WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said this morning that he will submit an appropriation to the City Council at its next meeting to fund the director’s position of the newly created Department of Facilities Management.
Knapik said that he will request the City Council to approve a transfer of $40,000 from the recently certified Free Cash account to the mayor’s full-time salary account.
The new department head job, if the salary funding is approved by the council, will be advertised in early December with the goal of having a person in place by February 1, 2015.
“Once we get a supervisor hired, the first goals of will be to have that person become integrated with the Siemens’ controller system and with the maintenance needs of city departments,” Knapik said.
The department and director’s position were created to give the city the ability to operate the energy-efficient technology and equipment installed in municipal and school buildings under a contract with Siemens.
Currently the city is paying Siemens $326,167 for the first year of a contract to provide those maintenance services. That contract has an additional four option years, a cost the city seeks to avoid by acquiring expertise within the new department.
“We would own and run the physical plant,” Knapik said.
Knapik said that he is seeking the $40,000 appropriation because the salary requirements of the new maintenance director are unknown.
“That $40,000 gives me flexibility in negotiations, but we don’t know what the (annual) salary will be,” Knapik said. “The idea is to have the person learn the Siemens control systems in the 2015 fiscal year and then to begin to take over those functions in the 2016 fiscal year budget.”
“That person would run the vendor network and establish a work-order system for maintenance of municipal and school buildings, facilities and equipment,” Knapik said.
