WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Finance Committee held a discussion with City Engineer Mark Cressotti on current and future capital improvement projects. The committee will meet with city department heads in the coming weeks on finding ways to funds the projects and to find any savings.
Cressotti told the committee several outstanding issues need to be addressed. He said Mayor Brian J. Sullivan wants to “invigorate” the city’s Achievement Management System. The system presently has a funding deficiency.
He recommended a past funding practice promoted by former Mayor Richard K. Sullivan, to float a 5-year, $6 million bond for road and paving projects, which would supplement state highway of Chapter 90 funding.
Within that five-year window, the annual appropriations tied to pavement management would be factored into the city’s annual budget, he said.
Annually, the budget comes up short on road projects, particularly paving streets, said Cressotti.
“It needs to be an annual line item,” he said.
The bonding offers a less painful approach and allows the city to build up a yearly reserve. Infrastructure improvement bonds can be stretched out over 20 years, according to Cressotti. A road project can cost a few million dollars or exceed $10 million, he said.
Cressotti plans a “cocktail” or creative approach to funding. For example, a portion of funding can be set aside for sewer work on Paper Mill Road. A percentage could be used to shore up and repave the roadway without seeking a separate bond.
Committee Chairman Robert A. Paul Sr., said his concerns centered around income and non-income driven projects. While sewer work can be funded by revenues collected from sewer use fees, road projects are usually paid for from local, state or federal sources.
State and federal highway projects derive income from a gasoline tax or other revenue sources. No such allowance exist for the City of Westfield. Paul suggested taking a fraction of vehicle excise tax revenue and use the money for road improvement.
Currently, the vehicle excise tax gets transferred into the city’s General Fund.
“What the council needs to think about is income. Where are our income feeders?” asked Paul.
In less than two years, the city must negotiate employee contracts, which will likely trigger salary increases, he said.
Paul added the council recently approved around $4.5 million in bonding related to non-income capital projects or expenditures.
Committee Member Dave Flaherty favored long term planning on capital projects, with particular attention paid to what projects are worth paying for in the next decade, and “without pushing” the costs onto future taxpayers.
He said the city plans for $7 million in bonding annually. When the bonding fell short, the money was placed into a protected cash reserve account to bolster the Stabilization Fund.
Based on “good cash management” and recommendations from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, five percent of a revenue stream can be committed to long-term bond payments, according to Flaherty.
“If we get down to $6 million, we should be saving that money and not be giving it out to departments so they can give their employees more raises,” he said.
Cressotti emphasized that even a school building project can spike costs, including the need for new water and sewer infrastructure, replacing streets and sidewalks, and installing traffic signals and crosswalks.
“For the projects to advance, I need money today,” he said.
