MARY L. O’CONNELL
WESTFIELD – The City Council voted last night to reject an ordinance change to transfer authority for flood control issues to the Water Commission. The unanimous vote keeps responsibility for flood control spending and decision-making with the Flood Control Commission.
The proposed ordinance amendment, submitted to the City Council last August, would have stripped the Flood Control Commission of authority to award contracts and make other financial decisions.
The change would have made the commission an advisory board without authority to act, moving authority for expenditures and contract awards to the Water Commission.
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell opened the debate on the council floor during the Legislative & Ordinance Committee discussion.
RALPH FIGY
O’Connell said she “is 100 percent against changing the ordinance” to dilute the authority of the commission.
“These guys work so hard,” O’Connell said of the board members. “I cannot see any reason for transferring authority to the Water Commission.”
O’Connell said she plans to introduce an amendment to reduce the board membership from the current seven members down to five to address a problem with attaining a quorum, which gave rise to the defeated ordinance amendment.
DAVID FLAHERTY
The shift of authority amendment was made because there are several major projects underway and the commission needed to be able to make changes to the contract as the projects progressed.
Currently, as a seven member board, the quorum is that four members have to be present to conduct business. The problem is that there are only four members of the commission, meaning that all four have to be present to open a meeting.
O’Connell said that a five-member board would have a quorum of three.
“I think that will totally solve any quorum problems,” she said.
CHRISTOPHER KEEFE
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty said that he opposed the amendment because of the Flood Control Commission exercises authority in one area and the Water Commission in an unrelated area.
”The Water Commission manages water in pipes, this commission deals with flood water. It has nothing to do with anything inside a pipe,” Flaherty said.
Ward 1 Councilor Christopher Keefe said that the Flood Control Commission has a “very specific function” that differs from the expertise of the Water Commission.
“I also have a problem with co-mingling of funds,” Keefe said. “The Flood Control Commission got the authority to expend funds a long time ago as an extension of the city’s executive branch. I like the idea of having a board committed to this specific issue and I like the decentralized structure, so I don’t want this board to lose its authority.”
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, chairman of the L&O, said “this discussion is what the L&O members hoped for when it brought this out without a recommendation.”
