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Date: 10/27/2021
WESTFIELD — Donald Humason Jr. and Michael McCabe faced off on the debate stage last week, for the second time in two years.
The two candidates for Westfield mayor were agreeable at many times throughout the evening, much like the last time they debated in 2019, but there were several points at which they made their differences apparent.
The first major disagreement came when the discussion turned to the $2.7 billion data center proposal on Servistar Industrial Way.
Humason repeatedly touted the fact that the data center, if fully approved and built, would be the largest taxpayer in the history of Westfield. He said unlike other industrial development, it would not add truck traffic or noise to the neighborhood.
“No project like this has ever come to Westfield before. No project like this has come to Massachusetts before,” said Humason.
He added that developers will spend a “great amount of money” building the 10 computer server buildings.
McCabe agreed that the project could be a boon to Westfield, but said that he did not think the project had been vetted properly by city officials.
“It would have been much better if this process was transparent. It would have also been much better if we hired a consultant to handle the ins and outs of the process,” said McCabe.
He said the payment in lieu of taxes agreement that Humason agreed to amounts to an effective tax rate of $60 per square feet, far below “the going rate” of $400 per square foot for such a development.
“He is talking about a complete elimination of all property taxes that are paid by the corporation throughout the entire tenure of their business here for 40 years,” said McCabe. “That could amount to millions upon millions upon millions of dollars, so I have questions there.”
Humason rebutted by saying that even with the lower tax rate, the data center would still be the city’s largest taxpayer.
In the very next question, the candidates were asked how they think the city should spend $17 million it is promised to receive in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
McCabe said he would hire a coordinator specifically to shepherd these funds.
“I personally know that our people that are working in City Hall are stretched pretty thin right now. We have vacant positions that haven’t been filled that should be filled. Why they are not, can’t tell you,” said McCabe.
Both candidates said the federal law gives the mayor sole power to spend the money, though both said they would seek community input before making a final decision. Humason pointed to a survey on the city website that asks residents to suggest ARPA projects. McCabe said Humason did not begin the process in a transparent fashion, however.
“When I talk about transparency in the process, I am not talking about five people in a room and they decide what to do with the money and they tell people the money has already been spent,” said McCabe, “It was only after the City Council voiced their opinion that the process be opened up, like it was opened up in Springfield and Holyoke, did that process get opened up, and that is a fair statement.”
Humason said public input was always going to be part of the process.
“I would never try to spend taxpayer money, I don’t care if it came from the federal government or if it came from the citizens of Westfield, I would never spend that unilaterally, or alone,” said Humason. “I would look to the experts that we hire as a city and others, including our elected officials, to help spend this one-time project. So you’re wrong, Mike.”
Humason’s tenure as mayor began only weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic began. As of Oct. 21, Westfield’s vaccination rate was 53 percent, significantly lower than the state average of approximately 70 percent.
Humason said that while he encourages people to get the vaccine, he would never take the step of mandating it or fully mandating masks in Westfield. He said he listens to the experts in City Hall, including Health Director Joseph Rouse.
“We look for the day when COVID is no longer a concern, and that day will come when everybody has either gotten [COVID-19] and natural immunity exists,” said Humason, “Or people make the choice to get vaccinated.”
McCabe agreed that vaccines should not be mandated, but said that he would have been more active in encouraging people to get vaccinated than Humason has been.
“I can tell you that I would have been on social media saying to people, day after day after day, ‘please get vaccinated,’” said McCabe.
McCabe said that he found it odd that communities surrounding Westfield were able to get vaccination centers while Westfield lacked one. He said he would have instituted an incident command system immediately when it became clear the pandemic would come to Westfield as well.
“In fairness to my counterpart, I had that knowledge going in. I wouldn’t have had to learn it, I knew what an incident command system was, and I knew how to run it and operate it effectively,” said McCabe, a former police captain. “When I tell you that it is not hard to put out a message on Facebook or social media, or through the mayor’s office itself, it really isn’t hard, it was just absent. And to me, if it wasn’t absent, our [vaccination] rates would be much higher.”