WESTFIELD – Mayor Brian P. Sullivan presented his Fiscal year 2018 budget to the City Council at Thursday’s meeting. The presentation was pushed to the end of the meeting, until the Mayor had returned from the Westfield Technical Academy’s graduation. He commented on the flyovers at the graduation and the performance by the new WTA band, and commended the nearly 100 graduates.
Mayor Brian P. Sullivan presents his FY18 budget to the City Council Thursday. (Photo by Amy Porter)
“I started the week at Fort Meadow with their final singalong, and am ending it with two more graduations to go. Shows you how quickly life can go by,” Sullivan said. Still to go were the graduations for Westfield High School and St. Mary’s, both on Friday evening.
Returning to the budget, the mayor said he would be not be standing there and saying it was a “bare bones” budget, as has been stated the last few years. “We have changed the way we’re doing things,” Sullivan said. He indicated the $132,395,136 budget contained an increase of 2 ½% over last year, adding that he was presenting a budget of need for the next 5-10 years, and acknowledged the work of his department heads.
The mayor briefly highlighted some of the changes in the budget, which will be going to the Finance Committee for a series of meetings with department heads. He noted an increase of $50,000 in the auditor’s line, where the city will be trying to hire a CFO to oversee the Finance Department. “We won’t get there until mid-year. It should be a $100,000 position,” Sullivan said. He said the change is occurring due a retirement in the department.
Other positions to be added are a code enforcement officer, animal control officer, and a part-time position in Veteran’s Services. He also said there are unfilled positions in the budget, and department consolidations.
He also noted changes in Public Works, where he said director David Billips is being given the equipment and people to do more work in house. He said the additions will be offset by decreases in money paid to contractors.
Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul, Sr. asked what would be the net addition for the department, and Sullivan replied that it would be a small increase.
“Billips has done some really terrific engineering work. This is an opportunity to use Chapter 90 money on this team, instead of paying outrageous contractor fees,” Paul said.
City Councilors Dan Allie, Dave Flaherty, Mary Ann Babinski and Andrew K. Surprise during a pause in the meeting Thursday. (Photo by Amy Porter)
There will also be changes in the sanitary landfill, which is under the Board of Health and in curbside collection, under the Department of Public Works. “This is cleaning up what we’re doing. Curbside pickup will never touch the transfer station,” Sullivan said. He added that the city had sent out RFPs to sell the Twiss Street landfill, but they didn’t come in high enough. He said Board of Health director Joseph Rouse pledged to put in a better effort to manage the landfill. “We’re losing money up there. We can’t afford to do that,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said some of the bigger cuts are in the Technology Department, which are not as drastic as they appear due to money coming in to the city from other sources, and the radio project which would not be paying out until 2019.
At-large Councilor Matthew T. VanHeynigen asked Sullivan if he had any comments about the school budget.
The mayor replied that the school budget was done completely differently this year, initially coming in at $2.9 million over last year. He said at the end of a series of public hearings and meetings, the budget is now at a $700,000 increase, helped by an increase in Chapter 70 funds.
“It’s a solid budget. It is an increase,” Sullivan said, adding it was almost impossible not to have with rules and regulations. He said Westfield Public School superintendent Stefan Czaporowski had a demand to look at reducing the administration, which he did, starting at the top down.
Mayor Sullivan said that he will be accompanying the department heads to all of the Finance Committee meetings on the budget. Paul then said that dates have been set for the budget hearings.
On June 12, beginning at 5 p.m., the committee will meet with Information Technology, the Fire Department, Police Department, Emergency Management, the Airport, and Finance Departments.
On June 13, beginning at 6 p.m., the committee will meet with Engineering, Public Works, the Health Department and Sanitary landfill.
On June 15, prior to the City Council meeting, there will be a presentation by the School Department at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers. Paul requested that all city councilors come to the school department presentation.
On June 19, the Finance Committee will meet to put its findings together. On June 21 at 6 p.m., there will be a public forum on the budget, following by a meeting of the whole City Council at 7:30 p.m. The council will then rejoin on June 22 at 7 p.m. for a vote on the budget.
