WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee has slated a special review of the 2015 fiscal year budget proposed by Mayor Daniel Knapik at a Committee of the Whole session Wednesday.
Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe has scheduled a Committee of the Whole 6:30 p.m. session at which all City Council members can participate in the Finance Committee’s budget review.
Knapik has proposed a total budget of $131,959,521, which includes $117,700,842 in municipal department funding and $14,258,679 in special revenue, department with their own revenue sources, funding.
The Finance Committee conducted a series of budget review workshops this past week with city departments, including the Law, Fire, Police, Technology and Public Works department on Monday; the Purchasing, Engineering, Building and Parks & Recreation departments last Tuesday; the Assessors, Health, Collector, Airport, Community Development and City Advancement departments Wednesday; and the Personnel, Water & Wastewater and School departments Thursday night.
In addition to the three Finance Committee members, each of those workshop session were attended by four or five other council members including: James R. Adams, Ralph Figy, David A Flaherty, Dan Allie, Matthew VanHeynigen, and Mary O’Connell. Figy, Allie, Flaherty and VanHeynigen attended all four sessions this past week.
Keefe said the Committee as a Whole allows all councilors in attendance to participate in the discussion, although he gave that courtesy to councilors attending the departmental workshop, and more importantly to vote on motions to modify the Finance Committee’s version of the budget.
“Essentially it is similar to a City Council meeting with all members present, but the City Council President (Brent B. Bean II) cannot preside, so the first thing we’ll do is elect a chairman,” Keefe said. “In the past the Finance Committee chairman presided, but I may want to be able to participate to a greater extend in the discussion that the chairman usually does at the Committee of the Whole meetings.”
“The other major difference from a City Council meeting is that the Committee as a Whole is much more informal, the protocols of City Council meetings don’t apply,” Keefe said. “That’s to allow greater exchange of ideas.”
“I don’t anticipate that there will be more than a half dozen motions voted upon Wednesday night,” Keefe said. “Thursday the Finance Committee will bring the mayor’s budget out to the floor, and if motions approved Wednesday, I anticipate that there will be a motion to bring out the Finance Committee’s budget as modified by the Committee as a Whole.”
Keefe said that councilors still have the ability Thursday night to make motions to further amend the budget package, but those motions will need at least seven (7) affirmative votes to be approved.
