WESTFIELD—As the Westfield City Council prepares to vote on a number of union contracts this Thursday, some dissension has been brewing in the council over approving the contracts.
The legislative and ordinance committee, who decides when the contracts can go before city council for approval, have seen Ward 4 City Councilor Mary O’Connell vote against sending the contracts forward, and also disagreeing with her fellow committee members Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy and Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski. In spite of O’Connell’s vote, the contracts are now going to city council for approval this Thursday, but the disagreement could possibly delay the approval of the contracts.
The contracts that are up for approval include ones for crossing guards, police patrolmen and superior officers, city clerical workers, fire department superior officers and municipal employees.
Councilor Mary O’Connell
“I had two concerns, how much is this contract going to cost and where is this money going to come from,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell, who stressed that she does support police, fire and all the employees who are up for contract renewal, is concerned that the raises—which are currently set at one percent this year, followed by 2.5 percent each of the next two years—could cost the taxpayers more and it is unclear to her how much the raises will total.
“Because of the step raises we don’t have a firm number, it’s hard to figure it out on our own,” O’Connell said. “Every year we deplete free cash, consistently raise real estate tax, I feel that we’re squeezing, squeezing the residents.”
Figy though, feels that this has already been discussed and determined when the budget was done, and that now the city council must simply decide on whether to approve the contracts, not the money.
“The mayor negotiates from the city with the various union leaders and comes up with a contract, the council then approves or disapproves of the contract,” Figy said. “We do a separate appropriation vote when we did the budget.”
Figy said that city council, since the budget was passed, already approved of the money for at least 2016 and 2017, so now they are just approving the contracts and not the finances.
Councilor Ralph Figy
He said that without approving the contracts now, it could hamper the relationships with the city and the unions, as well as cause a further delay in the process.
“If we disapprove then it has to go back to square one and they have to start all over again,” Figy said.
This could mean the city and the unions having to go back to negotiations and coming up with a new deal, he said.
O’Connell though, feels that the city council needs the financial information in order to do what is best for the residents.
“I’m just very, very concerned on out city’s finances, we are just running on empty,” she said. “I think it’s very irresponsible to approve unexpected finances without knowing.”
Mayor Brian Sullivan however, also wants the contracts OKed. He negotiated with the unions and said that they made several concessions to help to balance the budget going forward.
“The part that people don’t spend a lot of time on is the other side of negotiations, the concessions,” Sullivan said.
“They came to the table with some solutions, like the severance has been eliminated going forward,” he said. “It can save the city millions, but in the foreseeable future save the city hundreds of thousands.”
While the teacher’s union gave up their severances, other unions forewent their uniform budgets and each union is also expected to increase their insurance contributions going forward.
Mayor Brian Sullivan
Sullivan could not say for certain that taxes were not going to be raised next year, saying that there is more to the budget than salaries. However, with the concessions the groups made, Sullivan believes that this could help relieve the possibility of taxes going up again.
“I don’t want to say that taxes aren’t going up, but in signing these contracts we had that number in mind that was the main focus on both sides,” he said.
The city council is expected to vote on these contracts Thursday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. in city hall.
