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Date: 6/30/2020
WESTFIELD – The Westfield City Council passed the city’s $130 million budget for fiscal year 2021 at its June 29 meeting.
The budget, which broke down into $62 million for the School Department and $68 million for the city’s general budget, was approved by a vote of 10-3.
Councilors Dan Allie, Dave Flaherty and Nick Morganelli all voted against the budget. “This was a train wreck, and there’s nobody to blame. It was between a decrease in revenue and the hits from the state that we haven’t even gotten a final figure on, and it’s come at the expense of doing a limited amount of road work and eliminating a number of positions,” Allie said.
Flaherty expressed his concern over the fact that the appropriation for Other Post-employment Benefits account was for $20,000. He said, “This is so ridiculously low, I don’t even see why we are bothering. This is an absolutely horrendous number. It’s an absolute joke to throw $20,000 at a $260 million problem, this is a waste of time.”
Flaherty had also criticized the budget process during a public hearing on the budget on June 22, expressing concerns that the council did not address its long-term problems.
“There was no goal here for the city council, we had little deliberation over anything. We’ve talked about schools, we haven’t done anything for schools and they’ve had increases in cost,” he said. “We’ve had public safety concerns, yet we’re cutting the Police Department, we’re moving the Fire Department to rely on the ambulances, we haven’t addressed any of the concerns with debt. The math is just wrong and someday we have to address it, we can’t just keep kicking it down the road.”
Councilor Ralph Figy said that he was a yes vote with some reservations because it was the best the city could put together given the current conditions, including the pandemic.
“When the mayor and I started working on the budget back in December, we didn’t think it was going to be this drastic,” he said, “The budget shows that there is a continued effort by the city to come to grips with its obligations in regards to bonds. This budget was probably the hardest one to ever do because nobody knew what the revenues were, what they are and what they will be.”
Morganelli said one of his biggest issues was high city employee salaries and increasing the tax rate by 2.5 percent. He said, “We’ve got schools and roads that need more funding, we’ve got infrastructure that needs funding. But then we have top-heavy salaries in the city which is out of control, we’ve got a 2.5 percent or more tax increase for tax payers and I’ve got to be a voice for them, that’s what I was elected to do.”
During the June 22 hearing, members of the public also voiced concerns. The biggest point of contention from residents during the public hearing came over potential cuts to the School Department’s budget, especially when it came to cutting sports and the fine arts.
Hannah Chiney, a rising senior at Westfield High School jumped into the hearing during the public comment session to highlight the importance of music and to keep the show choir program going despite the proposed cuts to the school budget.
She said, “It’s created a wonderful family for all of us to express ourselves and just be who we are. We love learning about music and how much it can help our daily lives. A lot of us are really shy and kind of outcasts at school and to have a place where we can come together and make music is wonderful and Mrs. Bruno is amazing.”
One parent, Stacy Brecht, said that the council should do everything they can to prevent any more cuts to the school budget, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s important to not have any more cuts, because the music, the arts, and the sports are too important. If anything, we need to find more funds for the school department since the kids have been so disrupted because of the COVID, they’re gonna need their sports, music and arts more than anything when they return,” she said.
In response to Brecht and Chinney’s comments, Councilor Richard Sullivan said there would be no cuts to the fine arts at any of the school levels. He said, “That has been a priority of mine and the Finance Committee when we approached the mayor early to have the conversation about using $1.5 million, even though I wanted more. That $1.5 million restored programs like art and music, and teams at the middle school level. I think that’s the most important thing we do as a community.”
Council President Brent Bean said all the council can do is cut the budget, because of the way the state does it’s annual process. He said, “When it comes to goals, the only thing we can do, especially the last couple of weeks, is cut the budget. The state sets the process, they don’t tell us numbers, they push their budget off until Sept. 1 and don’t give us any reprieve. The Commonwealth has saddled us with unfunded mandates and prices that are ridiculous. The state is broken when it comes to funding municipals.”