At our March 17, 2009 Meeting, there were several discussed items of interest:
1) Council approved $175,000 in additional Police Overtime.
The Police Department is averaging over $15,000 per week in overtime. Police OT has continued to run very high and Holyoke spends one of the highest per capita costs for police operations in all of Massachusetts and well above national averages. We are very fortunate to have an outstanding and well trained police force; however, the department, in these leaner times, has to be very careful on what it is spending. Overtime unlike base pay is one area the department can save in order to guard against layoffs come July 1. The House Ways and Means Budget that was recently released proposes the elimination of state reimbursement of the Quinn Bill (impact of appx. $500K) and the Shannon Grant (appx. $600K) for a total loss of $1.1 million. It is for this reason, I supported reducing the weekly amount of non-Court OT for the remainder of this Fiscal Year.
2) Council and Mayor approve new Traffic Light at corner of Jarvis Avenue & Easthampton Rd.
By a vote of 10-4 (Lisi, Lopez, Pluta & Brunelle; Devine absent) there will be a new traffic signal as recommended by the City Engineer and state Highway officials to allow a safer and smoother flow of traffic at this busy intersection. This light will also enable cars entering from Jarvis Avenue and Woodmar Glen to have a much safer commute. By improving this intersection, there is also the spinoff benefit of encouraging cars to avoid Old Jarvis Avenue and to use the main road for their commute. Any benefit on reducing the traffic on Old Jarvis Ave. should come as welcome news to those neighbors. I was happy to vote in favor of this major improvement that has been sought for many years.
3) Council adopts Home Rule Petition on City Charter that allows public to have their choice of who they want to serve on any potential Charter Commission.
The Mayor opposes allowing the public to have the right to vote for whoever they want to the Charter Commission by excluding any candidate who also runs for another municipal office. Therefore, the people that the public has entrusted to serve on their City Council and School Committee and who are on top of the issues will not be allowed to run and be elected even if the public wants them. The Council passed by a vote of 12-2 (O'Neill & Keane voted no) the revision to allow anyone to run but the Mayor vetoed the Pro-Democracy measure. Since it is a Charter Revision, the Mayor's signature is required and the revision was defeated.
4) Council passes its FY 2009 Community Development Block Grant Recommendations totalling $1.328 million and the HOME program Recommendations totalling $572,962.
For more details or if you have a specific program or activity interested, please contact me.
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