BRIAN P. SULLIVAN
WESTFIELD – At-large City Councilor Brian Sullivan appears to have delivered on plans to bring a new cooperative approach to the city’s legislative branch as City Council President.
Sullivan was elected by the council members to serve in that capacity for the 2013 council session, partly on the hope that his “old school” approach would reduce some of the rancor between some members of the council.
The Thursday session appeared to be on course for further confrontation, as councilors began to review motions, orders and resolutions, with several motions, based on city charter, apparently aided by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik’s corner office.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty sponsored two motions seeking more information about candidates nominated for boards and commissions and confirmed by the council. The charter describes that process as a “certificate of appointment, signed by the mayor and filed with the City Clerk” as part of the nomination procedure.
Flaherty also requested a Law Department opinion on the ability of the City Council to reject a nominee on the grounds that the candidate lacks sufficient expertise, education, training or experience to perform the duties of that office.
Both of Flaherty’s motion were based directly on language from the City Charter and are intended to give the council’s Personnel Action Committee more information while reviewing candidates for appointment to board, commission and department head positions.
“For the past two years I’ve been asking for information (as part of the nomination process),” Flaherty said. “People volunteer for these boards and commission, because of a desire to serve their community, but don’t always have the expertise to do the job.
“Our obligation is to ask if a candidate is qualified,” Flaherty said. “Do we have the right to reject a candidate if they are not an expert or have the training?”
Sullivan said that when he initially saw Flaherty’s motions, he contacted PAC Chairman Brent B. Bean II, to look into the motions and to provide a historical perspective on the prior use of certificates of appointment.
“I asked Brent to see if it is something we should be doing,” Sullivan said this morning. “Brent and (City Clerk) Karen Fanion found that certificates of appointment have been provided in the past,” Sullivan said. “They found one from Mayor Alice Burke from the mid 1950s, and from other mayors.”
“So Brent and I talked to Dan (Knapik) who agreed to provide that information, justification as to why he is putting a name forward, to the council and PAC as part of his letter of nomination,” Sullivan said. “This was something that could be done with discussion to open lines of communication. It worked for this issue.”
“It is hard to fill some of these vacancies on boards and commissions. People are not banging down the doors to serve,” Sullivan said.
In some cases, such as the Planning Board, appointment is further complicated by the fact that Knapik has to find residents of specific wards to fill vacancies, as required by City Charter. And there is the issue of training and expertise.
“Do we want a Planning Board that is filled with developers and builders, or regular citizens, to be looking at special permit applications and zoning issues?” Sullivan questioned.
