WESTFIELD – The City Council unanimously voted Thursday night to approve two resolutions to allow the city to use bond money approved last October to finance the lease-to-own agreements for a new fire platform truck and several solid waste trucks.
While the vote was unanimous, there was some discord over the fact that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik submitted the resolutions authorizing the lease deals through an immediate consideration request, a process that chafes some council members because of the lack of time to review such requests.
An immediate consideration action request is dealt with directly from the council floor, rather than the tradition avenue of sending the issue to committee, giving council members time to research the issue and perform “due diligence” before voting on that issue.
“I really don’t like immediate consideration,” At-large Councilor David Flaherty said. “We’re committing dollars for several years going forward, burdening those future years.”
The City Council approved the funding on Oct. 18, 2012. The city has a seven-year lease-to-own agreement for a new platform truck, with annual payments of about $194,000 or about $1.4 million over the term of the lease agreement.
The present platform truck is 24 years-old and has become costly to keep in service. Fire Chief Mary Regan originally included the lease payment in her proposed 2013 fiscal year but, but that funding was eliminated to ballance the $121 million municipal budget.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik presented his FY2013 budget to the City Council in May. That budget included nearly $3.7 million in cuts from the requested departmental funding level, cuts needed to balance the 2013 which went into effect on July 1, 2012.
Knapik said that many of the capital purchases cut to balance the 2013 budget will be added as a priority to his supplemental funding appropriation request, which he submits to the City Council after the state Department of Revenue certifies the level of the city’s free cash. Free cash consists of unencumbered funds remaining in the prior fiscal year (2012) budget, and which cannot be appropriated until the DOR certifies that the city has no outstanding obligations from the 2012 fiscal year.
Free cash also includes revenue from the previous year which was not received until after June 30, the last day of the fiscal year.
Knapik said that his first free cash funding priority will be the initial payment for a platform truck, funding that Fire Chief Mary Regan has included in her 2013 budget proposal.
The council also approved a resolution to allow Knapik to sign lease agreements for replacement of the Department of Public Works solid waste collection trucks.
Knapik submitted an appropriation request of $111,059 to acquire two more refuse trucks through a five-year lease-to-own contract.
The refuse trucks cost $265,000 a piece and are equipped with an articulated arm and video camera technology to enable the operator to load the trash barrels without ever getting out of the truck cab.
