Westfield Mayor Brian P. Sullivan (WNG file photo)
WESTFIELD – Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said he has been working on the Fiscal Year 2020 budget non-stop. “Now that the Westfield 350 celebration is over, we can do more,” he said this week.
Sullivan said with the Senate and House close to negotiating a final FY20 budget for the state, the city can start to at least become comfortable with their numbers, and put the conservative projections for state aid to Westfield in the budget.
Sullivan said they are pretty well done with the expense side of the budget, and are in the second round of mayoral cuts for city departments.
One area that is not complete is union contracts. Sullivan said they are 80% of the way through negotiations, but that the last 20% is the hardest. All but a couple of the unions are on the same three-year cycle, a practice established under former Mayor Daniel Knapik.
“I’d rather do contracts every year,” Sullivan said.
The Mayor is hoping to complete the negotiations and have hard numbers out of the agreements made by the end of May, when Council President Ralph J. Figy said he would like to start the budget process.
“We’re doing very well,” Sullivan said about the overall picture. He said the city’s bond rating remains at AA+, where it was under Knapik, and which Sullivan said he has maintained. “The financial picture is good and getting better,” he said, adding that the bond rating has ramifications for the city’s ability to borrow funds.
Sullivan said with the additional money from the state for the School Department, the city is able to put more of an emphasis on the Department of Public Works and Engineering budgets for complete streets. He said most of the increases, which he anticipates to be between 2 and 2.5 percent overall are for people and equipment.
One of the major projects in the budget is a traffic light at Union Street and Springdale Road, which will be a city project, and an expensive one. Other big projects for FY20 include major road repairs, sewers and pumping stations, all of which he said are matters of public safety. Sullivan said he met with department heads this week to identify and map out Chapter 90 projects in the budget.
“This is a big year for the schools to have no increase. With severance coming off the board, the decisions we made a couple of years ago are (helping),” Sullivan said, referring to the negotiated phasing out of teacher’s severance pay, which will be completely eliminated by 2023.
Sullivan said he will present a balanced budget to the City Council, and he plans to appear before them and explain all of the changes. “It’s the job of the City Council to look at it and fiscally cut if (needed). I feel really good about the budget we’re going to submit,” he said.
Sullivan also talked about several tax revenue generating projects which recently went through City Council approval, including Toll Brothers, Inc. and James Hardie Building Products. “The whole design of my administration has been to build those bridges. It’s happening now, and starting to come to fruition,” he said.
“It’s been a phenomenal year, and even bigger weekend,” Sullivan said, referring to the culmination of a year-long celebration of the City of Westfield’s 350th anniversary. “There was no better job than being a mayor during these events. It’s a tribute to the city as a whole,” he said, and thanked the Westfield 350 committee and the community-at-large for their hard work and support over the last year.
