BRENT BEAN II
WESTFIELD – The City Council, which has twice deferred action of the two Fire Department labor contracts, declined to act again last night because its demand, authorized under state law, for the financial information for the first year of the contract packages has yet to be provided by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik.
“We have a line drawn in the sand,” Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said last night as the council resumed its consideration of the two contracts, “We’re not getting the answers from the corner office, so I will make a motion to table this.”
MAYOR DANIEL M. KNAPIK
Knapik submitted contracts for the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1111, which represents the rank and file firefighters and with the Westfield Fire Department Supervisors Association, which represents the department’s deputy chiefs. Both contracts became effective back to Jan. 1, 2014.
City Council Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe said that he requested that financial information from Knapik, the Fire Department and the Law Department, but received a response only from the Law Department stating that under state law the council is entitled to receive the financial information.
MARY L. O’CONNELL
“Nobody is willing to step forward and explain (the financial issues),” Keefe said. “I’m stumbling around in the dark.”
Council President Brent B. Bean II said the council is acting within its authority, and responsibility to taxpayers, in requesting that information.
“It’s a simple request about the cost of the contracts,” Bean said. “I don’t understand it. It’s fair to ask for the allocation of money. We’ve been more than reasonable. It’s fair for us to ask for this information.”
At-large Councilor James R. Adams asked what happens to the contracts and firefighters’ salaries if the issue is again tabled for the next six weeks while the council is on its annual summer recess.
CHRISTOPHER KEEFE
“If, and when, we get the answers and approve these contract, there will be a retroactive check to catch them up,” O’Connell responded to Adams.
Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean, a member of the Finance Committee, said that further inaction by the council will have little effect on the issue.
“We’re seven months into this already. Six more weeks will make little difference. I say wait,” Crean said. “It’s like salt in a wound that nobody has gotten back to us.”
At-large Councilor Brian Sullivan said the council has already approved the funding for the contracts in the current 2015 fiscal year budget.
BRIAN P. SULLIVAN
“We’ve already approved the finances. Waiting is not doing anything. People are still getting paid,” Sullivan said.
O’Connell said the pay is based on the old contract which remains in force until the council approved the new pact, but the delta between the two salary levels is small.
“They’re not getting much of a raise and they will not get the extra money until we approve the contract, then they’ll get a lump sum payment,” she said.
Keefe agreed that the amount of money is not huge, but argued that the council is being ignored.
“We’ve made two written requests to the mayor, fire chief and solicitor and only the solicitor has responded,” Keefe said. “Is the council willing to take crumbs, or (do we want) answers. Mass. law says we’re entitled to that information.”
The council then voted six times to table the two contracts and four requests of appropriation from the Fire Department Ambulance Undesignated Fund Account to fund the salary increases for the last six months of the 2014 fiscal year. Each motion was approved by a 12-0 voice vote.
The council did act at the special June 30 session to approve a contract of the Westfield Professional Employee Association after several members appeared before the council to explain the financial impacts themselves.
The cost of the new contract, which has a start date of Jan. 1, 2014, is $21,000 for the 34 association members, all department heads and assistant department heads, covered in the pact. The department heads are receiving a $750 payment for the past six months, while the assistant supervisors, who account for 65 percent of the membership, will receive $500.
Those funds were taken out of money in the 2014 fiscal year budget, so there was no net cost to the city.
The council members agreed to table the two Fire Department packages with the hope that they will be provided similar financial information for the meeting tonight.
