CEE JACKSON AND THE DISAPPEARING CITY CONTRACT
How strange. Ray Jordan passes and Cee Jackson mysteriously loses a Springfield city contract to provide security service for the Mason Square library and the city parking garage. Even stranger is how it happened by way of some mysterious person named “Jason Ray” who has yet to be identified. He filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission and made a public records request for the RFP (Request for Proposals) response submitted to the city by Cee Jackson as well as for a documentary history of his disclosure documents required by the State Ethics Commission. At first the city, through its law department, vigorously defended Cee and, after its investigation, concluded that he had no conflict of interest but not before the mayor falsely accused City Councilors Tracye Whitfield and Justin Hurst of being behind the attack on Cee Jackson and his security company.

The Mystery Man
Shortly after concluding that Cee had no conflicts, the city abruptly withdrew Cee’s contract after it was disclosed by Jason Ray that Cee was not, in fact, the lowest bidder as the law requires. Whoever this guy Jason Ray is, he had an awful lot of inside information, much of which had not even been available to city councilors, and certainly not to the general public, who would have had no interest in denying Jackson a city contract valued at a little over a hundred thousand dollars, which is a pittance compared with the millions the mayor has doled out with scarcely any council or public input.

The Mystery
Why pick on Cee Jackson? Of all the scuttlebutt being passed around, the most plausible answer is that the attack on Cee originated from some small-minded person in the mayor’s office or from some small-minded person close to the person in the mayor’s office who knew that Ray Jordan’s death left Cee Jackson vulnerable and who schemed to redirect the contract to their preferred person. That’s what first came to my mind when the story broke, especially when the mayor tried to pass the blame to two of the most active and community-oriented Black city councilors, which made no sense because everybody in the Black community likes and respects Cee Jackson…everybody! There was no reason for them to attack Cee Jackson and certainly no gain.

Was Mayor Sarno Deflecting?
My first reaction to the blaming of the two Black councilors was that Mayor Sarno was deflecting. He may have had the same immediate suspicion that I had (that is, if he wasn’t part of it) and immediately moved to avoid the embarrassment of Cee Jackson’s loss of his contract being publicly disclosed as an inside job. I wouldn’t put it past him. His history of opaqueness and obfuscation and arrogance is legendary.

Springfield Corruption Busters
As for the mysterious Jason Ray, the last we heard of him, he is supposedly operating under the umbrella of an unknown organization he named “Springfield Corruption Busters.” Now don’t get me wrong. As is well known across the state, Springfield could use a “corruption buster” or two. But I won’t believe Jason Ray will be the person to do it until I see the results of him dipping his investigative mind into the big money. However, it is encouraging to know that we have a new United States attorney who has already demonstrated a readiness to penetrate the private domain of the mayor and his minions.

An Honorable Man
In my opinion, Cee Jackson is an honorable man. I watched him grow from a young Six Corners kid from the South, who we all initially teased, to a stocky young teenager, who we all learned to respect. And over the years, he earned that respect as an adult who worked hard, is well liked and gives much back to the community. But I do think Mayor Sarno did Cee an injustice by appointing him so abruptly to the new Springfield Police Commission. And for that matter, he probably shouldn’t have been on the old Community Police Board because his security guard business carries with it an inherent conflict of interest or, at minimum, an unavoidable appearance of a conflict of interest that might have continued to be overlooked if Mayor Sarno had not been so precipitous in appointing Cee and the others to the new, court-ordered police commission.

Tainted
All of the new Police Commission members are tainted by the appearance of being in the mayor’s pocket which is likely part of the reason Cee and the new police commission to which he was appointed have lost a good bit of their power to the Justice Department as have the mayor and police “Chief” (read below) Cheryl Clapprood even before the new Commission has determined its own procedures, rules and policies. And it didn’t make things look any better that the lawyer advising the Commission is the mayor’s lawyer. It’s a no-win situation for Cee and other board members and for city residents, a fate that was easily avoidable but for the arrogance of Mayor Sarno who insists, in every instance, on making it appear that he is the sole decision maker in the entire city and region.

CHIEF? COMMISSIONER? SUPERINTENDENT? WHICH?!
Cheryl Clapprood is Springfield’s chief of police and she has always been the chief of police since she was appointed by Springfield’s Mayor Domenic Sarno who insists on any illegitimate title for police chief that will allow him to pretend to have power that was never legitimately his. Clapprood’s predecessor, John Barbieri, also carried the title of Commissioner only because Mayor Sarno defied the lawful vote of the Springfield City Council to establish a police commission which Springfield once had but which had been dissolved when Springfield’s government was taken over by the state. When a judge, in no uncertain terms, ruled that Springfield City Council’s authority to vote for a police commission was absolute and that Mayor Sarno had to abide by his decision, Sarno did a few things to make it appear he was complying with the court order and a few things to avoid the appearance of complying.

