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Date: 11/8/2021
HOLYOKE – The official ceremony and party will have to wait. Joshua Garcia, the mayor-elect of Holyoke, will be getting to his new job as soon as possible.
Garcia told Reminder Publishing a formal inauguration ceremony and celebration will wait until January 2022 and he will be given the oath of office on Nov. 15.
Garcia made history as not only the city’s first Latinx mayor but also as the mayor who is starting his term almost immediately.
Garcia received 4,566 votes to the 3,548 earned by City Councilor Michael Sullivan. Sullivan conceded shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night. Thirty percent of city’s electorate participated in the vote for mayor.
When asked if he would run again, Sullivan he did not have an answer for that question at this time. He will finish out his term on the council.
He added that “by Holyoke standards it was a very clean race.”
Currently the town administrator for Blandford, Garcia has been on an unpaid leave the last three to four weeks with an interim administrator assigned to the town. He explained he is now going to submit a formal letter of resignation to Blandford officials
Garcia brings to his new job as mayor experience he earned as the executive officer for that town. He has a master’s degree in public administration and is a graduate of Westfield State University. He was named to BusinessWest’s annual “Forty Under 40” list of young people to watch in 2015.
Garcia said his time as mayor will start a “cultural shift” in City Hall, that might be accompanied by a “little turbulence.”
He intends to make management changes in government with strategies based on best practices. He readily admitted he will need support from the City Council, which he said will also be another challenge but is part of the process of changing administrations.
“There is nothing we can’t accomplish when we work together,” he said.
He does not see the management of the city as a “top down” process, but instead requires both collaboration and cooperation.
“That is the skill I want to bring to City Hall,” he added.
Garcia wants to address the city’s $2 million deficit as well as its negative free cash, some of which he noted was from over-spending. He said he will be working with “financial departments on how we can manage our resources.”
With some American Relief Plan Act funds still available to the city, he said merit pay for first responders is also a priority. He is also looking at how funds could be used for rapid recovery programs for small businesses as well as infrastructure improvements.
He noted there will more infrastructure money coming from the federal government, but he would start work on the most “dire” of the projects.
Noting the enthusiastic response of his supporters on election night, he said, “I want to embrace what we have here. We’ve witnessed a great deal of pride.”