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Date: 6/21/2021
HOLYOKE – During their first in-person meeting in more than a year, the Holyoke City Council discussed an item that would replace Columbus Day with Idigionous People’s Day.
The June 14 meeting began with an ongoing discussion regarding back pay for the former city solicitor who was serving as the acting city solicitor, but had not received the appropriate pay for a portion of her tenure. Councilor Joseph McGiverin said they had been “around and around” on the item and all 13 councilors hadn’t been present to vote on the matter.
Councilor Linda Vacon said she felt it was unfair to the taxpayers to have to pay for this error as it was well known throughout the employee’s tenure with the city. The City Council then voted in favor of approving the funds with a 9-4 vote.
While councilors were in the City Council Chambers in City Hall for their meeting, residents were able to attend the meeting both virtually and in person. Resident Elizabeth Ramirez discussed the resolution to establish an Indigenous People’s Day rather than the city recognizing Columbus Day. She said she was Italian-American and served as a teacher who had taught a curriculum around Columbus and had issues with the representation of the well-known explorer.
“I was appalled that Columbus was being used to represent my people because he was a pretty terrible guy. He started slavery, the atlatntic slave trade. He was somebody who committed genocice, he was someone that took in slaves, he let people rape native women,” she said. “So I’m highly offended that anybody would think this guy properly represents Italian-Americans.”
She said she was in favor of establishing a Indigenous People’s Day as they were on native land, they had a significant number of indigienous people in the city and they had a celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. She said she wasn’t in favor of any Italian heritage celebration, but felt strongly that they needed to recognize the native people.
Resident Joanne Grisanti, also an Italian-American, said when she moved from New York she chose to buy a home in Holyoke due to its diversity.
“As a proud Italian-American, I urge you to honor my heritage by recognizing that Christopher Columbus was not merely an explorer but rather a cruel, murderous invader whose memory should not be memorialized,” she said. “Instead let us honor the memory of the indigenous people who he brutalized.”
One woman called in from Webster to support those who she knows live in Holyoke and supported the change. She said she was worried about her children who were attending public school and learning the story that was told about Columbus. She said she was teaching her children the “real” story of who he was, but she felt it was a disservice to children.
Richard Ahlstrom spoke on behalf of the Holyoke Historical Commission where he served as the chair. He said they had just found out about an agenda item that would allow for the demolition of several historic buildings. He said they had sent a letter to the council and all the properties were more than 100-years-old and were required to come before the commission.
He said the commission was opposed to the order as it “did not follow protocol” and they had multiple questions as a result of this. “At best it’s oversight by the City Council who brought this forward, at worst it’s complete disrespect to established protocol, multiple city bylaws and the Historical Commission,” he said. Council President Todd McGee explained that they were receiving the item for the first time, which meant it would go to the appropriate committee where committee and individuals would be invited to speak on the item.
McGiverin said the request by Acting Mayor Terrance Murphy was “a legitimate request” and it would be “vetted out” by the finance committee. He said the committee would listen to members of the historical commission as well as others. Murphy said he had asked to be given “properties that were in the worst shape,” and he felt if the city was going to reserve historical buildings they shouldn’t wait until buildings were falling apart and had been vacant for more than 10 years.
McGee read several public comment items that had come in via email in support of replacing Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day. Upon discussion about adopting the resolution, Murphy said he felt the last paragraph would be “creating a task for the city clerk.” He said he felt as though the clerk should be consulted and if it was a problem the paragraph would be eliminated. Councilor Libby Hernandez, who filed the order, asked if the clerk had expressed concern and she had added the item as she had mirrored the item after cities who had adopted similar resolutions, such as Easthampton.
McGee said the paragraph asked for local newspapers, the School Committee and various native groups to be sent a copy of the resolution. Clerk Brenna Murphy McGee said she would have no issue sending that notification as long as she had some help getting contact information for such groups. Ultimately, the city voted in favor of passing the resolution and adopting Indigenous People’s Day. The council voted in favor of the resolution with councilors David Bartley, Howard Greaney and Linda Vacon voting in opposition of the resolution.
During an update, Murphy said reopening of city services and public buildings had gone very well thus far. “We’ve had no problems, no complaints. We’ve seen more people coming to City Hall,” he said.
Murphy said he had met with the opioid task force and crisis intervention team and would get monthly reports. In May, he said the task force had been met with “64 person to person encounters, sometimes multiple encounters with the same person.” He said of those 64 people, 47 had been referred to “hotel housing and recovery housing,” and “12 of those were able to get into a detox treatment program.”
The crisis intervention team, which Murphy said works with the Behavior Health Network, met with 88 people during the month of May. “Of those, the Behavior Health Network finished and led the response in 45 of those calls as they come,” he said. Murphy said the goal was to “calm the situation.”
“We are doing things across the entire spectrum to make sure we have a safer community,” he said. Murphy added that in each encounter, both by the crisis intervention team and the opioid task force, that not a single person had been arrested.
McGiverin went on to announce that the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round would be reopening on July 17, and there may be a “soft reopen” prior to that date. “The way the governor worked it, the Merry-Go-Round was considered an amusement park ride and was put into phase four from the get go,” he said. McGiverin said they were looking forward to the reopening and would be going back to regular hours.
Later in the meeting McGiverin said that it had been identified by the federal government that the city will be eligible for $1.7 million in revenue lost. He said he was hoping to use that money to supplement the budget that Murphy had proposed, but they were waiting to hear back on if that was possible.