Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 12/12/2023
HOLYOKE — The City Council rejected Mayor Joshua Garcia’s $1 million public safety initiative known as Ezekiel’s Plan during its Dec. 5 meeting after debate around the plan’s sustainability.
The plan, named after an unborn child who was killed by a stray bullet that struck a pregnant woman during a shooting incident in October, failed in a 7-6 vote. It needed nine votes to pass.
The mayor’s comprehensive plan calls for $1 million in new spending, “to launch a comprehensive approach” that focuses on police enforcement, five new foot and bike patrol police officers, increasing inspection of rental properties, tenant and neighborhood protection strategies, creating the post of Homeless Liaison/Housing Navigator, and strengthening neighborhood outreach and engagement.
Funding for the plan originally included the installation of a citywide camera surveillance system, but that has been funded by the city’s supplemental budget. The plan also initially called for 13 additional foot and bike patrol officers but was dropped to five in order to be sustained through attrition funding when other officers retire within the next few years.
The plan, also known as Operation Safe Streets, sparked heavy debate amongst councilors during their meeting and the previous night during the Finance Committee’s Dec. 4 meeting, where the committee ultimately voted to bring the plan to the full City Council for a vote without recommendation.
“Ezekiel’s Plan itself is good law enforcement sense,” said At-Large Councilor Joseph McGiverin. “It’s well thought out and it’s geared to the safety of things that should be happening.”
McGiverin added that when the Finance Committee met the night prior, two major concerns emerged from discussions: how they would add and sustain these additional police officers and the addition of a crime analyst position. The crime analyst position might be brought back to the City Council for a future vote but was left behind in these discussions.
During the Finance Committee meeting, Garcia reiterated to those councilors that this plan’s goal was to mitigate and prevent tragedies, like the one that claimed the life of Ezekiel.
“Vote or don’t,” Garcia said. “The community wants to get started and are tired of waiting around for local government, who they feel like doesn’t care about them.”
At-Large Councilor Kevin Jourdain argued against the plan, citing the city could not afford it at this time and it would increase taxes. Jourdain is the Finance Committee vice chair; his committee has been reviewing the proposal and discussed it at their meeting the night prior.
“This is something we simply cannot afford on a whole bunch of levels,” Jourdain said during the City Council meeting. “We already have a $2-3 million-dollar structural budget deficit. If we were to approve this later tonight, dollar for dollar, this is going to get added to taxes.”
Jourdain also argued he did not see how the plan would realistically change the criminal conduct that was seen in the death of Ezekiel that sparked the mayor to introduce the plan to address violent crime in the city. In his closing remarks, Jourdain cautioned his fellow councilors about the plan’s long-term sustainability with the financial constraints of the city.
“Don’t let the desire for doing the right thing, make you do the wrong thing,” Jourdain said.
At-Large Councilor Israel Rivera also voted against the mayor’s proposal after saying he had more questions on the city’s strategy to hire more police officers while also working to combat over policing in underserved areas of the city. Rivera serves on the Public Safety Committee, which was another subcommittee, along with finance, that reviewed the proposed plan during their meetings leading up to this City Council meeting.
Rivera added he was questioning the sustainability of five police officers and overtime being added, portions of the safety initiative that included legal counsel for tenants, why a task force would be created to travel outside of Holyoke, and what a homeless liaison’s role and responsibilities would look like.
Ward 3 Councilor David Bartley voted against the plan but added during discussion he would like to tackle the initiatives a little at a time over the next year. He suggested Garcia choose three priorities from the plan to debate with the Ordinance Committee piece by piece, before bringing it back to the council.
At-Large Councilor Tessa Murphy Romboletti voted in favor of the plan but did seek more clarity on the lingering questions about the plan’s expected metrics. Ward 4 Councilor Kocayne Givner voted in favor of the plan as well, noting its use of opioid settlement funding and the incorporation of her committee’s ideas over the past year. Givner is vice chair of the Public Safety Committee.
When announcing Ezekiel’s plan back in October, Garcia said it would be paid for with several sources including ARPA funds, the city’s capital stabilization fund, opioid settlement money and other local appropriations.
During the Finance Committee’s discussion the night prior to the City Council’s vote, Jourdain went through several positions listed in the plan and the costs associated that he was opposed to. One of the top ones mentioned was $50,000 to support a health inspector position.
“The question is, what’s the long-term sustainability we are committing to? Do we have an extra $50,000 every year to fund that position? It says here they’re going to do housing, trash and permit related inspections. Is that position going to bring in revenue of $50,000 or more?” Jourdain asked fellow committee members. “Our job is to check apartments. Make sure that people live in safe and sanitary housing conditions. That’s always been a responsibility of a municipality but buying lawyers for people to get in fights with their landlord is not the duty of city government.”
Garcia said during the Finance Committee discussion that funding amounts for each line item in the plan are not set in stone, and the safety plan is packaged together for flexibility.
“It’s more like these are the things that we are looking to do, and here’s what we’re looking at for costs. The $1 million is a flat line item,” Garcia said. “It’ll be a process of soliciting proposals from organizations,” Garcia said.
Garcia proposed the $1 million comprehensive public safety initiative as part of a supplemental budget, but then last month the City Council passed the supplemental budget without funding the public safety plan.
One of the main reasons Ezekiel’s Plan was pushed to the Finance Committee for review was because of concerns about adding to the additional police officers and how to pay their salaries after the one-time ARPA funding is used up.
While the City Council did not reach the majority of votes needed to pass the $1 million budget needed to fund Ezekiel’s Plan, they did vote unanimously to reconsider the plan at a later date.