A candidate must receive seven votes from the full City Council to become treasurer.
WESTFIELD – City resident Meghan C. Miller earned the endorsement Wednesday from the City Council’s Personnel Action Committee as the next city treasurer.
Councilors Brent B. Bean II, Brian P. Sullivan and Anne W. Callahan will ask the full City Council next week to appoint Miller, one of four finalists for the job, to succeed retiring Treasurer Gregory I. Kallfa.
Brent B. Bean II
Miller is the only Westfield resident among the four candidates, a point noted by the three members of the Personnel Action Committee.
Bean, chairman of the committee, said he is “confident” in Miller’s ability “to learn the business of treasurer.”
Miller is an assistant controller at Appleton Corporation in Holyoke, a position she has held since June. Prior to that she was employed as a senior auditor, since 2006, at Wolf & Company in Springfield.
Councilors said they based their recommendation on interviews that were held Oct. 17 with the four candidates. They said all four candidates were “highly” qualified to succeed Kallfa who has served as treasurer for nearly 30 years.
Other finalists were Springfield Treasurer-Collector Stephen J. Lonergan, Palmer’s Treasurer-Collector Paul A. Nowicki and Kathleen Cooley, a fiscal manager at the New England Farm Workers’ Council fuel assistance program.
Lonergan was the only candidate to attend Wednesday’s PAC meeting, called to select a candidate to recommend to the full City Council for appointment Nov. 1.
Following the meeting, Lonergan said he was disappointed he did not receive the recommendation. But, he said the process used by the committee was fair.
Seven votes of the current 12-member City Council are needed for appointment of a new treasurer. In addition to the recommendation from the Personnel Action Committee, nominations for treasurer can be made by other city councilors.
The only other councilors present at Wednesday night’s meeting were president Christopher Keefe, David A. Flaherty and Mary L. O’Connell.
They were in agreement with the qualifications of the four finalists but indicated they favored someone with municipal financial experience for the job.
“It is hard to overlook the municipal experience,” said O’Connell.
Flaherty said he “favored an experienced municipal employee for the job.”
Keefe noted “the lack of municipal experience” by Miller and he and Flaherty suggested Miller be appointed assistant treasurer.
Lonergan has served the past three years as Springfield’s treasurer-collector while Nowicki is a former treasurer-collector in Ware, Southwick and Watertown and has been Palmer’s treasurer since 2010.