The authority owes money to various city agencies, but officials disagree whether it's nearly $3 million or less than $1 million.
Holyoke City Councilor John O'Neill, left, took issue with an advertisement in the Sunday Republican paid for by Holyoke Mayor Elaine Pluta, right, about the Holyoke Geriatric Authority's financial woes.HOLYOKE – City Councilor John J. O’Neill said Wednesday Mayor Elaine A. Pluta’s advertisement in the Sunday Republican about the Holyoke Geriatric Authority’s financial woes was “disingenuous,” “propaganda,” “outrageous” and an “abomination.”
O’Neill’s comments came as he held up the three-quarter-page ad during a meeting with authority board members of the council Finance Committee at City Hall.
Pluta’s ad, for which she said she paid about $1,500 out of her own pocket, began “Dear Citizens of Holyoke.” The ad outlined what officials consider to be the authority’s nearly $3 million debt to the city that began accruing in 2007 and how taxpayers can no longer bail out the authority.
Authority officials contend the debt is actually less than $1 million.
The meeting included authority officials discussing ways to increase revenue. One was a proposal to lease a facility on the 45 Lower Westfield Road site known as Building B or save maintenance costs by shutting down Building B.
Another proposal is to establish a unit for Alzheimer's and dementia patients, officials said.
The debt, and orders from councilors frustrated at the authority’s failure to pay it, prompted the meeting of the Finance Committee, of which O’Neill is a member.
“This is perhaps the most disingenuous piece of propaganda that has ever come across my desk. ...This is just outrageous. ...This is shameful,” O’Neill said.
The issue should be about helping elderly people and working with the authority on its problems, he said.
“We need to be working collaboratively,” said O’Neill, calling Pluta’s ad “garbage” and “an abomination.”
Reached later, Pluta said the ad details what the authority owes. She used her own money to place the ad, she said, not city funds or money from her re-election campaign.
“No, because I didn’t want it to be a political statement. I just wanted to present the facts to the taxpayers, so that we can come up with a plan to help this place. (Authority officials) just refuse to acknowledge the facts,” Pluta said.
According to Pluta, City Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra, City Solicitor Lisa A. Ball and some councilors, the authority owes $1.2 milliion to the city as repayment for a 2007 purchase of 9.5 acres on Lower Westfield Road from the authority; more than $734,000 for health and life insurance for retired authority employees; more than $502,000 to the Holyoke Gas and Electric Department; nearly $340,000 to the Holyoke Contributory Retirement Board; and $60,000 as payment in lieu of taxes.
Authority board Chaiman Joseph T. O’Neill repeated to councilors the authority doesn’t intend to pay the health and life insurance costs because that is a city cost.
But O’Neill became the first authority official to acknowledge publicly a willingness to review the $1.2 million related to the land purchase. That came at the urging of council President Joseph M. McGiverin, who said it was agreed at the time that the money was a loan to help the authority, not a straight land purchase.
“Since I’ve been there, Joe, we haven’t had that discussion,” O’Neill said.
“Why (else) would the city pay $1.2 million for land that’s not worth that much?” McGiverin said, leaning forward slightly to look at O’Neill.
“You know me well enough,” McGiverin said.
“We’ll discuss it at the next (board) meeting,” O’Neill said.
The facility at 45 Lower Westfield Road is an 80-bed nursing home and a day-care program that serves another 80 senior citizens.
The authority is a quasi-official municipal agency. The council appoints three members of the board of directors, the mayor appoints three and those six then vote in a seventh member.