WESTFIELD – The City Council last night at a special session approved the 2016 fiscal year budget, which begins today, by a 9-3 vote and also made several transfers to erase the snow and ice deficit and fund the city’s health insurance trust fund.
At-large Councilor Dan Allie, At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty and Ward 1 Councilor Christopher Keefe voted against adopting the new budget because they felt that deeper cuts were in order to better position the city for the year.
The Council cut nearly $2 million Monday at a Finance Committee of the Whole, from the $120,649,353 budget submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik in early June. The council approved a budget of $118,771,183.88.
Knapik is also submitting a budget for revenue-generating departments of $14,377,390. State law requires that proposed budgets for those departments and revolving accounts not exceed the income revenue of the previous year, a mandate that cut an additional $4,019,077 from the budget proposed by those departments.
The Council was unanimous in its support of Knapik’s request to return $146,000 to the Police Department budget for three school resource officers. That funding had been eliminated from the department’s proposed budget.
The council balked at transferring $100,000 back to the school department and took no action on Knapik’s request to sweep any funds remaining in the free cash account into the city’s stabilization account, a typical transfer to keep those funds available.
The free cash account will be frozen, as of today, until the state Department of Revenue certifies that the city has no encumbered debt remaining from the 2015 fiscal year. That certification usually comes several months into the new fiscal year, meaning that money is not available.
Council President Brian Sullivan said that the request to sweep the free cash account did not come in the proper form which the council needed to take action.
The Council members also took no action on Knapik’s request to name City Treasurer Meghan Kane as the acting City Collector following the retirement of Michael McMahon later this week.
Keefe said that under City Charter, the Collector is a council appointment, not the mayor’s.
“This is about procedure, about authority under the City Charter,” Keefe said, then made a motion to put the acting appointment on the council’s July 2 agenda.
The council approved the use of $264,613.34 for repairs at Bullens Field, including new facilities, such as handicap ramps, to bring the field into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. That funding is coming from the bond premium obtained when the city sold a 50 million bond and can only be spent on one-time capital projects and purchases.
Flaherty said that the bond premium is about $550,000 and is not sufficient for the majority of the city’s capital improvement projects which typically cost millions.
“We have to find small projects like this (Bullens Field improvement) to spend that money,” Flaherty said.
Council President Brian Sullivan said the ADA component of the improvements “needs to be done” and that other components, such as lights, will be installed both at Bullens Field and the adjoining football fields “so it’s not just baseball.”
