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Neighborhood Disservices

by Bill Dusty

By the late spring of 2005, the neighborhood of Maple High Six Corners had had enough. Their two year-long, frustrating effort to get a property on Central Street cleaned up had come to naught. The city government appeared to be either disinterested or incapable of getting the property owner at 444 Central Street, one Eddie C. Whitley Jr., to comply with the city’s litter and dumping ordinances. The only other option – a seeming last resort – was to go to the media for help.

The Republican sent out reporter Chris Hamel to handle the story, and on July 2, 2005, Hamel’s article on the Central Street property (“House Attracts Trash and Complaints”) came out. According to Hamel’s story, the property at the time was littered with mattresses, busted furniture, suitcases, and debris from two past fires at the site. The city’s housing and neighborhood services director, Kathleen Lingenberg, stated in the same story that the city would soon be taking action via the courts to get the property cleaned up.

But if neighborhood residents were hoping for quick action, at last, then their hopes would once again be dashed. On July 12, 2005, the property went into foreclosure, and it would not be until December of that year before the city finally entered the property to rid it of two years worth of garbage.

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Fast forward to August of 2008…

On August 14, 2008, Springfield’s chief development officer, David Panagore, released a statement announcing the hiring of a new deputy director of Neighborhood Services. In a Republican article on the announcement that day, Panagore said, “Simply put, our focus on healthy neighborhoods is an investment in Springfield’s future.”

Community leaders in Maple High Six Corners, however, had serious questions about that focus as soon as they saw the name of the man the city had just hired. In fact, many of them were stunned. That’s because, in a decidedly strange, ironic twist of fate, the new deputy director of Neighborhood Services – the person responsible for overseeing housing and code enforcement – was none other than Eddie C. Whitley Jr.

In response to Whitley’s hiring, the president of the Maple High Six Corners Council (MHSCC), Melvin Edwards, sent out a letter to the Mayor’s Office and another to the Republican.

In his letter to the Republican, Edwards provided a brief refresher on Whitley’s blighted property at 444 Central Street back in 2005, along with the neighborhood’s two year ordeal in trying to get it cleaned up. Edwards took note of seeing Panagore’s announcement in the Republican (actually on Masslive), and he questioned Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno’s assertion that Whitley’s hiring offered a “unique blend of professionalism and community commitment” to the job.

“He [Whitley] was a slumlord,” said Edwards in a telephone conversation with the Springfield Intruder. “There is no other term to more accurately describe his property in the summer of 2005.”

But if Edwards and the other members of the MHSCC were angry about Whitley’s hiring by the city, that anger would only intensify after Edwards received a written response from Mayor Sarno’s chief of staff, Denise Jordan.

Far from being sympathetic to a resident’s concerns, Jordan was, instead, resolute in her defense of Whitley. “I am aware that some have chosen to distribute information regarding Mr. Whitley’s personal affairs that occurred some years ago,” wrote Jordan. “Mr. Whitley had personal financial issues over 3 years ago that no longer have any bearing on his current status.”

In her letter, Jordan repeatedly refers to Whitley’s “personal financial” difficulties. But Edwards said he never brought up the subject of Whitley’s personal finances in his own correspondence, and he thinks the constant reference to Whitley’s personal financial woes is merely an attempt to evade the real issue: Whitley’s own past failure to adhere to city ordinances and the irony of his now being selected to oversee the same. “Jordan’s letter never addressed the issue [of the blighted property],” said Edwards.

“How much does it cost to fill a couple of bags of trash a week and take it out to the curb?” asked Edwards. This, at a time when – back in 2005 – there was no trash fee and bulk stickers were just a few bucks each.

No matter. Jordan seemed entirely dismissive of anyone critical of the Whitley selection. “While I realize there are a lot of perfect people in the world,” wrote Jordan, “and having the complete understanding that I am not one of them, I believe everyone [emphasis Jordan's] deserves a second chance. Smearing someone’s character based on something that happened 3 years ago without having the benefit of the entire story, in my opinion is irresponsible.”

Jordan went on to defend the interview process, too, that landed Whitley his job. And she seemed irked by suggestions that politics-as-usual played any role in his hiring. “Any assumptions being made about his selection,” she declared, “should be dismissed as those folks were not involved in the interview process and I take exception to the inference of politics having a role in the process.”

But perhaps concerned residents should be forgiven for having their suspicions since, after all, Whitley reportedly admitted to them during a recent neighborhood meeting that he coached 5A Football – a program actually led by Denise Jordan in the years prior to her appointment as Sarno’s chief of staff.

After receiving Jordan’s letter, Edwards received a call from Whitley. The two discussed Whitley’s situation in 2005 and his subsequent hiring this past August. Following that conversation, Whitley then met up with Maple High residents who had several questions prepared for their new Neighborhood Services deputy director. Among them was a question regarding the number of apartments rented out by Whitley while he owned the 444 Central Street property. According to the MHSCC, that property is in an area zoned Residence B, which allows for single family detached and two-family housing. But Whitley apparently rented out four apartments from that address. Whitley reportedly answered that, since four units were being rented out at the time he purchased it, he figured it was okay to do so himself.

“He didn’t seem to get the drift,” said one MHSCC member, “that Residence B only allows for a two-family.”

“I really love this city,” said Edwards. “And I hate to see the mismanagement going on, as evidenced by the presence of the Finance Control Board.”

Edwards said that when people come up from the south, they don’t talk about how nice Springfield currently is, but rather how nice it used to be. And that hurts him. “We need economic development,” said Edwards. He sees little hope for that, however, as long as questionable practices like this continue to muddy-up the local political waters.

But with controversy, accusations and stupefying ironies unfortunately being nothing new in Springfield politics, our city leaders may at least want to begin to reassess the way they check into the backgrounds of applicants for important positions at City Hall. Or, at the very least, admit when an error in oversight has been made.

And they may also want to reassess the manner in which they write letters to concerned citizens.

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Posted by Bill Dusty on Sep 12th, 2008 and filed under Cities & Towns, City Hall, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.