Moreau seeks to change tone of City Council

Date: 1/11/2012

Jan. 11, 2012

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — Newly elected City Council President George Moreau said that he is holding out an olive branch to Mayor Michael Bissonnette.

Moreau told Reminder Publications that one of his priorities is “to see if we can’t get some of the bad blood out of the [city council]. I’m looking for more cooperation between the city council, the mayor and all of the departments.”

“It can’t always be one way,” he added. “It can’t always be his way or our way.”

Bissonnette recently hosted a unity breakfast event at which he admitted that actions he took exacerbated the hostility between his office and the city council.

This is the second time in his political career that Moreau has served as president — the first time was in 2000 during the administration of Richard Kos. He has been a member of the city council for 24 years and was on the School Committee for six years before that.

Moreau was one of the members of the council who voted for cutbacks of the mayor’s staff and for decreasing the hours of the city solicitor — a move that ignited conflict between Bissonnette and the council. The question of the city solicitor’s hours has come back up again and was referred to the Finance Committee. Moreau believes the group will have “some sort of dialogue and reach common ground.”

Moreau sees 2012 as a time of watching carefully what the city spends. He noted uncertainty about the amount of money the city would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Administration for the clean up after the Oct. 29, 2011 snowstorm as one of the reasons.

“Are we going to get some payment? Seventy-five percent? Twenty-five percent? Ten percent? Or nothing?” he asked.

Moreau continued, “We have to hold onto every penny we can.”

Speaking on future capital improvement projects, such as additional street repairs, Moreau said, “It’s all very costly. We’re trying to be very frugal in what we spend.”