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City Council approves budget, cuts $1.9 million

Date: 7/2/2015

WESTFIELD – In two special meetings, the Westfield City Council cut $1.895 million from and approved the fiscal year 2016 (FY16) budget with a day to spare.

The budget was approved in the second special meeting by a vote of 9-3 on June 30, a day before the start of the 2016 Fiscal Year on July 1.

Mayor Daniel Knapik’s proposed $135 million operating budget was trimmed down to $133 million on June 29.

Councilors Dan Allie, Dave Flaherty and Christopher Keefe voted against passing the updated budget. Councilor James Adams was absent.

Flaherty said the budget is “out of balance” and the potential to fall short is a huge concern.    

The largest cut in the budget came from $1.3 million in health insurance, a similar move to one in the FY15 budget, proposed by Flaherty. That amount, one month’s insurance premium payout, would be transfered to Free Cash with the option to return it to the health insurance budget if needed later on.

The council also voted to cut an additional $400,000 from the School Department’s budget. Though the City Council has no say in where the money is cut from the School Department budget, Councilor Christopher Crean said his hope was that it would be trimmed from the cost of energy.

Allie said there would be room to trim down some of the specific line items within the School Department.

“There is some room in such a large budget. They can move things around … They have some movement,”?Allie said.

City Council President Brian Sullivan said the School Department is the only department that “has had to hand out pink slips” this year, with 30 positions not being refilled or removed for the 2015-16 academic year.

“There’s people that lost jobs in the School Department, not because they’re padding the energy side of the house or the expense side of the house, but because they had nowhere else to go … They’ve already hit rock bottom,” Sullivan said. “They’ve already looked at their budgets through the School Committee, which has the authority to do that.”

Additional cuts include $50,000 from the Technology Center, $40,000 from the city collector’s salary, available because of a retirement in the department, and $5,000 from Community Development designated for musical entertainment.

The final $100,000 cut from Purchasing, which funded the Siemen’s Corporation contract. The new facilities manager will take over the responsibilities the company has provided for the city.

The City Council also voted to approve a transfer of $146,000 to the Police Department, which would reinstate three school resource officers initially cut from the budget.