Selectmen to request emergency fund transfer
Date: 10/11/2011
Oct. 10, 2011By Chris Maza
Reminder Assistant Editor
EAST LONGMEADOW — After residents at the Sept. 26 Special Town Meeting voted not to approve an article that would have funded the hiring of a full-time veteran’s affairs officer, the Board of Selectmen plan to ask for a vote for an emergency fund transfer in order to pay for the position.
Board of Selectmen Chair James Driscoll said the town must come into compliance with a new state law that stipulates the town must have a full-time veteran’s affairs officer. East Longmeadow was given an extension by the state, which allowed the town to continue using a part-time officer until his retirement, at which time, a full-time substitute would need to be hired.
Should the town remain non-compliant, the state could immediately revoke its current reimbursement to the town for veterans’ services and the town could come under investigation by the office of the Inspector General and Attorney General.
In addition to the law, Driscoll said the position needs to be funded in order to protect the town’s veterans. Currently the town offers no services to veterans.
“This is one of the most important positions in the town,” he said. “We are seeing the highest rate of post traumatic stress disorder among the largest group of young veterans we’ve seen in decades.”
Driscoll continued by saying that Vietnam veterans are getting older and requiring more services and “to not fund the position in the hopes the state doesn’t do anything is lousy business and lousy decision making.”
The request for an emergency fund transfer must be approved by the appropriations committee and voted upon at a Special Town Meeting.
The Appropriations Committee did not recommend the initial warrant article requesting the funds.
Chair Frank Iovine explained at the Special Town Meeting that the committee felt the town did not spend enough time exploring the possibility of regionalizing the position.
“That wasn’t fair or accurate,” Driscoll, who was absent from the Special Town Meeting, said. “As the Board of Selectmen, we have been pursuing regionalization for the past three or four years. It’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s the future of services, but the fact remains that we need to fund these services now while we continue to pursue regionalization.
“I brought the idea of regionalization to the Appropriations Committee, but I told them there are parallel pathways and we have an immediate need we have to fill,” he continued.
East Longmeadow had been investigating a regionalized position with Longmeadow, but no deal had been reached.
Eric Madison, a member of the Appropriations Committee and Longmeadow Fire Chief, told the committee at its Sept. 26 meeting before the Special Town Meeting that he had received an email stating that East Longmeadow had backed out of the negotiations.
“What happened was the [Longmeadow] Town Manager [Robin Crosbie] sent an email to all Select Board members, but instead of clicking the Select Board members folder, she selected the department heads folder, so it was a correspondence not intended for me,” Madison told the committee. “It was a correspondence that essentially said, ‘East Longmeadow’s backed out, they’re going off on their own, so I recommend we move forward in looking for our own, hiring our own [veterans affairs officer].’
“This is complete and total misuse of the reserve fund. It’s creating a whole position with the reserve fund. That’s number one why I’m against it,” he added.
However, a letter provided to Reminder Publications by Driscoll to Crosbie on Sept. 10 stated the town was still interested in pursuing regionalization.
“There is a warrant article that asks the Town to approve an appropriation for the funding of a full time VSO [veterans services officer] for the remainder of fiscal year 2012. This would allow East Longmeadow to have the part time individual assume full time duties. However, it is the Board of Selectmen’s plan to continue to work with Longmeadow to organize and implement a regional Veterans Services District during the ensuing months. The individual that is working for East Longmeadow understands that the town is working towards this goal, and that the regional VSO position will supplant the full time position dedicated solely to East Longmeadow. This may not preclude the individual from consideration of becoming the regional VSO for our communities, but neither does it provide any guarantee of continued employment,” the letter reads.
Driscoll said he understands people’s concerns with unfunded state mandates, but pointed out that the state does partially reimburse towns for money spent on veterans’ services. Last year the town received $32,688 in reimbursement from the state, according to the state’s documentation for reimbursable benefits for East Longmeadow.
