The Holyoke Geriatric Authority owes $2.84 million in unpaid bills to various city agencies.
Holyoke Geriatric AuthorityHOLYOKE – Another delay and more frustration were the themes Monday as city councilors again were thwarted in seeking financial information about the Geriatric Authority of Holyoke.
The council Finance Committee tabled a motion to deal with financial questions, such as the authority’s $2.84 million in unpaid bills to city agencies.
The tabling was necessary because no officials authorized to speak for the authority attended the meeting at City Hall.
Executive Director Sheryl Young Quinn said in a voice-mail message to The Republican that members of the authority’s board of directors wouldn’t be attending the Finance Committee meeting. The board also hadn’t instructed her to attend, she said.
City Councilor Linda L. VaconAlso, councilors said that board Chairman Joseph T. O’Neill wrote in an e-mail Monday afternoon it was premature for such a meeting because authority officials are planning later this month to meet with representatives of the city departments the authority owes money to.
Still, three members of the authority board – Raymond P. MurphyJr., Alan Taupier and Charles F. Glidden – did attend the Finance Committee meeting. But they said they learned of the meeting in Monday morning’s Republican and weren’t authorized to speak for the authority.
But, Councilor Linda L. Vacon and others said authority officials were reacting as though councilors’ questions were new. In fact, they said, councilors have been asking the same questions for a year about the authority’s unpaid bills and other matters.
“We have asked these questions for months ... and this council has been asking this in every way known to man,” Councilor Linda L. Vacon said.
Finance Committee Chairman Todd McGee scheduled the meeting because he has numerous questions about authority finances, but he was unable to attend the meeting because of an illness. Committee Vice Chairman Peter R. Tallman ran the meeting.
The authority became a quasi-official city agency in 1971, with the City Council appointing three directors to its board, the mayor appointing three and those six voting a seventh.
The authority has unpaid bills dating to 2007 to the Holyoke Gas and Electric Department, in pension contributions to the Retirement Board and in health and life insurance fees, according to the city treasurer’s office.
The authority is current on pension payments made from employee payroll deductions, officials said.
The facility at 45 Lower Westfield Road has about 80 senior citizen residents, another 80 in a daycare program, 177 employees and a payroll of $4 million, she said.
The City Council Tuesday is scheduled to consider an order from Councilor Donald R. Welch to begin the process of shutting down the Geriatric Authority because of the unpaid bills. But closing the authority is a lengthy process that also would require approval from the state, which could rule to keep the authority open regardless of a City Council decision, council President Joseph M. McGiverin said.