ANDREW K. SURPRISE
Name: Andrew K. Surprise
Address: 25 Bates St., #2
Occupation: Communications and Political Consultant
What experience and qualifications do you have that would be an asset to the city?
I am running for City Councilor At-Large, and I am currently serving my 2nd term as the Ward 3 City Councilor. In that role I have dealt with issues large and small. From Westfield’s water contamination and devastated roads and infrastructure, to ensuring trees are trimmed and potholes are filled. I previously served on the Finance Committee, reviewing and recommending reductions in the $130 Million budget. Over the last 4 years I have proposed over $4.5 Million in reasonable reductions and voted for over $6 Million in reductions of the budget.
As Chair of the Government Relations Committee I advanced an ordinance to record all City Council Committee meetings. Often important discussions occur, and decisions are made in City Council sub-committee meetings, so the public should have access to these meetings.
I’ve made proposals to create accountability in the budget process. These range from an Open Checkbook system allowing the public to view how tax dollars are spent, to a yearly Capital Project Plans to allow prioritizing of infrastructure projects, and a Zero-Based Budgeting system to allocate funding based on necessity rather than budget history.
Have you recently met with city department heads to discuss their needs/concerns/budgets and if so, which ones?
I most recently had discussions with Public Health Director Joe Rouse regarding the Vaping Ban, and scientific studies showing the lack of effectiveness of GAC Carbon Filters to remove PFAS from our water.
This year I had meetings with Community Development Director PJ Miller regarding the timing and process for the city to apply for an official Arts and Cultural District with the state, and the development of an All-Abled Playground for children with disabilities.
I also met several times with City Advancement Officer Joe Mitchell about the potential for additional parking/or a parking garage downtown, the city’s retail marijuana contracts, and other business developments throughout the city.
I met with Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski to discuss the dire need for more Special Education Teachers, the lack of state Chapter 70 Education funding, and the need to reduce administrative positions in the School Department and re-allocate resources to student facing positions.
If you could change how the Council works, what would be your priority?
Two of the primary roles of the City Council are Oversight and Review.
The current Council rarely carries out its role of oversight of city departments. This is a crucial responsibility, which the Council has failed to do. It shouldn’t take 4 meetings to get answers, and Department Heads should be readily available to Councilors, and not run through the Council President and Mayor in an obtuse screening process that makes the oversight role impossible.
I would also remove the ability for immediate consideration for items at the same meeting in which they are introduced, unless an item is considered an emergency, as this does not allow the time to review items which may have unintended consequences.
What are your top three areas of concern for Westfield and how would you like to address them?
1) PFAS Water Contamination: The PFAS contamination of our water is the most important issue anyone presently on the City Council, or that will be on the Council in the next 10 years, will ever deal with. The health and welfare of Westfield’s citizens is our paramount duty. Our citizens have been slowly poisoned for decades by the AFFF Firefighting Foam used to extinguish jet fuel fires at the Barnes Air National Guard base.
The Water Department has chosen to utilize GAC Filters to try to remove the PFAS Chemicals from our Northside water wells. The problem is this method of treatment has been proven time and again not to work with PFAS. There are 300 different PFAS Chemicals in AFFF Foam, the city tests for 21, the state only regulates 5. Scientific studies have shown the GAC Filters DO NOT remove all PFAS and maintenance is very costly. Nationwide, communities dealing with PFAS have attempted to use GAC with costly failures. I’ve spoken with officials in several communities that are all moving to other types of filtration for PFAS or to new Water Sources.
There is a better way. Holyoke’s Tighe-Carmody Reservoir in Southampton, which has a declining usage and an excess capacity of water. I have spoken with Holyoke Water Works Director Dave Conti and other officials. They have agreed to sell Westfield 2MGD of Water at a rate of $1000 per day, or $365,000 per year. The yearly GAC Carbon changeouts will cost Westfield at least $640,000 per year.
We are not being protective of public health when we leave Northside residents trapped on one source of contaminated water.
2) Roads and Infrastructure: A recent assessment of our Roads said that we MUST spend $5 Million per year for 15 years to bring them to a good state of repair. According to our Deputy DPW Director Casey Berube, Westfield only spends $1.2 Million on road repairs and maintenance.
Westfield diverts road funding to other places. For 10 years Westfield used Millions in Road Funding to build the Bike Trail, when Community Preservation Funds (CPA) could have been used. Funding has also been eaten up by employee salaries. In that past 3 years city payroll has gone up 17.1%! Bad Decisions Abound.
This year I was able to pass through Council the creation of a Road and Sidewalk Stabilization Fund. This fund is essentially a lock box for funding. Any revenue placed into this fund can legally be used only for Roads. This will ensure revenue is dedicated to Roads. This tax money will be readily available to fund Road Repairs year-round.
3) Taxes and Transparency: Westfield has the 44th Highest Residential Property Taxes out of 351 Cities and Towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We have the 5th Highest Commercial Property Taxes in the state. These types of tax rates keep businesses and residents from moving here and building here.
In 2019 Council received the budget only 2 weeks before it needed to be passed. Finance Committee failed to ask the tough questions and scrutinize the budget. The led to the full Council’s 9 Hour Budget Session which had 300 separate cuts and only reduced the budget by $1 Million. We must implement reforms. The “hurry up and finish” mentality doesn’t work and creates limitless and often exploited opportunities for wasteful spending.
We are taxing Senior Citizens living on fixed incomes out of their homes! Property taxes in Westfield have increased over 25% in 9 years, while Social Security Cost of Living increases have only gone up about 13%. The high taxes also hurt families trying raise a family, keep food on the table, and save for college.
Reckless spending needs to stop. We don’t need to spend $185,000 of taxpayer money on Pickleball Courts, we need Road Repairs, we need Clean and Safe Water. Necessities before Niceties.
Why should residents vote for you?
For the last 4 years I have served as Ward 3 City Councilor, I have followed through on every pledge which I made to my constituents, and it has been my duty to represent the interests of all Westfield residents. Now I am asking for one for your 7 votes for City Councilor At-Large.
Working with other Councilors, we have made progress on many issues, yet more remains to be done. We’ve proposed Millions in Budget Reductions, instituted efforts to Fix our Roads, advocated at the Local, State, and Federal levels to ensure our residents receive Safe Water, and advanced Transparency policies to Record City Meetings and Open the Checkbook to Public Inspection. If you give me the honor of representing you again for the next 2 years as City Councilor At-Large, I will continue to be an advocate for you on all issues large and small. If an issue is important to you, I pledge to do my best to help you with it. I am always willing to listen and will continue working hard to ensure you receive strong representation.
What positive effect have you had on the city?
I am addressing the issues most important to Westfield’s citizens.
I have fought for Westfield to receive help with the Water Contamination crisis from the State and Federal governments. I’ve gone to Boston many times to advocate for Westfield with the EPA, MassDEP, and EEA and this year I went to Washington D.C. to ask for assistance in speeding up the Federal government’s process
I created the Road and Sidewalk Stabilization Fund, I work with developers and businesses to open up and expand in Westfield. I also host office hours and community meetings to inform residents and get feedback on issues and concerns important to them. I am a founding member and serve as vice-president of ArtWorks Westfield.
I am proud to call Westfield my adopted hometown. I will always be a cheerleader for our city and will work with anyone to move Westfield in a positive direction. Westfield is at a Crossroads, we can keep doing the same thing and get the same poor results, or we can take a new path. I choose the new path.
