Vice President of the Springfield City Council, Tracye Whitfield, will schedule weekly Finance Committee meetings to receive updates on how the City is spending Covid-19 related funds.
The City of Springfield has been the recipient of several different awards for Covid-19 related expenses. They include but are not limited to the following: American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.
“It is the City Council’s fiduciary responsibility to understand how all of these funding sources are to be effectively utilized in an attempt to be transparent with our constituents,” said Councilor Whitfield. “To create this transparency and before ARPA funds spending approval, we were assured by CAFO TJ Plante that we would be included in the process.
At a minimum, the Council was told the administration would inform us on how the funding is spent ahead of time – Obviously, that did not happen. Whitfield continued, I found out via a press release that the administration plans on using $2,750,000 to purchase three downtown properties.” “I don’t think that should be the priority when we have homelessness, major job loss, gun violence and traffic issues on the rise in the city.”
Council President Marcus Williams, Council Vice President Tracye Whitfield, and Councilor Justin Hurst plan on hosting a listening session with the community on how the community would like to see these funds spent.
CAFO TJ Plante stated that he and his team are willing to attend. “I strongly believe that this is the right thing to do before we start spending these designated funds. I also believe Mayor Sarno and his administration must be transparent with the City Council and the community at large.” States Councilor Whitfield.
