City Council Holds Budget Hearings
The City Council held two budget hearings this week. Below are links to the details of the proposals for budgets by the city’s department heads and Mayor Joshua Garcia.
The Holyoke Public Library is working on regaining its tax-exempt status, said the executive director of the library, Maria Pagán, during a second round of budget meeting with the City Council this week.
At its May 28 meeting, councilors heard from Pagán that a series of cascading events led to the loss of the status, which enables the library to buy things without paying taxes on it. Otherwise, the loss has not affected operations and programs for the staff and public.
City Councilor Linda Vacon asked how the library could miss a relatively easy task of filing for a tax exempt status every year, called a IRS Form 990. Someone should have seen the discrepancy.
“You would think that would be the case,” responded Pagán. But between a part-time financial manager, the COVID pandemic that forced the closure of the library and not receiving any notification that the library had lost it tax-exempt status, “there were things that were missed. … But everything happened around that time. That’s when we started to fall way behind in that area. We did not have the CPA come in in person. Everything was being done remotely, and there was a lot of learning curve there for us, too.”
She added that everything is being digitized and not stored in boxes “in a corner.”
Up next was Megan Seiler, the director of Wisteriahurst. She asked the council to approve funding the position of enterprise coordinator from part time to full time. This position is charged with event planning of both private and public events. Wisty is a favored spot for weddings and graduation parties and talks.
She also noted the costs increases such as energy and maintenance costs, that squeeze out hope for more desperately needed staffing.
Councilor Vacon said that she is asking every department head how much their respective budget increase is as she tries to keep the taxation as low as possible.
“So we’re probably at about like a $30,000 increase for our overall budget for this fiscal year. And that’s worth considering how much, heating and cooling has gone up. Gas and electric, our water bill has gone up. So we can’t fight inflation. We can’t avoid paying a lot of these bills. you know, and I do my best to write grants,” said Seiler.
Other departments heads at this meeting were from:
Parks and Recreation
Emergency Management
Council on Aging
Community Development
Planning
Purchasing
Fire Department
On May 29, the City Council held its third budget hearing. Leading the discussion was Lisa Ball, director of the city’s Legal Department, which handles all matters related to the law, including formulating language for city councilors’ proposals, advising the council and representing the city in union contracts and lawsuits.
At this hearing Attorney Ball addressed that her department needs the funds to address a large lawsuit, which has been discussed in legal private sessions with councilors.
” We do have a pending claim, as everyone knows, and it’s a substantial claim,” she said.
Holyoke Media will pursue more information about this claim.
At its May 29 budget hearing, the City Council also heard from:
Veterans Services
Retirement Board
War Memorial
School Department
City Solicitor
Personnel
Weights and Measures
Building Department
Board of Health
Public Works
The complete meeting of the May 29 meeting can be viewed/heard here.
