually had the cell phone numbers of these officers who were had...the community had them, and they could actually contact folks, and they would come in and depending on the situation 24/7 and it made a tremendous difference in terms of the confidence and the morale it built with the citizens, so I just hope that....  And I’m sure that you’ll get back to that.

 

            And my final question is just in terms of sensitivity training and diversity training, because I know we have a great department, we can always do better, and I think that we just need to, you know, just hear your thoughts on that.

 

WF:  On February 14, I issued an order extending our in-service training from four days to five days.  The reason for that was mandated sensitivity training from the Mayor’s office.  Mayor Ryan had issued executive order on September 31 of 2007; there was a change at the police department at that time.  Mayor Sarno reissued that order in order to facilitate that training, we incorporated it in our in-service training.  So I spoke with Mr. Belton, and that training is in place now.  I can also tell you that the command staff is required to go to that training.  I went about three weeks ago up at the Melane Kasparian Center and took the sensitivity training, diversity training at that location.  I was there with another deputy chief, and the other deputy chiefs are going there.  So that type of training, you can never have enough of it.  There always seems to be problems with sensitivity, diversity training.  There’s always those individuals that for some reason or another don’t get it, so we try to expose them to that.  And, of course, it’s something that we have to do and always be vigilant on.

 

BW:  With that said my questions, Mr. Chairman.  I just want to commend acting Commissioner Fitchet.  I’ve known as a probation officer for 32 years in Springfield District Court and known most of the officers, and you won’t find a better individual, and what helped me make this determination was the citizens that called me, the citizens that came up to me, unsolicited, and some of the officers.  And I wanted to talk to the officers, black white, Hispanic, women, all of them.  And to a T, he’s a cop’s cop, there’s no doubt about that. 

 

[addressing WF]  They have tremendous faith and confidence in you, and I think once you give your word, your word is your bond, and I think he’s going to take this department to the very next level.  So we’re looking for bigger and greater and exciting things in the city of Springfield.  It’s a thankless job sometimes; we understand that, but I’m sure you’ll be a fine commander.  Like I said, folks have a lot of...citizens have a lot of...across the board, every community, every neighborhood which is just tremendous.  I really mean that.  I really flattered by the activity in this, because people would call you, stop you in the supermarket: “He’s the man for the job, because he’s been out there.”  And certainly as I said, we’re looking for great things out of you when you become commissioner.  I’d be very proud to vote for this candidate, Mr. Chairman.  I’ll second.

 

RN:  Question: Your relationship with the state police, district attorney’s office, the sheriff’s office, other law enforcement agencies?

 

WF:  We’re working very closely with the state police and have for the last three or four years.  They deploy every Thursday, Friday and Saturday with their C[ommunity] A[ction] T[eam] team in Springfield. We assisted them in their executing warrants almost on a daily basis their V[iolent] C[riminal] A[pprehension] T[eam] (Violent Offenders) work with our unit and our fugitive unit almost every day.  So we have a very close relationship with the state police.  District attorney’s office: I meet with him fairly frequently.  We have a great relationship with him and the C[rime] P[revention] A[nd] C[ontrol] unit with does the investigations out of the district attorney’s office.  Sheriff’s department: we are having meetings, beat management team meetings, where the sheriff’s department deputies go to our meetings.  That started about two months ago or so. 

 

So I think we all understand that this is a team effort.  It has to be that.  No one entity or one unit can do it by themselves; there has to be a team approach to it, and we’re fortunate I think in the sheriff and the district attorney and the state police colonel understanding that and being very, very cooperative with the Springfield Police Department.  I can’t speak enough about the cooperation from the state police; they’ve been terrific.  Some of it’s been difficult with the contract issues, as you know, over the last two years or three years, which are finally settled.  And they conducted themselves in a very exemplary manner.  And in fact we were proud to award them about eight or nine commendations about three weeks ago.  So their cooperation is there, and I’ll continue to try and make sure it stays.

 

RN:  A last question, partnerships with the schools, neighborhood groups?

 

WF:  We meet with the beat management team which is our...it’s our mechanism to air the grievances of the community.  Our officers go out; they meet at least once a month, and they meet with the citizens, and that’s the conduit by which they get a lot of the complaints and a lot of the nitty gritty problems that are happening out in the community. We did create this ordinance flex squad, which was another...gotten tremendous feedback on that.  It’s a four-member squad with a lieutenant in charge, and they handle a lot of the quality of life issues.  They get into the community.  They talk to them, and they get feedback.  They call them back on the complaints.  We have a Quebec team that’s in the school every day that school’s in session.  They meet with the principals, they make arrests when necessary.  (Unfortunately, it does occur in Springfield schools.)  So we have a very close relationship.  I talk with the captain that’s in charge of that unit about twice a day.  That’s how complex it is in the schools. The schools are very, very important to the city.  We understand that. The police department’s on board; have a good relationship with Mr. Hogan, and he’s in charge of the security in the schools, and we work very closely with him, sir.

