Ward 2 Councilor Mayor Ralph J. Figy. (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – Six items presented by Mayor Donald F. Humason Jr. to the City Council for immediate consideration Feb. 6 passed unanimously.
The first was approval of a grant of $10,000 from the Department of Veterans’ Services for the maintenance and repair of War Memorials in Westfield.
Finance Committee Chair Ralph J. Figy said the grant came out of last year’s budget, and he believed Humason was one of the authors for it. Figy also gave kudos to Westfield Veterans Grave Officer Gene H. Theroux for his work on cleaning the War Memorials, and also on cataloging and GPS marking of all of the veterans’ graves in the city.
Next approved was a grant of $30,000 from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness, to assess local vulnerability to climate change under the Planning Department. Figy said there is no local match, and this is money coming into the city.
Figy also gave credit to Cheryl McMordie, office manager in the Health Department for working on her own time to apply for a grant of $61,804 from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for mattress recycling, which was also approved.
At-large Councilor Dan Allie (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
Immediate approval for a $50,000 appropriation from Free Cash to the Law Department engendered a little more discussion. Figy said the request is to pay for labor counsel and other costs for several pending litigation matters, including several scheduled for Feb. 12. He said the Law Department has scraped their budget, and needs the funding to go forward.At-large Councilor Dan Allie asked whether the dates had been anticipated.
Figy responded that as Acting Mayor, he wasn’t allowed to approve certain transactions, which are just being caught up by Humason. “It is time sensitive,” Figy said, before the unanimous vote.
“On behalf of the Fire Commission, the Fire Department and the Law Department, thank you for swift action on this,” Figy said following the vote.
Personnel Action Chair Cindy C. Harris presented the next request for immediate approval for a revised job description for the airport manager. Harris said very minor changes had been made by the Airport Commission to the job description previously approved by the City Council when they hired Eric Billowitz. Billowitz left the position in January.
At-large Councilor Cindy C. Harris (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
Harris said the airport manager is appointed for a three-year term by the Airport Commission, and must have a bachelor’s in airport management, engineering or business administration, five years of airport management experience, and must be certified by the FAA and MassDOT Aeronautics Department.
Before the unanimous vote, Harris said immediate consideration is necessary so that the city can move forward with the job search.
Figy said the final request for immediate consideration was to authorize the mayor to execute the preservation restriction on the Westfield Athenaeum, which he said protects the Community Preservation funds granted to the library for the current remodel. He said it’s a standard on the deed.
“Did we tell the mayor he only gets 10 immediate considerations a year,” asked Allie jokingly.
Figy responded, “He’s new,” before the resolution was approved.
