WESTFIELD – The City Council voted Thursday night to hold up the reappointment of Meghan Kane as the city treasurer to allow time to review a possible merger of Kane’s office and that of collector following the retirement of Michael McMahon earlier this year.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty suggested that Kane’s reappointment needed to be discussed in light of the fact that there has been discussion about combining the Collector’s and Treasurer’s functions.
Kane replaced Treasurer Greg I. Kallfa, who when first hired performed the duties of both offices. The two posts were separated and McMahon was appointed to the City Collector post.
Ward 2 Ralph Figy said there is no evidence to indicate that combining the two posts is actually underway.
“I don’t think we’re near that point,” Figy said.
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said that the City Council has to adopt a mechanism for nomination, and renewal, of city officials appointmed specifically by the city’s legislative branch.
“It’s not right that they have to be self-nominated. We need some way of doing this differently,” O’Connell said.
In other business the City Council deferred action on several issues because there are only three more session in the current year.
Council President Brian Sullivan, who became acting mayor this morning following the resignation of three-term mayor Daniel M. Knapik, suggested that two public hearings be conducted after Inauguration Day when the composition of the council will change.
Councilors need to attend the public hearing to be eligible to vote. If the hearings were held now, several councilors would not be eligible after the end of the calendar year.
One of those issues is a petition submitted by Domus Inc., to change the zoning of a building on Dartmouth Street. That property currently has spilt zoning, part Residence B and Part Residence C. Domus is seeking to make the property residence C uniformly.
The other petition is to increase the number of motor vehicles at Brothers Custom Car Care Inc. at 202 Union Street.
The current license allows display and storage of 48 cars and the petitioner is seeking to incr4ease that number to 72 vehicles.
