Springfield City Council rejects call of no-confidence in board president

SPRINGFIELD – The City Council voted down a call of no-confidence in its president over conflict of interest complaints, in a meeting that saw councilors lob accusations at each other and police were asked to break up a disturbance in the audience.

The council voted 7-4 Monday to continue to support City Council President Tracye Whitfield, who admits she failed to properly disclose her financial interests in JETS Property Development, a company she owns with her son and three other people.

Whitfield, who refused calls to step down as president, admitted to making mistakes due to inexperience as president, but said she has tried to rectify one error by reporting it to the law department, sparking a city Law Department investigation that found other issues.

Whitfield said she has stepped away from the family business for as long as she serves as a city councilor and there were no intent in her errors.

During the meeting, City Council Vice President Jose Delgado, who was presiding over the contentious meeting because Whitfield could not, repeatedly called for councilors to "keep it civil" and asked members to stop interrupting and attacking each other, especially on issues only marginally related to the vote of no-confidence.

"I'm not allowing this to turn into a clown show," he said. "Please keep it civil because we are trying to get this done."

He halted the meeting in the middle of one vote, when a disruption broke out in the audience. During a three-minute recess, Whitfield, who had left the meeting, stepped back in and asked for calm so the council could proceed and get other business completed.

During the meeting, Councilor Justin Hurst said he did not trust the investigation by City Solicitor Stephen Buoniconti, who said in a memo that he had uncovered multiple instances in which Whitfield failed to disclose her financial interests and used her position to threaten an audit of a neighborhood council's books.

Hurst argued that Buoniconti has faced his own conflict of interest accusations in the past.

The Law Department reports have been forwarded to the state's Ethics Commission, Buoniconti has said. Commission officials do not confirm or deny if they are conducting investigations.

Hurst also accused City Councilor Michael Fenton, who has aired concerns about Whitfield's conflicts of interest, of failing to disclose his own personal involvement in a similar issue of a request for a street to be abandoned in 2021.

Fenton denied the accusation, saying he did recuse himself in the 5-year-old issue, filed a financial disclosure form and said the entire issue is moot because it never went anywhere.

Fenton took issue with Hurst's stance on the matter before the council.

"He didn't say that Councilor Whitfield didn't do anything wrong or that there wasn't a pattern here worth looking at," Fenton said. "Instead he tried to change the narrative the way that our president of this country does from time to time and focus on other people."

The comment drew groans from the audience.

"It's true, he sounded like Trump," Fenton said. "The attacks on our solicitor are unjust and unwarranted and the attacks on me are lies."

The conflict of interest issue arose when Whitfield's son and business partner appeared before the City Council on Feb. 2 requesting the city abandon a vacant piece of property it owns at the corner of Wisteria and Wallace streets, split the property in half and give it to the two neighbors. As an abutter, he told councilors he planned to purchase the other half and develop it as a single-family or duplex home.

Whitfield presided over the meeting for about 11 minutes before Fenton asked her if she planned to recuse herself. At the time she did, but never disclosed her interest in JET Property Development and the council went ahead to approve the proposal.

The City Council two weeks later reversed the decision in a special meeting on the advice of Buoniconti, who called the vote "tainted."

During that meeting, City Councilor Victor Davila called for Whitfield to step down as president and asked for the vote of no-confidence.

City Councilor Malo Brown, who called Monday for unity, questioned the purpose of holding a no-confidence vote, saying it will not force Whitfield to step down. He was one of the seven who voted against the resolution, along with Delgado, Hurst, Kateri Walsh, Brian Santaniello, Zaida Govan and Lavar Click-Bruce.

Councilors Fenton, Davila, Melvin Edwards and Maria Perez voted yes. Councilor Gerry Martin was absent due to a death in his immediate family.

Edwards, who is Black, said he was disheartened by accusations that the vote was racially motivated. Whitfield is the council's first Black president. He said there is not one collective voice of the Black experience in America and everyone has a right to have their own opinions.

"For me this vote (is) about the fact that the council president's personal, professional business dealings and the associate investigations resulted in clearly (making) it impossible for her to effectively carry out the responsibilities of the presidency at this time," Edwards said.

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