Some officials contend the authority owes the city nearly $3 million while authority officials claim the debt is less than $1 million.
Holyoke Geriatric Authority, 45 Lower Westfield RoadHOLYOKE – Mayoral candidate Daniel C. Boyle said Mayor Elaine A. Pluta has mismanaged the Holyoke Geriatric Authority controversy and her real goal is to close the facility.
Pluta also drew criticism on the issue Friday mayoral candidates Alex B. Morse and Daniel C. Burns.
Pluta said she is trying to get the authority to pay the nearly $3 million it owes city agencies, but it is untrue to say she wants to shut down the 45 Lower Westfield Road nursing home.
Pluta has been praised and criticized for taking out a three-quarter-page advertisement in the Sunday Republican. She said she paid about $1,500 out of her own pocket for the ad that began “Dear Citizens of Holyoke,” detailed the authority’s debt and said taxpayers can no longer afford to bail out the authority.
Authority officials dispute Pluta and other officials and say the debt is less than $1 million.
Boyle, a business consultant, said Pluta’s actions have been harmful to the authority’s 80 residents and more than 120 employees.
“More importantly, the mayor is misleading everyone because she really has told state officials that she wants to close the (authority) – a position she continues to deny,” Boyle said.
Boyle said he spoke with people who participated in two meetings that Pluta had with state officials in the past four or five months in which she was clear about wanting to learn how to close the facility. He declined to identify who he spoke with.
Instead of attacking the authority, Boyle said, the step should be meetings with authority and city officials to sort through conflicts.
Pluta said The Republican ad is her best argument because it spells out what the authority owes to the Holyoke Gas and Electric Department, retirement board and other agencies, and how the authority has failed to identify how it will pay the bills.
“The facts speak for themselves,” said Pluta, saying of the assertion she wants to close the authority, “That’s not true.”
Morse said the city needs concrete plans to deal with the authority.
“I think the mayor is doing a lot of talking but not doing anything,” said Morse, youth counselor at CareerPoint here.
The authority isn’t doing all it can to repay the city, he said. For example, Morse said the authority should be prodded to raise revenue by leasing unused facilities, a step authority officials are considering.
“But it shouldn’t be us vs. them. We’re all citizens of Holyoke,” Morse said.
With such a poor city – nearly 30 percent of the population of 39,880 lives in poverty – Holyoke needs the jobs the authority provides and not a closed authority, said Burns, a former city councilor.
“The way (Pluta has) handled it, for me, it’s like she’s handled everything – poorly,” Burns said.