WESTFIELD – Dave Billips submitted his resignation as Department of Public Works interim superintendent Friday morning following the City Council vote to refer the proposed ordinance consolidating public works functions Thursday night.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty made the motion to refer the issue back to the Legislative & Ordinance Committee, an amendment to L&O Chairman Ralph Figy’s motion to give the ordinance a second reading, typically followed by the final passage vote.
“I think it’s apparent after last night that there isn’t support to do it,” Billips said Friday morning. “It’s clear to me that they won’t support the consolidation financially. There is that saying you have to spend money to make money, in this case you have to spend money to save money.”
“There were a lot of misconceptions last night, people asking the same questions they’ve asked before and that we’ve answered,” Billips said.
Flaherty initiated the discussion on that ordinance because of an ordinance amendment sent to the City Council under the Communication from the Mayor section of the agenda listed as Item I. Mayor Daniel M. Knapik submitted an amendment to “remove a portion of the Park & Recreation Ordinance that has been incorporated into the new DPW consolidation ordinance.”
Flaherty argued that “before we vote on the DPW consolidation, we should hold onto this issue,” and then made a motion to table the DPW consolidation ordinance until the next City Council meeting.
“We just got this amendment (Item I) tonight to change the (proposed DPW) structure at the recommendation of the Law Department,” he said. “We can wait two weeks and just do it right.”
Figy said that the DPW ordinance should be approved and that making a significant change would require more than two weeks because it would have to go through the entire council review process starting with a new first reading of the ordinance, meaning that the consolidation ordinance would not be put into place until the end of April or perhaps May.
“You’re putting the cart before the horse,” Figy said. If you don’t create the new (DPW) ordinance, you don’t have to amend the existing (Parks & Recreation) ordinance.”
At-large Councilor Brent B. Bean II said “my problem is that most of the time when we have these ordinances, people holding up the ordinance are against it. We can simply approve this (DPW consolidation) ordinance then strip the (Park & Recreation) part out.”
“We have an issue where we have someone with strong management capabilities (referring to Billips). This is something we need to do. We’ve prolonged this enough. If you don’t like this ordinance vote ‘no’.”
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said the problem with the DPW consolidation is that it puts the Parks & Recreation into the DPW structure.
“State law requires a separate Park & Recreation Department,” O’Connell said. “IF we vote tonight (on the DPW consolidation), the city will be in violation of state law until we can vote (on Item I).”
Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul Sr., urged the council to approve the DPW consolidation to allow Billips more time to create a consolidated department budget.
“I propose we move the consolidation foreword so it’s more settled at budget setting time and send Item I to the L&O,” Paul said.
The consolidation budget would move current personnel among the Public Works, Water Resource, Sewerage Treatment and Parks & Recreation departments. It would also move four DPW employees, now being paid from the stormwater fee into a consolidated sewer/wastewater treatment division.
It has been the goal of the council to remove those salaries from the stormwater fee and use the money for their intended purpose: improving the city’s stormwater system. The salaries of the four employees have consumed the bulk of the fee revenue, leaving little money for stormwater improvements. The Council has also objected to those stormwater salaries because the employees are involved in DPW work, such as snow and ice removal, for nearly half of the year.
