Springfield – City Councilor Justin Hurst calls on Mayor Sarno to fund the Board of Police Commissioners in the FY 2024 budget. For the second year in a row, the Sarno administration has left the Board of Police Commissioners out of the budget entirely making it next to impossible for them to do their jobs effectively. In fact, an argument can be made that due to the lack of funding the Board of Police Commissioners is even less effective than the former Community Police Hearing Review Board.
“The Board of Police Commissioners is being set up to fail and everyone knows it,” City Councilor Justin Hurst explained. He went on to say, “It is hard to believe otherwise when the Board’s most basic requests such as stationery, a P.O. box and cell phones have fallen on deaf ears. Last year during this same time, amid similar cries for the administration to fund the board, the City Council received assurances from Mayor Sarno, retired Judge John Payne, and Police Chief Cheryl Clapprood that the Board of Police Commissioners would have the resources to do their job. However, it has been over a year later and they are still waiting for their requests to be met which were, once again, omitted from the budget raising even more concerns.”
Over the last year various commissioners have made requests for office space that they don’t have to have permission to access, computers that are not connected to the Springfield Police Department servers, parttime staff outside of the Springfield Police Department, an independent attorney, and professional development including joining the National Association of Civilian Law Enforcement among other things. All of these requests have gone unfulfilled and none of them are included in the recommended budget for fiscal year 2024.
“The commissioners that I have talked to were not included in the budget process nor were they asked by any of the department heads what their needs were for this fiscal year. The Sarno administration has been far from honest with the Board of Police Commissioners, the City Council and the residents of Springfield, for that matter. Our commissioners need to have the resources necessary to be effective and follow the city council ordinance that was upheld as valid by the state Supreme Judicial Court, even if the administration disagrees with the ruling. Financially handcuffing our commissioners to circumvent the law is disingenuous and reinforces the reality that the Board of Police Commissioners is unable to act independently from the wishes of the administration,” Councilor Hurst stated. ■