MAYOR DANIEL M. KNAPIK
WESTFIELD – Daniel M. Knapik is seeking another term as Westfield’s mayor, looking to continue his fiscal program of addressing the city’s capital needs while also continuing efforts to bolster a financial buffer.
Knapik said that four years ago he chose to campaign against an incumbent mayor because he felt the city was not properly positioned to deal with the outfall of the Great Recession.
“City business was not being addressed,” Knapik said of his decision to challenge former Mayor Michael Boulanger. “There were a lot of kick-the-can issues.”
“I had some experience working on the City Council,” Knapik said. “I didn’t feel that the city finances were adequate to deal with the on-coming recession.”
“We didn’t have the levee bond in place even after FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) warned us that if we didn’t meet their statutory requirements, there would be no flood insurance for thousands of city residents and businesses,” Knapik said.
“The condition of our schools and city buildings was atrocious due to decades of deferred maintenance,” he said. “We had other city’s equipment in our fire stations.”
“Mike Roeder’s philosophy is not to spend a nickel to maintain our city,” Knapik said. “I’ll continue to take those challenges and move forward. You can see the progress that’s been made in every corner of the city.”
“We’ve fixed all of the buildings in the city’s inventory,” Knapik said. “The energy efficiency investment is saving us thousands of dollars a year, our trash trucks are not leaking in front of residents’ homes, the Fire Department fleet has been upgraded.”
“We’ve knocked down a dozen blighted buildings including five downtown, the Thomas Street parking lot has been expanded and renovated,” Knapik said. “The Chapman Playground is renovated and we’re positioned to begin construction of a new senior center next summer, releasing bids for that work next March.”
“I think people have a clear choice, a reactionary versus progressive approach to economic development,” he said. “We’re on the way to a new economic development concept that will bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in new taxes.”
“We used about $100,000 of city money to purchase and clear the Elm Street site, we’ll use federal funds to acquire the Flahive Building and state funding to build a parking garage,” Knapik said.
“We have more money in the bank and the highest credit rating the city has had in years and have still done our ‘to-do’ list of building improvements,” he said.
“The city has $1,242,261 in stabilization on Jan. 1, 2009, As of January 2013 it had $5,083,952 and the number projected for January 2014 is $5,721,090,” said Knapik. “The free cash number, when certified by the DOR (Department of Revenue)in November, will be another $3 million and we have used $900,000 of that stabilization and free cash to reduce tax level increases.”
The City Council has twice approved property tax increases of 1 1/2 percent, using stabilization funding to reduce the tax levy in the 2012 and 2013 tax cycle. The council will vote in November on the tax rate for the current 2014 budget.
“The four year average increase in the budget has been 2 percent,” Knapik said. “The fixed cost increase in the budget is $2 million a year. A 2 1/2 percent increase in the tax levy is about $2.5 million in new revenue.”
