WESTFIELD – There is typically some complaint to the use of immediate consideration at the City Council meeting, but last night it was the “soup de jour” as the council members moved to act on pending issues before beginning their six-week summer recess.
At-large Councilor Brent B. Bean II, chairman of the council’s Personnel Action Committee, typically treats commission and board reappointment petitions differently than first-time appointments, arguing that candidates for reappointment are known to the City Council members and do not need to be interviewed, unless a councilor makes a specific request.
Other councilors disagree and would prefer that all candidates for boards and commissions be interviewed, even for reappointment. Mary O’Connell of Ward 4 in particular has butted heads with Bean on his approach.
Last night, the council meeting was rescheduled because of the Thursday commemoration of July 4th, and Bean requested immediate consideration of two reappointments, arguing that both replaced board and commission members as terms were expiring. Richard Meyer was reappointed to the Westfield Housing Authority and Edward Diaz was reappointed to the License Commission.
Bean argued that Diaz has only served a few months on the commission, which ironically was meeting at the Middle School staff cafeteria just a few hundred feet from the council session, and that there was no need to interview either candidate again so soon after the appointments.
Both appointments were unanimously approved by 13-0 votes of the City Council. The two board members were given a term that will expire on the first Monday of June, 2018.
Ward 1 Councilor Christopher Keefe, the Legislative & Ordinance Chairman, did not let the dust settle from Bean’s motions before he also offered a motion for immediate consideration of a traffic study proposed by the city’s Traffic Commission related to the Western Avenue improvements intended to relieve bottlenecks at choke points where vehicles, attempting to make left turns, stop traffic.
The commission has requested City Council approval to do a traffic study of Kensington Avenue and Broadway as related to the Western Avenue improvements and deal with traffic congestion as motorists enter or exit those streets.
O’Connell initially objected to immediate consideration, which requires unanimous approval and wanted a further explanation of how the study would operate. O’Connell deferred to Ward 3 Councilor Ann Callahan after it was decided that the streets are currently in Callahan’s ward. That area of the city has moved back and forth between Wards 3 and 4 as precinct lines are changed to reflect population growth in the city.
Callahan said the traffic study was discussed at a recent Western Avenue project public meeting as a mean of alleviating cross-traffic congestion between those two streets, popular traffic shortcuts, and Lloyds Hill.
The Traffic Commission has proposed making Broadway a one-way street north, from Granville Road to Western Avenue, and Kensington Avenue one-way south from Western Avenue.
The Traffic Commission is comprised of Cressotti, Chief Police John Camerota, Public Works Superintendent Jim Mulvenna, and two citizens, Thomas Liptak appointed to represent the interests of the business community, and retired police sergeant and traffic bureau supervisor Brian Boldini appointed to represent the interests of residents.
The Council approved a 90-day traffic study that will temporarily make the two residential streets one-way to determine the impact on both residential and through traffic. The study requires a 30-day public notification period before it can be implemented.
