Late Ward 3 Municipal Light Board Commissioner, Jane Wenlsey.
WESTFIELD- The Municipal Light Board met Wednesday evening for its monthly meeting for the first time since the sudden passing of Jane Wensley, the Ward 3 Commissioner for the board.
Following a brief moment of silence for Jane, Jeff Wenlsey, Jane’s son, spoke during the public participation portion of the meeting. Jeff announced his intention to run for the Ward 3 seat left behind by his mother.
“I just came here tonight to express my intentions to run for my mother’s position on the board,” said Wensley, “I am asking for your support in the upcoming vote.”
Jane was in her fourth term on the Municipal Light Board when she passed away earlier this month.
The commissioners spoke about the idea of notifying City Council of their intention to fill the seat left by Jane, and that a vote should take place in an appropriate timeline. Ray Rivera, Ward 4 Commissioner, said that light board Chair, Robert Sacco, had to speak with the City Council President to decide on a date to do a joint meeting between the City Council and Municipal Light Board.
When the Ward 5 position was being filled in a joint session, there was a disagreement about the voting process and if candidates would be allowed to speak. Robert Sacco, Ward 6 Commissioner and Chairman of the board, suggested that the candidates be allowed to speak for a few minutes before going through a question and answer session from each board. Rivera added that the candidates should all be asked the same questions. For a person to be nominated, they must receive a certain number of signatures from their prospective constituents.
Jeff Wenlsey, son of the late Jane Wensley, announced his intention to fill the Municipal Light Board seat left behind by his mother.
The board discussed a year-end audit of Westfield Gas & Electric conducted by the firm, Meyers Brothers Kalicka. Howard Cheney, the director of the firm’s Auditing and Accounting Division, spoke about the recent report by the Massachusetts Inspector General regarding sick time payouts for retiring light plant employees.
Cheney said that the inspector general’s investigation began in 2010 and ended in 2016. It was started when questions were raised about the South Hadley light plant’s policies. The Inspector General looked at retirement payouts for unused sick leave of most of the state’s municipal light plants and gave a set of recommendations to lower the burden on ratepayers. The light plants of Westfield, Taunton, and Reading were listed as the three municipalities with the most amount of sick leave payouts for retiring employees.
Beth Burns, the Human Resources Coordinator and Record Manager at Westfield Gas & Electric, said that the plant already met the recommendations given by the Inspector General. The six-year period that was reviewed was an unusual time for WG+E, according to Burns, as nearly 50 percent of their work force reached retirement eligibility in that time, causing their sick leave payouts to notably increase. The payouts are also only available to employees who retire, not those who are terminated or leave the company for other employment.
Burns noted that because WG+E is able to hire multi-skilled employees, the staffing levels can be kept down, lowering expenditures and the overall burden on ratepayers. The report maintained that there should be transparency in how light plants give sick leave payouts and how it effects the ratepayers. This includes having the General Manager, Tony Contrino, regularly report to the light board. Contrino is present at most Municipal Light Board meetings, including Wednesday’s monthly meeting.
“The report inappropriately provides the impression that WG+E employee benefit levels are kept secret behind closed doors, but this is not the case,” said the release, “Prior to negotiation sessions, the Municipal Light Board is asked for input regarding any key contract items they believe should be addressed during negotiations. The General Manager then directly negotiates with the bargaining unit and once the bargaining body has ratified the contract, the final agreement is brought to the Municipal Light Board for their signature as well, finalizing the document.”
After the document is signed, the agreement is given to the City Auditor who makes sure each employee is reimbursed appropriately for their earned benefits. The process would be entered into public record should it be discussed during a Municipal Light Board meeting during an open session. One member of the Municipal Light Board is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. One City Council member acts as a liaison to the board as well and has access to records of expenditures by Westfield Gas and Electric.
During the meeting, it was noted that current rates for residential customers of WG+E were at least 20 percent below the state average.
The light board then discussed the possibility of recording future meetings on video. Robert Sacco suggested forming a committee to go over the logistics of installing a video recording system in the meeting room. City Councilor Matt Emmershy, who was present at the meeting, has taken to frequently live-streaming some meetings on Facebook Live. He said that the Municipal Light Board would be looking at spending $4,800 at most to set up a system to record and upload the videos of meetings.
“Some of the videos on the city’s server are upwards of 700 views,” said Emmershy, “The demand is there. Some of the streams I have done have hit 3,000.”
Emmershy said he finds that the city committees and councils that already have their meetings recorded have embraced the change. He noted that it can even make it easier to take down the meeting minutes afterwards. Emmershy suggested streaming some upcoming meetings online to gauge public interest.
The commissioners then talked about their existing release criteria for executive session minutes. On a quarterly basis, they go through the existing minutes and determine which topics are appropriate to be released. In executive session, the municipal light board often speaks about trade secrets or competitively-sensitive information that could be detrimental to WG+E to discuss it publicly.
Sacco suggested going back through the existing executive session minutes to determine which have not been released, and what could be released without negatively impacting the light plant’s strategic plan. Rivera asked if the entirety of the minutes of each session had to be release, to which he was informed by multiple commissioners that they can be redacted if need be.
