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The Westfield News
VOL. 83 NO. 212
Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
City Council’s lack of scribe not unusual
City Hall to get emergency generator By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Health Department and city officials will have more options to respond to natural emergencies which result in power outages when an emergency generator is installed at City Hall. Health Director Joseph Rouse said at the Board of Health meeting last night that the generator was acquired with Homeland Security funding of $25,000 through the Hampden County Health Coalition. Rouse said that during the recently completed city hall renovation, additional circuits were added to which the 45-KW generator, which is secured to a trailer, can be attached and provide power. The city has considered acquiring a larger emergency backup generator as part of the city hall renovation, but decided that it was costprohibitive at the time. A generator producing 300 KW or more would be needed to more adequately power the building. “It isn’t large enough to power the entire building, but it will run the Health Department so we don’t lose the vaccines in our refrigerators,” Rouse said. During prolonged power outages in the past, the department had to move vaccines and other perishable items to Noble Hospital, which has emergency power sources. Rouse said the emergency generator has sufficient electrical output and switching capabilities to also provide power to the City Council Chambers, Building Department and mayor’s office, as well as the Health Department. Currently, the only place that has emergency backup power where officials could plan responses to emergencies, natural or otherwise, is the Technology Center, which also houses the Emergency Management Department. “This gives us another location where all of us can meet,” Rouse said. The trailer-towed generator, Rouse said, is a regional asset that will be shared with other communities, but Westfield will have first priority in the event of a widespread power outage such as the one following the Halloween blizzard several years ago. “If Southwick needed it for an emergency situation specific to their community we could bring it over to them,” Rouse said. “But if we needed it, we have first dibs on it.”
A small digital recording device, table bottom right corner, remains in plain view as Southwick Selectmen Joseph Deedy, far left, and Russ Fox, left, question Southwick Department of Public Works Director Randy Brown during a selectman’s meeting in Southwick. The digital recording device will be transcribed and posted on the Town of Southwick website. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Hilltowns adjust to OML By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – City councils in western Mass. are no different than other municipalities in the Commonwealth when adjusting their documentation policies to remain in compliance with the state’s Open Meeting Law (OML). For many small towns governed by selectboards with as few as three elected members, documenting meetings can become more complicated. The Westfield City Council is contemplating the hiring of a part-time secretary to transcribe meeting minutes, like Holyoke, Northampton and Springfield have, in addition to broadcasting their meetings live through public access television and streaming them online, as well. For small, rural communities who did not negotiate with Comcast to provide broadcast coverage of their meetings, a written transcription and audio recording are often the only means by which they remain in compliance with the state’s OML. “All of our meetings are audiotaped and you can go online and listen to them at any time,” said Joseph Deedy, a selectman for the town of Southwick, adding that he and the selectboard have experimented with videotaping meetings. “You already have a voice on audio, you might as well put a face to it,” said Deedy. “She (Sondra Pendleton, assistant to Board of Selectmen) writes them (the minutes) down and we have the audio version. We just had a meeting Monday, and if you go on the town website now, it should be up with a link you can listen to.” Stacy Stewart, the Gateway Regional School District’s School Committee secretary, goes to great lengths to transcribe every meeting and said that the committee has discussed using video for further documentation. “It has been brought up. Mrs. (Ruth) Kennedy actually had brought it up about potentially taping meetings and I don’t believe the committee as a whole ever really wanted to do that,” said Stewart. “I don’t think they ever took a vote on it.”
“There was discussion about whether people would actually make the same comments they make,” she said. “We keep everything up to date on the website in terms of minutes and posting meetings, so that would be another thing to figure out – how to keep those videos current as far as archiving them because they would be public record.” Currently, the school committee’s only method of recording their meetings are Stewart’s transcription. “We don’t audio record them,” she said. “Mrs. (Gretchen) Eliason (previous committee chair) did record them for quite a while, but we no longer record them. Our recording is strictly the minutes, which are posted on the district’s website and archived so the public has access to them on a regular basis.” In addition to her transcribing of the minutes, Stewart stated that her duties as secretary include making sure committee members are sworn in, keeping record of packets that have been distributed to members, as well as copies of minutes and policies. “A committee doesn’t have to have a secretary outside of that committee. They could have one of the members of the committee take the notes as a designated secretary and keep a record.” she said. “They could be shorthand, they could be longhand, but obviously they have to legible by everybody or transcribed in a way that, if somebody wanted to see them (the minutes), they could actually see them and see what goes on.” “Things don’t have to be transcribed verbatim, either. You could have ‘there was discussion in favor of and against and this was the vote’,” said Stewart. “They could be a simpler form of minutes, as long as they really track all the votes and give a general understanding of what happened at the meeting.” Stewart added that the minutes don’t have to be in the electronic format that she keeps them in, but they must state the basic parameters of the meeting. “Who was at the meeting, what time the meeting closed, as well as keeping a record of when the meeting was held,” she explained. “Making sure they were posted 48 hours prior to the meeting.”
