Ramos becomes Springfield’s second Latino council president

Jan. 6, 2017 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

City Councilor Orlando Ramos was administered the oath of office as council president by state Sen. James Welch.
Reminder Publications photo by G. Michael Dobbs

SPRINGFIELD – New City Council President Orlando Ramos said during his speech after being formally elected to the office his “number one priority as council president is to ensure that we do everything we can to help improving police/community relations in our city.”

Ramos became the second Latino in the city’s history to take the oath of office as City Council president on Jan. 2.

In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged and thanked state Rep. Jose Tosado, who was the first Latino elected to the council and the first Latino council president.

Councilor Adam Gomez nominated Ramos, the only candidate for the position and called him “an honorable man, a respected man.”

Ramos said, “We have a police department made up of many brave men and women; honorable individuals who put their lives at risk in order to fulfill their oath to serve and protect, men and woman who have earned the right to be called heroes – officers whom many of us have had the opportunity to get to know on a personal level. We know them as hard workers, who earn every cent of their paychecks and more. We know them as loving fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, in addition to be dedicated public servants. We know all these things based on out interactions and our own experiences with them; but like anything else in life, we must avoid becoming prisoners of our own biography and acknowledge and understand out own experiences are not necessarily identical to everyone else’s. And we must listen to the clamor of those who feel that they have been treated unjustly because particularly for us as elected leaders, denial and/or indifference towards injustice is just as harmful and just as dangerous as the injustice itself.”

Residency requirements are also a priority for Ramos. “This body has demonstrated that we take this matter seriously. During the last calendar year we have voted to reject a collective bargaining agreement that did not include residency requirement; we strengthened the responsible employer ordinance to ensure our residents are given a fair shot at finding employment and voted to eliminate the practice of granting waivers for those who don’t live in the city – votes that I am very proud of. I’m proud of the my colleagues for standing together on this very important issue.”

Ramos said he would work with Mayor Domenic Sarno on the issue of residency requirements.

City Councilor Justin Hurst was elected to be vice president of the council and out-going council president Michael Fenton was given a standing ovation by the audience for his three years in office.

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