The Insight: An Eye To-Ward Greater Representation...

Councilor Edwards (Facebook)

Every individual who runs for office must have some ego.  While Ward 3 City Councilor Melvin Edwards is no different, it is quite obvious after only a few minutes with him that he keeps humility in a sizable reserve.  If that’s a strength, he is going to need all he can get and more as he takes on Senator James T. Welch in what may be the most highest profile primary race for state office in the area this year.

Edwards, a sophomore member of the Springfield City Council, and among the first batch of ward-elected councilors for the city in over fifty years, is not the council’s loudest or highest-profile member.  However, when he does speak, it easy to identify him as among those who may be the body’s conscience, never rushing to a decision and often excoriating councilors, the mayor and others for forcing the body to rush things needlessly.

Whether soft-spoken or eloquently speaking more forcefully at a council meeting or other public venue, it is clear that Edwards possesses a true and real love for Springfield.  That passion for the city is not just boilerplate polito-speak.  Rather it is the conviction of his tone coupled with factoids about Springfield‘s prouder aspects.  (like how Springfield’s Forest Park and Central Park share a connection through fabled parks designer Frederick Law Olmstead).   “My passion is for Springfield,” he said during an interview with Western Mass Politics & Insight.

It is no surprise that Edwards's tone moves between a soft conversational and ministerial, but never sanctimonious.  His mother was a Pentecostal minister, just one piece of the mosaic that forms his background, which includes roots in Pakistan, the West Indies and Native American tribes.  A resident of Springfield for virtually his whole life, Edwards raised his family here with his wife Suzanne.

Councilor Edwards at his desk (WMassP&I)

Edwards won reelection unopposed, like seven out of eight of the city’s ward councilors last year.  However, his initial victory in 2009 was made possible by the circumstances of the city’s changing municipal government.  The race was the inevitable next step for someone who had gone from sprucing up the Maple Heights/Six Corners neighborhood where he lives to becoming President of the neighborhood civic association.  Additional honors of late have included introducing Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren at a fundraiser for her in Springfield last year.

In an interview with WMassP&I, Edwards described his transition from citizen to public servant.  Well before ward representation was a reality, Edwards and his wife, tired of the condition of their neighborhood, among the city’s poorest, took to picking up garbage on the side of the road.  Their work quickly gained the accolades of other fed up residents and would become the genesis for Keep Springfield Beautiful.  It would be that early activism that led others to encourage Edwards to attend and participate in Maple High/Six Corners Neighborhood Council.

At the neighborhood council, Edwards ascended to president, a position he holds to this day.  However, even the president of the neighborhood council would find it difficult to get adequate responses from city departments.  The police often asked if a gun was involved before sending help on the way, a questionEdwards says is not posed to all neighborhoods calling the cops.  Facing these harsh realities where even the head of a neighborhood council could not get the answers he wanted from City Hall, Edwards and Ward 3 would find an opportunity in ward representation.  Edwards said that in the run up to the 2009 election, many in the neighborhood came up to him and urged him to take up the challenge and represent their ward at 36 Court Street.

Contributions May Connect Councilor to Probation Scandal...

Councilor Ferrera (Urban Compass)

Not quite five years ago, with then Council-President Kateri Walsh looking on, Judge William Boyle swore in at-large councilor James Ferrera, III as the city’s newest councilor.  His effective predecessor, Angelo Puppolo, had resigned his seat in order to join the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  Ferrera got the gig by being only a few votes short of securing a seat in the 2005 election.  On that day, however, there was somebody other than family and friends haunting 36 Court Street who may have been among Ferrera’s most important political allies: Senator Stephen Buoniconti.

Over the years, Ferrera would receive only $100 from Buoniconti or his campaign directly even as Ferrera and members of his family would contribute thousands to Buoniconti’s campaign and other influential Beacon Hill politicians.  During this time, Ferrera would begin to work at the Probation Department, which runs under the auspices of  the commonwealth’s trial courts.  This employment began and continues when, in the word of counsel investigating the department, “[hiring] and promotion processes have been fraudulently orchestrated from beginning to end in favor of connected candidates.”

Until around the time Ferrera was sworn-in, he worked as a finance officer at Marcotte Ford in Holyoke.  Some time after that, however, Ferrera began working as an Assistant Court Services Coordinator at the Department of Probation’s Office of Community Corrections.  The exact date of that employment is not fully clear, but it does appear to correspond with the approximate time that Ferrera joined the council.  According to campaign finance records, Ferrera and his mother would donate nearly $3,000 between 2006 and 2010, the year Buoniconti ceased to be an elected official after losing last year’s district attorney race.  However, the year Ferrera joined the council he or his committee gave an annual donation of $100 dollars to State Representative Thomas Petrolati of Ludlow whom the Boston Globe called the “King of Patronage.”  The donations seemingly ended when Petrolati narrowly avoided scandal when Sal DiMasi resigned from the House amid separate accusations.

Ferrera is not the only member of the family to work in Probation while contributing generously to Buoniconti.  His cousin, Jill Cocchi works as a Probation Officer and between her and her family members, has contributed nearly $1000 to Buoniconti, including a $500 contribution in 2007, the year Ferrera joined the council.  Cocchi’s own employment started no earlier than 2005, but that could stretch back to earlier employment elsewhere with the commonwealth.  Between both families, Buoniconti received nearly $4,000 dollars.  According to the Globe's analysis of campaign records and probation documents, Buoniconti had received the most money from Probation employees after Petrolati and current House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

At the time of posting, Ferrera had not responded to a request for comment from WMassP&I on this story and his relationship  with Buoniconti.

Cocchi, whose name appears on the Globe’s 2010 list of possibly-connected employees, was linked to Ferrera after a Republican story highlighted an overpayment Ferrera’s campaign committee made to the candidate.  That story noted that Ferrera had overpaid a loan he made to his campaign by almost $4000.  The Republican reported on a letter from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance to his grandmother and campaign treasurer, Catherine Cocchi.  A search of public records and newspaper clippings linked Ferrera and Cocchi as cousins.

That Ferrera and his cousin would hold public employment is not itself surprising.  His maternal grandmother and grandfather were a firefighter and teacher respectively and   Cocchi’s father, Mark is a Springfield Police Officer.

Fmr. Sen. Stephen Buoniconti (Valley Advocate)

At no time, did either Buoniconti or Petrolati represent Ferrera in the legislature.  Furthermore, no other elected official representing Springfield or anywhere else in Massachusetts got the same amount of contributions from Ferrera as Buoniconti including Brian Lees, Gale Candaras and Puppolo who have represented Ferrera’s Palmyra street residence over the years.  With the exception of Puppolo, records confirm, none received contributions from either Ferrera or his mother Joanne after Ferrera joined the council despite the fact that Lees is now Clerk of Courts and Candaras a state senator.

Politicians giving to one another, whether one represents the other or not, is common.  However, it is not so for Springfield City Council candidates especially in the amounts Ferrera and his family have given.  Former councilor and present council candidate Bud Williams has given $450 to Petrolati over the years.  Candidate Charles Rucks gave $100 once to Buoniconti.  Of incumbent at-large councilors only Tim Rooke has ever given to Buoniconti or  Petrolati, although in the case of the latter as recently as this year.  Nevertheless Ferrera’s overall contributions to Beacon Hill politicians outstrip anything contributed by other sitting councilors and council candidates.