Mayor Sarno’s Warped Way of Thinking
The first thing Sarno did, without consulting anybody – not the council or the general public – was to quickly form his own “police commission” and declare the” independence” of its members from his own influence as though we are all too dumb to know better. The second thing he did was to change the illegitimate title of Cheryl Clapprood from “Commissioner” to “Superintendent,” again without consulting anybody and with the apparent intention of instilling in Clapprood some imaginary authority that, in his warped way of thinking, made her more than a “chief.” And that, also in the mayor’s warped way of thinking, was designed by him to make the general public think that the court decision was less than it actually is.

Sarno Stepped in Cow Manure
In reality, the court decision was much more than Sarno wants the general public to understand. The court decision affirmed that the city council had the authority to reform any city department of its choosing thus reducing not only the authority of the chief of police but also the power of the mayor beyond the police department to any other city department if the council chooses to use its new authority beyond the police department. In other words, in attempting to maintain absolute control of the police department, Mayor Sarno stepped in a huge pile of cow manure and awakened the city council to power it never knew it had and wasn’t seeking.

Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
But more than that, the feckless mayor seemed to have forgotten that he and his police chief were being carefully observed and measured by some very concerned folks in Boston, especially the Justice Department attorneys who were patiently waiting for Springfield’s police department to be reformed and also by other folks like the former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who, on January 10th, was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

RACHEL ROLLINS’CONSENT DECREE
It didn’t take the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins, long to read the tea leaves on Springfield’s progress in making the reforms that the Justice Department had previously graciously left in the hands of the city which, in Springfield’s case, meant Mayor Sarno and Commissioner Clapprood both of whom did everything all by themselves including reporting on glittering progress that nobody could confirm, including announcing at various intervals that the Justice Department was pleased at their opaque progress.

A Vail of Gentility
On April 13, 2022, the Justice Department under Rachael Rollins entered into a court-monitored “consent decree” with the City of Springfield which placed the Justice Department in the position of overseeing all reforms in the Springfield Police Department thus further weakening the authority of Mayor Domenic Sarno and Chief Clapprood while lending some credibility to the process of reform that has been sorely lacking. Coming so closely on the mayor’s abrupt appointment of a police commission that has absolutely no credibility, it is most likely that Rollins and her staff factored the mayor’s arrogance into their decision. In deference to the City of Springfield, Rollins announced that the Consent Decree was arrived at in “agreement” with city officials but made it clear that it was a “court ordered” decree that left the city no choice but to agree to terms that went far beyond the earlier Justice Department’s report castigating Springfield Police Department’s drug task force. But no amount of gracious gentility will hide the fact that Mayor Sarno and Chief Clapprood were forced to agree to begin the long process toward sweeping reforms in a police department with big problems that haven’t even come close to being resolved by Sarno and Clapprood, their words to the contrary notwithstanding.

A Voluntary Agreement?!
No living person in Springfield or afar would give credence to the idea that Mayor Domenic Sarno willingly yielded his authority to the Justice Department. The man is a despot with a sweet smile that puts him on par with Donald Trump. He’s so bad that he often goes against his own best interests to prove he’s in complete control. That’s why he’s in this mess in the first place. It is not hyperbolic to suggest that but for the tornado, the pandemic and the economic crisis all of which generated a whole lot of money for localities like Springfield, Sarno would have long been on political life support. As is, given all his recent funny money “errors, Sarno is pressing his luck.” And all he had to do was the right thing.

Sarno’s Luck Ran Out with This One
It’s not going to be helpful for Mayor Sarno having the United States Attorney breathing down his neck. All he had to do was to be transparent and real about reforms in the Springfield Police Department. But if all you want is the appearance of reform, as Sarno surely did, then transparency is the last thing you would want, which is among the many reasons why Rollins lowered the hammer on him. The surest indicator of coverup is the absence of transparency. I mean, if this was rocket science, I would, at least, give Sarno a passing grade on intelligence. But this stuff is so fundamental. On this foolishness he gets an F for failure. Not only has he “agreed” to yield control of reforms over his police department that will likely take years to complete, he has also “agreed” to a Justice Department appointee who will report to the Justice Department to preside over the reform effort which covers the entire police department regarding its external behavior and its internal behavior meaning that complaints of discrimination are included which means the Justice Department will be scrutinizing how Sarno applies the city’s residency requirements, recruitment and promotions and the like. And Sarno has to pay for the Justice-appointed overseer. If you think Sarno voluntarily agreed to all of it, I know a used car salesman who would like to sell you a “like-new” car. But the bigger concern for Sarno is that the Justice Department might decide to look into some of the many other financial shenanigans in Springfield. Talk about a Pandora’s Box! ■