Councilors Morganelli, Surprise, Allie and Harris discuss the process at Tuesday’s failed budget review meeting. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – At a public hearing on the budget Tuesday, the majority of residents who spoke urged the City Council to make cuts and lower taxes in the budget review scheduled to follow.
However, at the budget review, At-large Councilor David Flaherty said as a point of order that the meeting had been incorrectly posted as a Special City Council meeting and not as a Finance Committee Meeting of the Whole, and therefore could not function as a Finance Committee meeting that recommended cuts to the City Council.
“Our rules say, right now it’s in the jurisdiction of Finance. This is a Special City Council Meeting of the Whole,” Flaherty said. He said the Finance Committee hadn’t met to recommend cuts.
“This is the meeting that we do that,” responded At-large Councilor John J. Beltrandi, III, who was chairing the meeting as a member of Finance in the absence of Brent B. Bean, II.
Last year, on June 28, 2018, there was a Special City Council meeting scheduled, with the agenda item Budget Workshop/Committee of the Whole to review fiscal year 2019 budget, language identical to the agenda of this year’s Special City Council meeting, Budget Workshop/Committee of the Whole to review the fiscal year 2020 budget.
However, Flaherty’s other point was that the Finance Committee had not met to discuss cuts to recommend to the City Council following its department hearings. Last year, the Finance Committee met on June 26, 2018 to discuss fiscal year 2019 budget cuts following its hearings.
Beltrandi asked for a motion to suspend the rules to operate as a Committee of the Whole, in order to continue the meeting. The motion failed 6 to 6, with Councilors Beltrandi, Burns, Figy, Harris, LeFebvre and Onyski voting yes, and Councilors Allie, Babinski, Emmershy, Flaherty, Morganelli and Surprise voting no.
After the vote, At-large Councilor Nicholas J. Morganelli, Jr. said when he was on the Council in 2010 and 2011, the Finance committee recommended cuts to the City Council. “I would also note that the Finance Committee chair is not here,” he said.
Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski asked why Flaherty had not brought up this point before the meeting. “You knew this weeks ago,” he said, adding that he had thrown a wrench in the process. He also said that Flaherty had not attended any of the Finance Committee’s department hearings.
Flaherty said he had spoken to the chair of Finance, and had not attended the meetings because the Law Department had given the opinion that councilors attending subcommittee meetings could not engage in debate.
“We don’t have to pass this budget by June 30. We have 45 days and can go on a monthly (one-twelfth) budget. The Finance Committee should do their job,” Flaherty said. After the meeting, he added that the Council had 45 days to recommend cuts and vote on the budget before the Mayor’s proposed budget would take effect.
Ward 1 Councilor Mary Ann Babinski said she had voted against suspending the rules and continuing, because she felt the process had been rushed. “Would I want this to be done today, and based on some rushing through, not doing our due diligence. This is not the night to start doing major cuts,” she said, adding, “Last year, we did get recommendations from the Finance Committee.”
At-large Councilor Cindy C. Harris noted that the Finance Committee had reviewed the department budgets, and several councilors attended all of the meetings. “They did a very good job,” she said.
“They haven’t made any recommendations,” Flaherty said.
At-large Councilor Dan Allie, who serves as a member of the Finance Committee and who chaired it last year, agreed that the committee had not met to recommend cuts and go line by line through the budget. Allie said last year they also skipped the step of asking councilors for their suggestions and opinions.
Allie said the budget was presented late, and union contracts are not yet settled.
At-large Councilor Matthew Emmershy said last year the Finance Committee had to go through the budget and make their cuts, and make a justification on why they made those cuts as a three-person committee.
“There’s no reason to keep going back tooting our horns in fairness to the public, the department heads, to the Finance Committee meetings, and the councilors who attended those meetings. Stop what we’re doing right now – get out of this mucky situation. This was a misstep. The corrective action is the Finance Committee has to meet and make some recommendations,” Babinski said, before the meeting was adjourned.
The cancellation of Tuesday’s budget review also effectively cancels Thursday’s posted Special City Council meeting to finalize the budget for fiscal year 2020.
After the meeting, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said he did not believe Flaherty’s point of order was correct.
“The Finance Committee always enters into a Meeting of the Whole and the entire City Council is allowed to participate,” Sullivan said. As far as the posting, he said he would have to check and see how it had been posted in the past.
“There’s internal City Council issues that have gotten personal with each other, that have now affected the entire city, and that’s extremely unfortunate,” Sullivan said. “Actually, what happened (tonight) had nothing to do with the city budget, but it will be affecting department heads that are trying to manage their personal budgets, and now don’t have any idea how to do it,” he added.
Sullivan commended the department heads who showed up to talk about their budgets, and the residents who showed up for the public hearing. “They (City Council) did a disservice to everyone in the room. Nothing was accomplished,” he said.
Sullivan also wasn’t sure whether a one-twelfth budget will take effect; however, if it does, he said it will cost the taxpayers more money to figure out one-twelfth of such items as payroll and insurance, and will also disturb planned city construction projects.
“What do you do for the first twelfth – do you do any roads,” the mayor said, giving the example of a three-month road project that can’t start.
“It’s disappointing, to say the least,” Sullivan said.
