BRIAN P. SULLIVAN
WESTFIELD – The City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance which will create a new centralized municipal maintenance department, but indicated there will be change, some substantial, before the vote to give final approval for the ordinance.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik submitted the proposed Department of Facilities Management to protect the $44 million investment the city has made to improve energy efficiency and to refurbish a number of city and School Department buildings.
City Council members initiated the process of adopting an ordinance to create a central maintenance department in March of 2012 when six members sponsored a motion requesting the Law Department and the council’s L&O draft an ordinance establishing a new municipal maintenance department.
JAMES R. ADAMS
The motion, unanimously approved, germinated at the joint L&O and Finance committees meeting conducted on Thursday, March 8 with consultants working on the city’s $12 million Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) green energy program and the proposed $17 million energy efficiency bond program. Several members of the committees asked for plans to maintain municipal and school buildings being repaired and upgraded through that spending.
Last night, a number of council members raised issues of concern, ranging from how the department will operate, how it will be funded, and if the city can legally take control of maintaining School Department buildings, facilities and grounds.
L&O Chairman Brian Sullivan also raised the issue of how the proposed department will fit into the city organizational structure. Currently the proposed ordinance puts that department directly under the control of the executive branch, a fact which concerns a number of the councilors.
DAVID FLAHERTY
Sullivan said the six department heads attended the L&O session, which was also attended by a majority of council members, to discuss issues such as the new department’s funding and personnel.
“The department heads present Wednesday night said they all have funds in their budgets to transfer to the new department,” Sullivan said. “All those department heads are in agreement that this new department is needed. They are all experts in their specific field, but not in maintenance.”
“We’re just creating a department right now. We’re not filling any positions,” Sullivan said. “The PAC (Personnel Action Committee) has the proposed job description and are waiting for the department to be created before they can approve the description.”
At-large Councilor James R. Adams, an L&O member, agreed with Sullivan that changes will be made to the proposed ordinance.
“Things have to be tweaked, but we have to move forward,” Adams said. “We cut $330,000 from the budget (for maintenance contractor), so right now nobody is in charge of maintaining the millions of dollars of equipment we just put into our buildings.
“We did not maintain our buildings in the past. They were falling apart,” Adams said. “But now we have the opportunity to straighten that out.’
Adams said that the lack of maintenance in the past was due in part to each department’s annual budget and that the money was diverted from maintenance to other purposes such as salary to avoid layoffs. Funding in the maintenance department would be “pushed somewhere else” not applied specifically to maintenance work.
“With this Maintenance Department the money goes to address maintenance problems. That is the only place it can go,” Adams said.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty asked for an opinion from the Law Department about taking over the maintenance of school buildings and grounds.
“We have to make sure we can do that. My concern is that the School Department keeps cutting its maintenance budget,” Flaherty said. “There are also union issues.
“My goal is to save money for the city,” Flaherty said. “We have to maintain these buildings so we’re not doing this again in the future. We spent $40 million. We need to protect that (investment).”
“I’ll vote in support of the first reading, but I will oppose the second reading (and final passage) if we don’t have answers,” Flaherty said.