Wellness grant helps employees get fit By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Town Clerk MIchelle Hill, a former member of the Marine Corps., believes in staying active. “I go for walks and do Beachbody workouts and I just want to keep moving,” said Hill. When some of her co-workers at Town Hall expressed a desire to be more active, Hill decided to help motivate them by applying for a wellness grant from the state. Last year, the town was awarded $600 to get a program started and Hill just found out Southwick has received another $800 for this fiscal year. “We can also get more money – up to $1,200 total – through incentives,” Hill said. “There is a training incentive next week that will give us another $100.” A three-member committee of town employees is required to administer the
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grant. Hill and Parks and Recreation Administrative Assistant Cara Cartello are currently seeking a third member to help them plan programs. “We used the grant money last year to get a gym going,” said Hill. Hill purchased gym mats, hand weights and steps, as well as several fitness DVDs. Town employees can sign-in to use the room – located in the basement level of Town Hall – during their lunch break or any time when the building is open. A treadmill and two different exercise bikes were donated for employee use. “I’m looking for an eliptical machine now,” Hill said. Hill plans to make the room even more gym-like this year and has plans for several programs. “Last spring we had a walk group that was well received,” she said.
Employees signed up to participate and committed to exercising 15 minutes or more each day. Hill said some employees joined forces and walked together during breaks while others biked, ran, swam or walked on their own. “Everyone gave me a time sheet of what they did each day and for how long,” Hill said. “I’m planning to do another program like this in spring.” This fall, Hill is planning an event with a guest nutritionist. She said in addition to motivating employees to get more active and make better food choices, the wellness program benefits the town by reducing health costs. “I just think exercising is good and will extend your life,” Hill said. Anyone with equipment to donate or who wants more information about the program should contact Hill.
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – As the Westfield City Council debates whether or not to hire a part-time scribe to record and publish minutes of meetings for council committees, boards and commissions, it turns out Westfield isn’t the only municipality lacking such a scrivener. “In Holyoke we don’t have a person transcribing and there’s been talk about that,” said Holyoke Ward 3 City Councilor David Bartley. “All of our formal city council hearings and subcommittees are all on tape and broadcast live and recorded for posterity. But no one transcribes them.” Bartley said that, for regular Holyoke City Council meetings, a clerk produces the minutes but doesn’t write a narrative of the meeting and an administrative assistant provides a narrative that supplements the meeting’s formal agenda. “If a councilor is just kind of producing rhetoric, that isn’t transcribed. But if a councilor has something specific or makes a critical point, thats transcribed,” said Bartley. He also added that, due to budgetary constraints, the likelihood of Holyoke’s City Council hiring even a part-time scribe is slim. “There may’ve been talk of that before I came on city council three years ago, but there’s nothing imminent,” said Bartley. Holyoke does have an Administrative Assistant to the City Council, who the city’s Personel Director Robert Judge said makes about $38,000 a year. “Their job description includes things like delivering communications, notifying city council committee members of meetings and assist in those meetings,” said Judge. “They must also prepare responses and follow-ups to communications, provide background data on agenda items for review by council members and forward requests for council orders, resolutions and ordinances to See Scribe, Page 3
Auxiliaries augmented By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Dozens of events sponsored in the city each year by non-profit groups are made possible – or at least more feasible – by the volunteer efforts of city’s auxiliary police force and that force was augmented Monday evening when the city’s Police Commission appointed six additional officers. The auxiliary officers are called on frequently to assist with security, traffic and crowd control for events such as concerts on the Green, the Penguin Plunge and several annual parades. The force is primarily comprised of two types of officers – retired law enforcement officers who are willing to give something back to their community and younger officers who view the auxiliary force as a stepping stone to a career as a police officer. Robert Sorel, the director of the unit, said that the auxiliary officers are trained “to a high level of police work” and may sometimes be the first emergency responder at an incident. All the auxiliary officer are required to complete the six-monthlong reserve and intermittent police training academy and, after appointment, get additional training from full-time city officers. The auxiliaries give more than their time, Sorel said, pointing out that they pay for the $1,400 course themselves and also pay for their uniforms, firearms and all other necessary equipment from their own pockets. Once trained, the auxiliary officers are available to assist with community events providing security and other services which would otherwise cost event organizers hundreds or thousands of dollars. As an example, Sorel said that 16 auxiliary officers worked at the five kilometer road race staged in the city over the Memorial Day weekend. He said that, if the organizers had to pay for their services, “the cost for this event would have been approximately $2,600.” The city’s budget includes no funding for the auxiliary force See Auxiliaries, Page 3
Robert Sorel, director of the city’s auxiliary police force, accepts a $500 contribution from Mark Boardman, chair of the Westfield Rotary club’s fireworks committee, in appreciation of the assistance provided by auxiliary officers at the Independence Day fireworks display in the city. Looking on is Auxiliary Lt. Don Humason Sr. (Photo courtesy The Rotary Club of Westfield)