WESTFIELD – Finance Committee Chairman Richard E. Onofrey said his committee is looking for every penny it can wring out of the proposed 2014 fiscal year budget as the departmental meetings continued last night.
Robert Callahan, director of the Veterans Affairs department said it is difficult to predict his annual level of service as new clients walk in or are referred to his office all the time. Callahan said a veteran can move to the city from another state and become qualified for benefits in one day.
When Onofrey asked if he could take $1,500 back from Callahan’s $4,000 supply budget, Callahan said that $3,000 is for cemetery flags and the rest for office supplies and services.
Callahan did say that under new state regulations, the city will receive a full reimbursement instead of the traditional 75 percent reimbursement.
“The goal in the state is to have no homeless veterans, so some things are being reimbursed at 100 percent,” Callahan said. “The biggest chunk of my budget is purchase of services spend on veterans’ benefits.”
Peter J. Miller Jr., Community Development Director said that his department budget is not increasing substantially.
“The expense side is pretty much level funded,” Miller said, but added news that the councilors were pleased to hear.
“This is the last year that general funds will be used for the Section 108 loan payment,” Miller said.
The city used the loan program nearly 20 years ago during the acquisition of the former H.B. Smith property on Main Street, the current site of the Stop & Shop supermarket. The city has used a combination of $75,000 from the general fund cash account and $100,000 from the community development block grant (CDBG) to repay the loan.
“We have a balloon payment in October of $372,000, but that money has been set aside in a trust for the payment,” Miller said. “The final Section 108 loan payment will be made on October of 2015, entirely from the CDBG funding.”
Building Superintendent Jon Flagg, who has several departments under his umbrella, presented budget details for Public Buildings and Property, as well as the Building Departments.
Flagg said that he is budgeting for several retirements, including Electrical and Wiring Inspector Larry Gresty and Principal Clerk Norma Heggie, who has been in that office for the past 28 years.
Flagg said that he anticipates a savings when a new electrical and wiring inspector is hired, but that may not be true of replacing Heggie.
“I anticipate a $16,000 because Larry is at the top of the (pay structure) and the new guy will start at the bottom,” Flagg said. “The Personnel Department Director (Karen Decker) has three or four viable in-house candidates for the department’s position. So who ever comes in may be at the same step, but more than likely in will come down.”
Licensing and Off-street Parking director Denise Carey and Brian Hoose, chairman of the Off-Street Parking Commission, said parking permit fees generate about $35,000 a year in revenue, while the department’s maintenance expenses are about $32,000 a year.
Carey said that initially the parking lot snow removal line item was going to be transferred to the department’s budget, but that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik decided to keep that expense in the Public Works budget because it can deficit spend for snow and ice removal, a public safety budget exemption allowed by the state.
Carey said that she will also have a one-time $15,000 expense to purchase and install a new machine to issue short-term parking permits. The current machine is no loner reliable.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti was also the target of Onofrey’s effort to squeeze funding from the Engineering Department where funding is often carried for several years, inflating line items, while projects go through various stages before a shovel is even pout into the ground.
Onofrey was eying Cressotti’s purchase of services line item, which Cressotti defensed. That line item is used for software licenses, technology as well as short term expenses.
Cressotti said that line item is where the department is paying for electrical power at the recently completed parks along Elm and Main streets. Those construction projects have not be officially turned over to the city by the state Department of Transportation.
“We’re carrying that line item to get the parks up and running to have an understanding of what those costs will be annually before those parks are handed off to the Park and Recreation Department,” Cressotti said.
Council on Aging Executive Director Tina Gorman was questioned as to why her full-time salary account is increasing and her part-time salary decreasing. Gorman said the changes reflect the current needs of the city’s senior citizens and the department.
Gorman said that she originally created two part-time positions, one as a senior benefit coordinator and the other as an activity’s director. Gorman said that she is cutting the activity’s salary and downgrading that position to that of an activity aide, while she is increasing the benefits coordinator position to full time.
Gorman said that she is currently performing the duties of the activity’s director, with an assistant who would fill the aide position, while the demand for senior benefits has increased so substantially that it justifies a full-time position.
Gorman said that when a new senior center is constructed she will reassess the needs for a licensed or certified activities director.
