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One Door Closes, Another Opens

by Bill Dusty

For Brian Santaniello, it’s all about choices.

He’s been given plenty of them through the years – from a career on the Springfield City Council to, after tiring of that routine, getting hand-picked for a job on the Elections Commission.

With the Springfield Finance Control Board in town these past few years, Santaniello’s opportunities at City Hall dimmed a bit. But that didn’t mean he’d lost interest in a comeback. Santaniello bided his time by tinkering around with a news linking Web site called “The Dread Report,” which he hoped would take off just like Matt Drudge’s site did years earlier. It never happened. But hope springs eternal, and this past spring, with the Control Board’s days numbered, Santaniello slipped his name in as an at-large candidate for City Council. Then, for whatever reason, he didn’t make the July 28 certification deadline. (Being a Life Member of the Network, though, one would have to assume the only reason he didn’t make the cut was because he didn’t want to.)

But for Guys Who Know Guys in Power, the best part of not getting one position is knowing that a second position is right around the corner.

Enter the Springfield Park Commission, which Santaniello was duly appointed to on Wednesday by Mayor Domenic Sarno.

And so it’s back to being a decision maker at City Hall. Just like the old days.

Joining Santaniello on the Park Commission is Clodo Concepcion, also appointed by Sarno. Concepcion is President of the Sixteen Acres Civic Association and, more interestingly, also a candidate for the Ward 5 City Council seat.

For Concepcion the question will be, if he does get elected to the City Council and issues regarding city parks come up, how many voting opportunities does one guy get?

As one sitting City Councilor recently put it, should Concepcion be successful in winning a seat on the Council, he might “be wise to get an opinion from the Ethics Commission on the issue.”

Indeed.

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Posted by Bill Dusty on Aug 5th, 2009 and filed under Cities & Towns, City Hall, Latest Posts, Politics, Springfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.