I’d like to wish everyone a Happy and safe Independence Day.
The City of Westfield is sponsoring a fireworks displaytoday, Saturday, July 2, 2016, at the South Middle School fields. The event begins at 6:30 PM with vendors, face painting, and live entertainment. There is plenty of parking within a short walk of the field and many points of egress, which should alleviate traffic congestion at the end of the fireworks. Some residents have told me that they will be biking to the event on the Columbia Greenway bike trail. 
The Hampton Ponds area will be celebrating with the Hampton Ponds Association annual Fourth of July Parade. The parade assembles at the Hampton Ponds Plaza and concludes with a ceremony at the Hampton Ponds Association Building. The parade is held on July 4 and starts at 10:00 AM. There will also be a boat parade later that day.
Wyben will also be hosting their Fourth of July Parade at 6:30 PM on July 4. The parade starts at Wyben chapel.
This week was a busy week for the City Council with discussion, cutting, and voting on the July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017 budget.
The budget process started months ago with each city department providing their budget to the Mayor. The Mayor reviews the department budgets, meets with department heads, and adjusts the budgets based on their discussions.
The Mayor then assembles the modified department budgets into his budget that is presented to the City Council.
The budget is then given to the City Council Finance Committee which consists of Chairman Councilor Bob Paul, Councilor Dave Flaherty, and Councilor Matt VanHeynigen. The Finance Committee meets with each department head for a second review of the department budget. The meetings were mainly attended by the department heads and City Councilors but are open to the public and the public can participate. Detailed questions and answers are provided during the meeting which helps to open dialogue and search for ways to work more efficiently and save tax payers money.
As an aside, I need to publically thank the members of the Finance Committee. They spent hundreds of hours studying and understanding thousands of budget line items and making recommendations for each item. It is a thankless position for which I offer my thanks for their time and expertise.
After weeks of meetings with the department heads, the Finance Committee held another open meeting to review their recommendations for cuts and to listen to the public and other City Councilors and hear their recommendations for cuts. It is important to note that the City Council can only cut from department budgets. We cannot add to a department’s budget or transfer money between department budgets.
The Finance Committee presented a list of potential cuts to the Mayor’s budget totaling about $2.7 Million. This was a combination of cuts that was offered by the Finance Committee or other City Councilors. Each line item was voted on and the City Council voted to cut about $106,000.00 from the proposed budget.
There will be enough budget numbers in the coming days throughout the newspaper so I will try to keep them to a minimum in this column. However, I would like to discuss one of the larger budget item and a new tax (revenue) item that were voted on.
The School Department is the major expenditure of Westfield and most other cities and towns. There was a proposed cut of $600,000.00 to the School Department Budget but the vote on the table was a zero cut to the School Department budget. The majority of the City Council, including myself, voted for a zero cut to the School Department budget.
My logic for the vote was straight forward. The education of our students is one of the most important items that I could support. An investment into improving schools will bring businesses into a community because people want to move to an area that has a solid educational system. I firmly believe that our new Superintendent of Schools, Stefan Czaporowski, will manage the School Department, and the budget, effectively. Stefan’s successful track record at the Westfield Technical Academy will carry over the entire Westfield School system and move the educational system forward with his innovation. I voted to help this process.
The second largest dollar item was a 0.75% meals tax that, generally, gets charged on served and prepared foods. This tax will bring increased revenues of approximately $425,000.00 annually to the city. A slim majority of the City Council, including myself, voted 7-6 to implement the meals tax.
I don’t like new taxes on anything. Arguments were made that the tax is only a few cents on a cup of coffee or only $0.75 on a hundred dollar meal. My feeling was that a new tax is still a new tax, no matter how little the amount. The reason that I supported this effort is because the Mayor assured the City Council that the $425,000.00 will be applied to infrastructure repairs–road and sidewalks. The Mayor does not have the ability to legally earmark the funds to roads but I have full confidence that the Mayor will do what he said he would do.
Since education and roads were the most important concerns that I heard during and after my campaign, I feel that my vote, and the votes of the majority of the City Council, were best for the city. I will do my best to be sure that commitments are fulfilled and will keep notes for next year’s budget.
Have a Happy and safe Independence Day!
Thank you for taking time to read this. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 413-568-7747.