 

RN:  All the high schools, middle schools as well.

 

WF:  Yes, sir.  High schools and middle school, too.  On occasion, we’ve had problems in some of the grade schools, too.  Believe it or not, we’ve gone there, but we don’t have officers stationed there. 

 

RN:  Thank you.

 

JM:  Mr. Chair, before this is moved to a motion, and I think that for ceremonial reasons, the motion should be moved by Mayor Sarno.  As Chief DeNaro aid in his closing comment, the success of this city administration will be judged by the success of the next police commissioner.  And I think that we all believe that.  We all recognize that public safety is really an economic development issue. 

 

But I wanted to share very briefly the category of areas in which each candidate was judged by, so that the folks would know that this was not only a competitive process, but a thorough process.  We looked at every candidate’s educational background, their experience, not only experience as supervisors, but experience as street cops.  We all kind of felt it was important that the next commissioner be someone who had played in the role of being a police officer him or herself.  Collaboration with other law enforcement agencies was another category of extreme importance to us.  Innovative policing strategies was an area that we asked each candidate about, believing that not only is a revolution needed in our educational system, but we also need a revolution in our policing strategies, and so we asked each candidate what innovations they could bring to policing.  Experience with budgeting was an important area that each candidate was asked about   And then the vision for the future and what the future for our city is as it pertains to law enforcement and how our law enforcement community could improve the quality of life for all of us as residents of the city of Springfield.  Obviously we wanted the...to make certain that the new or the next police commissioner would have a knowledge of the local challenges effecting our community, and consequently each of the candidates had had urban experiences very similar to Springfield.  And the last question that each candidate was asked was a question about benchmarks: What benchmarks should they be judged by to determine whether or not they’ve been successful as police commissioner?  And we asked each of them to tell us what they thought those  benchmarks should be.   And we have a whole series of responses, some of which we believe will ultimately be included in the contract that will be entered into with the next police commissioner.

 

            And then I want to thank Councilor Williams for his questions regarding diversity within our police department, an important issue to all of us. 

 

            So those were the categories that were covered, and I would defer and delegate the motion to the Mayor. 

 

CG:  Before we entertain that motion, momentarily, I just have a clarifying question.  the motion that will be offered is subject to a contract negotiation process, is that ...?

 

JM:  It’s in the body of the motion itself.

 

CG:  OK, great.  Thank you.  Just to understand the...I know that’s not the central issue of the day, but I just want to understand that. 

 

Let me just make one last comment before asking you...unless anyone else has any questions or comments...before asking the Mayor to enter that motion which is it was a point of great controversy the decision to do this process.  And you know, I was on vacation I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for the final meetings, but I felt it was important for us to continue the expeditious process.  I truly did not know what I would hear when I got my email saying which candidate was selected and search committee chairman Morton and I had discussed that certainly my view was that it was crucial to do this process completely openly and appropriately with (and, in fact, my only real question to him in asking him to do it, was: Did he feel he could be completely impartial with regard to this process?  And he did.  I think having an open, clear process like this where many of you, you know, obviously , the acting chief well from many years of experience.  (I met him for the first time at your {DS’s] inauguration, and ,you know, I’ve never exchanged more than a “hello.”)  And I thought it was right, and I emphasize this, because, look, as a control board, we’re trying to help Springfield develop a set of habits that I think are crucial for the long-term success of this community.  I think the fact that an open, clear process could not only make sure everyone in the community understood why people hold this gentleman in such high regard, but that he would be matched up against what I believe were very strong candidates from elsewhere, people will probably end up being chiefs elsewhere.  So any question about whether this was just, you know, somebody’s “turn” or somebody’s “friend” or anything else I think have been eliminated. 

 

            I think the fact that outstanding people from other parts of the state, the former state...to have the former head of the state police, you know, as well as a respected chief in other part of the state and a member of this community join the Mayor and Mr. Morton in this process and bring their perspectives, these people who, for example, aren’t...don’t live here, have no agenda in being for or against any candidate other than what’s best for this very important post, as you point out.  So I am pleased.  I think...I don’t know how we’re going to fill all the speak-out time when no one will come any more to say we ought to appoint you. [laughter]   I was amused to see that the Republican’s cartoon, I pointed out to member Nunes, somehow shows my face as skinnier than his face which I really...my kind of cartooning...[laughter].  But I am proud of this process.  I am very grateful to those of you who served on it.  I know feelings ran high, emotions ran high.  I know they would probably be running higher and differently had a different outcome happened, but I think this was a fair, open, appropriate process, and at the end of this vote I think every resident of Springfield can feel like the decision was made for all the right reasons in the most competitive possible fashion, and we can get down to the business of getting the job done which I’m very confident the right individual’s being nominated to do that, so...

