ROBERT PAUL
WESTFIELD – Two City Council members sponsored a motion Thursday to assess a reorganization of the city’s technology operations and broadband infrastructure.
Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul, Sr., and At-large Councilor Brent B. Bean II proposed a motion “relative to the city to the Westfield Gas & Electric Department to provide technology services and broadband and to be consolidated into one network.”
The council voted to send that motion to its Governmental Relations Committee for further assessment.
The co-sponsors of the motion have dramatically different histories with the WG&E: Paul served five terms as a member of the Municipal Light Board, while Bean is a frequent critic of the municipal utility.
Bean said yesterday that “on the surface (the motion) looks like a great idea, but I still have reservation. I’m interested in seeing how it could pan out.”
MARY L. O’CONNELL
The city’s Technology Department, located at a new facility at Barnes Regional Airport, currently provides technology services to all city departments, including the school department.
The WG&E department provides broadband communication throughout the city including most city departments. The utility department is operated on a business model used in the private sector to maintain a competitive rate structure, and is currently reassessing its broadband services.
The problem that Bean sees in the current structure is the cost of maintaining the city’s technology services because of cuts in local aid from the state and a drop in local tax receipts.
“We can’t keep up with technology because of the city doesn’t have the financial commitments needed to do that, but maybe the WG&E does,” Bean said. “I think this idea needs to be investigated to see if it could even work, if this is something the WG&E is interested in considering. We haven’t talk to them yet.”
In other business Paul made a motion to request the Law Department to investigate the possibility of moving the authority to set sewer rates, now held by the City Council, to the Water Commission. That motion was sent to the council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee and the Law Department.
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said she would vote against the motion.
“This is our responsibility. We’re the elected body. The Water Commission is appointed,” O’Connell said.
Bean said the motion is intended “to take the politics out of (setting sewer rates) a little bit by pushing the rate setting process to a committee that makes these decision on a day-to-day basis.
“I think it’s a smart move and that our (sewer) system will be healthier for it,” Bean said. “We haven’t increased a rate in years, then we see huge jumps that are not fair to people to see big increases in that rate, people who’d be better off seeing smaller increase more often so they can budget for that.”
