Editing Springfield, Massachusetts (section)

===City of Springfield===

Springfield employs a strong-mayor form of city government. [[List of mayors of Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield's mayor]] is Domenic J. Sarno, who has been serving since 2008.

The city's governmental bureaucracy consists of 33 departments, which administer a wide array of municipal services, e.g. police, [[Springfield Fire Department|fire]], public works, parks, public health, housing, economic development, and the [[Springfield Public School System]], New England's 2nd largest public school system.<ref name="masslive">{{cite web |url=http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/springfield_schools_superinten_8.html |title=Springfield Schools Superintendent Daniel Warwick touts students' gains in academics, attendance, behavior &#124; |date=October 4, 2013 |publisher=masslive.com |access-date=October 16, 2014 |archive-date=July 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702104114/http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/springfield_schools_superinten_8.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Springfield's legislative body is its City Council, which features a mix of eight [[Ward (United States)|ward]] representatives—even though the city has more than twice that many neighborhoods, resulting in several incongruous "wards"—and five at-large city representatives, several of whom have served for well over a decade.

====Finances====

In 2003, the City of Springfield was on the brink of financial default, and thus taken over by a Commonwealth-appointed Finance Control Board until 2009. Disbanded in June of that year, the Control Board made great strides stabilizing Springfield's finances.<ref name="bostonfed">{{cite web |url=http://www.bostonfed.org/commdev/pcadp/2009/pcadp0901.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://www.bostonfed.org/commdev/pcadp/2009/pcadp0901.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live |date=September 14, 2009 |title=Towards a More Prosperous Springfield, Massachusetts: Project Introduction and Motivation |author=Lynn Browne |access-date=October 16, 2014}}</ref> While Springfield has achieved balanced budgets since 2009, the city has not enlarged its tax base, and thus many of its public works projects—which have been in the pipeline for years, some even decades—remain unfinished (e.g., repairs to Springfield's landmark Campanile).<ref name="springfield-ma2">{{cite web |url=http://www3.springfield-ma.gov/capitalassets/campanile.0.html |title=Springfield, Mass. Capital Assets: The Campanile |publisher=www3.springfield-ma.gov |access-date=October 16, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701140037/http://www3.springfield-ma.gov/capitalassets/campanile.0.html |archive-date=July 1, 2014 }}</ref> The construction of [[MGM Springfield]], which opened in 2018, fueled a number of projects in the years leading up to and after its opening, with an estimated $3 billion of new development and infrastructure spending materializing.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Governing|url=https://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-springfield-massachusetts-turnaround-bankruptcy.html|title=This Small New England City Was on the Verge of Bankruptcy. Now It's a Turnaround Success Story|last=Greenblatt|first=Alan|date=December 2018|publisher=e.Republic|location=Washington, DC|access-date=August 21, 2019|archive-date=August 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821173856/https://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-springfield-massachusetts-turnaround-bankruptcy.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Building off of the work of the Control Board, the city's finances have remained stable under Mayor Domenic J. Sarno's (2008–present) despite the Great Recession and several natural and man made disasters: [[2011 New England tornado outbreak|June 1, 2011, tornado Springfield Tornado]], [[Hurricane Irene]], a freak [[2011 Halloween nor'easter|October snow storm]] (which in some ways was more damaging than the tornado),<ref name="masslive3">{{cite web |url=http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/western_massachusetts_communit_41.html |title=Western Massachusetts communities deal with cleanup costs in wake of October snowstorm |date=December 27, 2011 |publisher=masslive.com |access-date=October 16, 2014 |archive-date=July 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703092355/http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/western_massachusetts_communit_41.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and a large gas explosion in the downtown area in 2012. The city has recovered, however receiving a bond upgrade from Standard and Poor's Investment Services and the GFOA's Distinguished Budget Award for six consecutive years.