WESTFIELD – The Board of Public Works voted 3-0 last night to appoint Water Resource Department Superintendent Dave Billips to serve as the interim Department of Public Works superintendent, action that the City Council declined to take.
The City Council tabled a motion to appoint Dave Billips as the Department of Public Works Superintendent, at its November 20 session, on the argument that the Board of Public Works is the sole appointing authority for that position.
In August Billips was named by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik as the interim superintendent of the Department of Public Works following the retirement of former superintendent Jim Mulvenna. Billips was initially hired by the city in 2003 as the director of the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant and later appointed by the Water Commission as the Water Resource Department superintendent.
Knapik also hired a consulting firm to access the city’s departments performing a number of public works function to determine if consolidation of those departments would benefit the city.
Billips said last night that he anticipates the consolidation report of that assessment from that municipal management consultant will be submitted to the City Council shortly.
“We should have something at the next City Council meeting (on Dec. 18) to refer to the Council’s Personnel Action Committee and its Legislative & Ordinance Committee for review,” Billips said to the board members. “There may be some ordinance changes involved.”
Knapik said in an Aug. 26 edition of the Westfield News that he would hire a management consultant to analyze the city’s “governmental infrastructure” to determine if consolidation of public works departments will improve efficiency.
Knapik said the recent retirement of Public Works Superintendent Jim Mulvenna triggered the study to determine if consolidation of several departments is feasible.
“Whenever you have a retirement of a major department head it’s an opportunity to examine the structure of city departments,” Knapik said following Mulvenna’s retirement.
Billips said this morning that the consulting firm, Tata & Howard of Marlborough, is providing the city with tiered reports. The first tier, which will be submitted to the City Council, next week, is an organizational chart, “setting up the structure” of a consolidated department, while the second tier is a report on “best business practices.”
Billips said the firm, if requested, will appear before the City Council or the committees to which the matter is referred.
The council also has an ordinance amendment pending to delineate the chain of responsibility for the city’s Tree Warden. Knapik sent a request to the City Council at its Oct. 16 session to amend the ordnance establishing the position of director of lands and natural resources for the city and the line of succession.
Billips said last night to the BPW members that he is seeking authority to delegate the duties of tree warden to a contractor, an arborist trained to perform those duties.
