Take My Council, Please: Storm Stories...and Nullification at 36 Court?...

 **UPDATED** The following post has been updated as of 6/9/11.  Data on the slots votes has been corrected.

The Springfield City Council held their first meeting since last week's tornado sliced through the heart of Springfield and neighboring towns.  The council had a great deal of regular business to attend to, but there was also time to bat stories from the disaster back and forth among the councils.  Unfortunately, even a somber a subject as the tornado was unable to escape some political rancor.  The only item that dredged up as much emotion as the tornado, was oddly, the Slot Parlor/Internet Cafe on Cooley Street in the city's Five Town Plaza.

First the boilerplate.  More money was accepted by the Health Department from grants and other sources.  The police department had an order to transfer funds from its salaries account to its equipment account to purchase new vests for police officers.  However, left unclear was why this money was being appropriated now as opposed to in the original budget approved last year.  Motions were made to refer the matter to committee, but between the police sergeant holding a vest in the audience and the admonitions of at-large councilors Tim Rooke and Kateri Walsh about police safety, the motion could not find a second.  The money did not come from reserves, but still a better explanation is merited.

Thomas Belton, right (Masslive)

On a far more positive note, the City Council approved the nomination of Thomas Belton to be director of Veterans Services.  Belton, a former marine and Vietnam Veteran, received hefty praise from Clodo Concepcion, Jose Tosado and Kateri Walsh, whose husband abruptly resigned earlier this year.  After the vote, Belton briefly thanked the council in remarks from which long winded Oscar winners could learn a thing about brevity.

Then the council started veering into some very strange territory.  WMassP&I has not confirmed the original date of the first vote, but the council took up reconsideration of a vote for a special permit for the 777 Internet Cafe on Cooley Street in Springfield.  These Internet Cafes have gained attention as violating the state's laws against gambling.  Essentially, via an elaborate system using tokens and whatnot, proprietors have been able to shirk these laws.  The Attorney General shut down many of them, but others have sought to reopen under narrow exceptions.  Those exceptions require a permit from the city.

777 Internet Cafe on Cooley St (WMassP&I)

The original vote failed by an 8-4 vote (special permits require 9 votes, notwithstanding absences).  A motion had been made for reconsideration, for whatever reason. Apparently there is considerable support for the parlor on Cooley Street, which is very popular and by all accounts far better run than some of the others shut down.  However, per Massachusetts General Law 40A Sec. 16, the matter could not be brought up again for two years after a final decision had been rendered.  The 8-4, according to the City Solicitor, was that final decision, not subject to reconsideration.  

Reconsideration is a parliamentary tactic the council has written into its own rules.  It cannot and does not override the state law, which does not allow for any the do-overs.  The reason is because, as with biomass votes last month, the council was sitting as a regulatory body governed by very specific and complex land use statutes set by the commonwealth.  The elected council just happens to be the body empowered to execute that state statute in the city.  

(WMassP&I)

When the council, as the municipal legislature, votes on an ordinance or monetary transfer, for example, it is acting on general powers granted by the mosaic of special acts, the general laws and the city charter that govern the City of Springfield.  Therefore, it can set its own rules on when issues can be brought up again. Typically under council rules, if an item is not reconsidered immediately after a vote, it cannot be brought up again until the next council is seated.  Still, that rule exists at the council's direction.