 

DS:  Mr. Chairman, and I want to say to Mayor Nunes: Bobby, the commissioner did not mention also that with the federal authorities we’re dealing with, he’s met with dealing with numerous times and twice gang situations and also to just comments about the city of Springfield and as we host these national NCAA division 2 tournaments and to have comments last night from the president of Bentley College and the NCAA officials how clean, safe the coordination...this...they said with the police department, the guides being out there and friendly with the parking is really a testament and a compliment to all the public servants in the city of Springfield and it is with distinct honor and privilege that I put forth William Fitchet to become our permanent police commissioner, sir.

 

JM:  And I’m going to ask the mayor to read the motion as it’s written.

 

DS:  Technicalities, OK.  [reads]  The Springfield Finance Control Board, acting pursuant to powers granted by Section 4a, 4b, 4d viii, and 4d xx of Chapter 169 of the acts of 2004, hereby appoints William J. Fitchet as commissioner of the Springfield Police Department for not [sic] a term to exceed three years, subject to the completion and additional background review.  The board further authorizes the executive director to negotiate a performance based employment contract with William J. Fitchet consistent of this order.

 

CG:  [unintelligible] I think it’s appropriate just to be clear

 

**MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.  [standing ovation]

 

Update of School Superintendent Search

 

CG:  [inaudible]...item of business, I believe, is a...[inaudible] The final item is an important item, though I believe brief, is an update, Mr. Lisauskas. on the superintendent search.

 

SL:  Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman.  The superintendent search process, speaking of open...

 

CG:  I know that Mr. [Tim] Collins wants to hear this.

 

SL:  Speaking of open, competitive processes, the superintendent process continues.  As the board knows, a head-hunting firm, Huge and Associates, has been retained.  It is under contract.  The position has been advertised, and as well as a general advertisement, recruitment of specific high-performing individuals is also underway.  So we’re looking at both a broad advertisement as well as specific recruitment of candidates.  The consultant has met with the wide variety of community leaders to define the skills and the abilities that will be required of the new candidate, the successful candidate, to excel as superintendent.  A community panel will be appointed shortly by the Chair, likely to be two panels of between 15 and 20 individuals, and they’ll be part of the interview process which is anticipated to be a multi-step interview process with the control board making the...determination...selection of the successful candidate after the interviews are conducted with the goal of having a new superintendent on staff as of July 1.  So the selection process, the recruitment process, is underway at full steam.  And the community panel process is coming to a close and will be appointed in the near future. 

 

CG:  So I did have a chance to speak to the consultant briefly on the phone just on the way here this morning and was assured that it’s on track in terms of identifying candidates by, as you say, both by direct recruitment as well as by reviewing respondents to advertising.  I do expect...we have been working on the community panels, reached out to a number of people.  I know the Mayor’s been involved with as well.  I do expect to be able to send out letters of invitation to members of that community panel within the next week or so and expect to have candidates coming here in April, maybe the beginning of May, but, hopefully, in April to find a list of candidates to be interviewed. We are still working on the details of how those interviews will be done, but, as you mentioned, they will certainly be interviewed by this group as well as by the community panel.  And I continue to speak to and leave a door wide open to the school committee to both formally interview the candidates and to participate in the selection process in an active way.  And I’m optimistic that they will take up that opportunity as its such a central part of their job, and I think important for any successful candidate to be comfortable that the school committee embraces their candidacy.  So very pleased with the progress on that.  I don’t really have any other update than that.  Any questions or comments from any...?

 

BW:  Just, Mr. Chairman, in terms of your time table.  When do we want to have a new superintendent on board?

 

CG:  Dr. Burke’s, you know, contract is through June 30, I would...and most of the candidates we’re considering are people who work in school systems today who will typically have also a June 30 contract.  So I would expect (although we certainly open to candidates who are non-traditional might otherwise be available earlier.  But I would expect that the candidate would start July 1, that there would be a transition.  One of the things we like about the consultant that we’ve hired is that they’ve been involved in both some politically delicate situations before and they’ve played an active role in not only the selection of the candidates, but a very effective transition involving school committees, involving constituencies, you know, for successfully selecting candidates.  And I did some of those reference checks personally and was very impressed to see multiple members of the community in some of the communities he’s been involved not only grateful for the quality of the search, but for the process of really watching the individuals.  So I think we are in good shape in time to have strong candidates to interview and to be selected by the community well before July 1.

 

BW:  Thank you.

 

CG:  Great.  Thank you for the update.  Any new business?  [silence] 

 

**MEETING ADJOURNS TO EXECUTIVE SESSION.

(Agenda for Executive Session:  litigation, collective bargaining and disposition of property.)