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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2013
VOL. 82 NO. 296
Agreement reached with secretaries, custodians By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – At a meeting of the Westfield School Committee Monday evening, the final contractual agreements were hashed out with the secretaries and custodians of the district. The secretary’s contract includes an extensive list of nineteen agreements similar to those granted to the district’s teachers, including biweekly direct deposit, a promise to put all employees on electronic pay information within the year, and the ammendment of the current sickleave and short term leave policies. The new agreements also includes a move to ammend the retirement extension provisions to match those of Unit A, which will lead to a three year severance pay-out provision. New “Christmas shut-down” protocols have been adopted, in addition to delayed work time start in the case of inclement weather. Another implementation which will be put into effect in July 2014, when ten month secretaries will be required to work additional days, five after the last day of school is in session for students, ten days prior to the first day of school, and five more days either over summer break or any school vacation, at the mutual agreement of the secreatary and their supervising principal or administrator. Adjustments have also been made to pay schedule for the three-year contract, with secretaries seeing an increase of one percent going into effect on the first of the year. Westfield Mayor and School Committee Chairman Daniel M. Knapik is excited about the new agreements. “It was voted on in open session,” he said of the contract agreement. “It was just agreeing on nuances here and there.” The raises, which will start in January, along with future severance payouts, were two issues that Knapik is glad to have resolved. “If you’re doing something with wages, you also need to figure out severance,” he said. Knapik added that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union which represents the secretaries, and the Westfield Public School Custodian Association will be represented on the city’s Other-Post Employment Benefits, or OPEB, advance committee, which also includes management and the city’s legal representation. “Both parties worked hard to find common ground,” said Jeffrey Krok, labor counsel for the city’s employees. “A number of bargaining sessions occurred, and an agreement was struck worked for all.” “Both sides adequately represented See Agreement, Page 8
“I never could see
why people were so happy about Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ because I never had any confidence that Scrooge was going to be different the next day.” — Dr. Karl Menninger
75 cents
Senior Center coordination orchestrated Mr. Michna directs the seventh grade band as the preform Wednesday night. (Photo by Noah Buchanan)
North Middle School Winter Concert
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Progress on the design of the Council on Aging Senior Center may be measured by the number of municipal agencies and contractors being integrated into that process. Wednesday that number increased as the project manager, Diversified Project Management of East Hartford, identified a number of issues which have to be resolved to bring the design to the level of detail needed for the Planning Board review, tentatively scheduled for January. The Building Committee goal is to present the project to the Planning Board on Jan. 17 to begin the board’s review of a petition for approval of a special permit, site plan and stormwater See Senior Center, Page 8
Commission seeks end to traffic study North Middle School band director Mr. Michna speaks to the crowd before the start of the concert Wednesday night. (Photo by Noah Buchanan)
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Traffic Commission will recommend to the City Council that the traffic study to consider making Kensington and Broadway one-way streets be terminated. Police Chief John Camerota, commission chairman, reported that the results of a 48-hour traffic count were too high to revamp the traffic on the two residential streets under the Western Avenue Improvement Project. “The numbers are astronomical,” Camerota said. “During a 48-hour period there were 3,285 vehicles on Kensington and 2,335. Taking that volume of traffic and putting it on one street doesn’t make sense, so we’re recommending to the City See Traffic Study, Page 8
Downtown parking lot improvements presented
Sixth grade Chorus Preforms for the audience Wednesday night at North Middle School. (Photo by Noah Buchanan)
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – At a meeting of the City of Westfield’s OffStreet Parking Commission last night, Westfield City Engineer Mark Cressotti unveiled plans to revamp several downtown parking lots. The parking lots, a lot at the start of Franklin Street chief among them, are set to be reconfigured in the coming years. The Franklin Street parking lot, which is seated behind several Elm Street businesses, as well EV-Rite Tool and the See Improvements, Page 8
City woman victimized by scam By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – An elderly city woman may have been defrauded of more than $1,500 by a person who claimed that he would help her fix her computer, police report. Officer John Blascak reports that he responded to a fraud complaint and found that a Tow Path Lane resident reported that funds had been removed from her checking account without her knowledge and consent. The 86-year-old woman explained that she found that $1,525 had been removed
by an electronic transfer from her bank account to a Western Union account and said that when she called the bank she was told that the transfer was pending. The victim told Blascak that her banker said that the bank would attempt to cancel the transaction and the woman’s account was closed. Blascak said that the woman said that she had previously given her personal information to an unknown male who called and offered to help her fix her computer. See Scam, Page 8
City of Westfield’s Director of Licensing Denise Carey looks over tentative blueprints for the improvement of several city parking lots with Gary Tomestic and Brian Hoose of the city’s Off-Street Parking Commission and City Engineer Mark Cressotti Wednesday night (Photo by Peter Francis)
Resident seeks open-meeting law committee By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A resident, for the second time this year, has filed a complaint alleging that a City Council member has violated the state’s Open Meeting Law by sending email to other council members suggesting specific action to achieve a desired goal. Under state law the members of a municipal board can exchange factual information, but cannot express an opinion or attempt to persuade other members of that board to adopt a specific action. Stephen C. Dondley of 10 Kane Brothers Circle has filed a complaint with City Clerk Karen Fanion that Councilor David A. Flaherty violated the law when he responded to an email communication sent by City Solicitor Susan Phillips regarding a
vote taken by the City Council on Dec. 5, 2013. The council voted to cut $1.7 million from the levy as it was setting the 2014 fiscal year tax rate. The council had approved several other motions, including the use of $1.25 million from stabilization to balance the city’s budget which was $940,000 in the red and to use the remaining funds to buffer residents and businesses from a higher tax increase. The council also voted to adopt a residential shift factor of 1.63 which evenly divided the tax increase between residential property owner and commercial, industrial and personal property (CIP) owners. Those actions would have resulted in a 3.4 percent increase in property tax. The council then took the vote to
reduce the tax levy, and in effect the 2014 budget, by $1.7 million which resulted in a tax increase for all property classes of less than 1 percent. Phillips and City Auditor Deborah Strycharz requested the state Department of Revenue to review the council action and make a determination of whether the council’s vote to cut the levy, after approving the budget in June, was legal. The DOR ruled that the council acted beyond its authority, which it had in June when approving the budget, but not in December when setting the tax rate. Flaherty, in his response to Phillips and also sent to all other council members, argued that the intent of the council was to cut the levy and determine a specific line item for that cut, most likely insur-
ance, which could be reinstated after the DOR certified the city’s free cash account, estimated at $2.8 million, making the budget whole again. Dondley, in his complaint, said that Flaherty sought “strategies the council might follow to cut the budget in a way that complies with the DOR requirements for the budget approval process.” Dondley also noted that the Attorney General determined that Flaherty had violated the Open Meeting Law earlier this year and charged “that this email constitutes a violation of the Open Meeting Law and is therefore an intentional and willful violation of the law.” Dondley, who by law is required to lodge his complaint with the board from which the alleged violation came before filing it with the
Attorney General, requested the City Council to establish a committee with the authority to make public reprimands to members violating the law and to fine offenders; to allow the committee to review all communication between quorums of City Councilors; to ensure that all council members receiving Open Meeting Law training; and to establish procedures for releasing communications found to violate the law. Flaherty said that there were a number of email communications exchanged between councilors following the Dec. 5 meeting and subsequent communication from the Law Department. “Several emails related to the tax shift, levy, and stabilization votes See Open-Meeting Law, Page 3