BRENT B. BEAN II
WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Personnel Action Committee will continue to evaluate four candidates interviewed for the city treasurer’s post Wednesday.
Greg Kallfa, the City Treasurer for nearly 30 years, is retiring in November. The post is a City Council appointment. The council began the process of hiring a new treasurer last January by updating the job description. The revised job description was approved by the council in July and the position posted.
City officials have said they hope to hire a new treasurer before Kallfa leaves office, to ensure there will be an overlap and smooth transition. The post, which has evolved extensively during Kallfa’s tenure in office, requires both a technical skill set, as well as knowledge of the local, state and federal laws regulating municipal finances.
The treasurer’s appointment is one of several made directly by the City Council. Other council-appointed posts include the city clerk, auditor, purchasing director, an attorney and collector.
That initial job posting drew 17 responses, applicants screened by a review committee of city officials who deal with the treasurer’s office. The review committee, composed of Kallfa, Assistant Personnel Director Jeff Krok, City Auditor Deborah Strycharz, Susan Phillips of the Law Department, and Paul Pasterczyk, the Longmeadow Finance Director, interviewed eight of those applicants and presented a short list of four candidates to the PAC for interviews held Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012.
PAC Chairman Brent B. Bean II had hoped to bring out the name of a candidate for appointment by the City Council at the Oct. 18 session and had slated a PAC meeting prior to the City Council meeting last Thursday, but cancelled that meeting to give PAC members additional time to assess the attributes of the four candidates interviewed before presenting a name to the full City Council.
The four candidates interviewed by the PAC are: Stephen J. Lonergan, the current Springfield Treasurer-Collector; Paul A. Nowicki, the current Palmer Treasurer-Collector who also held that position in Southwick; Meghan C. Miller, assistant comptroller at the Appleton Corporation in Holyoke and a city resident; and Kathleen Cooley, the manager of the New England Farm Worker’s Council fuel assistance program.
Bean said last week that the four candidates give the City Council options because of the candidates’ wide range of experience in the public, private and social service fields and that each candidate brings a different attribute to the table.
Bean said that he plans to call another session of the PAC to discuss which of the four candidates will be eventually presented to the City Council for appointment.
“The (appointment) process has been very successful thus far, Bean said this morning. “We have four very qualified applicants with a wide range of experience.”
Bean said that he has called for a PAC meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the recommendation to the City Council at its Nov. 1, 2012 session. In addition to Bean the PAC is comprised of At-large Councilor Brian Sullivan and Ward 3 Councilor Ann Callahan.
“I hope that we are all on the same page when we talk about the candidates Wednesday,” Bean said.
Bean said the PAC will also request the Personnel Department to validate the references provided by the candidates prior to making a recommendation to the full council.
The council members will have the option of accepting that PAC recommendation, nominating another candidate for appointment, or even bringing in the name of a person from outside the candidate pool.
