The council $250,000 out of the reserve account, but struck a deal to add that amount to educational spending through a yet-to-be-calculated supplemental budget.
AGAWAM - The City Council has adopted a $73.3 million fiscal 2012 budget, cutting $250,000 out of the reserve account of the $73.5 million budget proposed by the mayor, but struck a deal to add that amount to educational spending through a yet-to-be-calculated supplemental budget.
Mayor Richard A. Cohen and the council came to an understanding at Monday’s City Council meeting that they would seek to use the $250,000 to restore some of the 31.8 full-time equivalent positions in the School Department slated for elimination in the mayor’s proposed budget.
Richard CohenAmong the cuts in the mayor’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget was laying off employees holding four full-time equivalent teaching positions and not filling six open teaching positions. Cohen and the council reached agreement about 11:20 p.m. The council voted 11-0 to cut $250,000 out of the reserve account on a motion by City Councilor Gina M. Letellier.
Meanwhile, Cohen met Tuesday with School Superintendent Mary Czajkowski to urge her to rehire teachers through a supplemental budget that he will submit to the City Council after being approved by the School Committee.
Councilors were frustrated by the fact that they are not allowed to add money to a mayoral budget; they may only cut.
Letellier complained that it is not “fair” to have so much money in reserve and in the free cash account while cutting services.
Cohen’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget had $500,000 in the reserve account and $3.4 million left in free cash after tapping $1.5 million for fiscal 2012.
City Councilor Robert Magovern agreed, saying he believed the mayor could refigure the budget and “come up with some money somewhere.”
Cohen has said his $73,547,630 spending plan for fiscal 2012, which starts July 1, is the first budget in his years as mayor in which he has had to propose layoffs.
The lion’s share of the spending, at $34,194,167, has been proposed for the School Department.
His proposed education budget calls for laying off 13 teacher’s aides, nearly four full-time equivalent teachers and two secretaries and not filling the positions of six teachers, one secretary, the school resource officer and five instructional coaches.
“Agawam has made a decision, as a community, to make education its top priority, and my administration will help to see that through while maintaining the lowest split tax rate in the area,” Mayor Cohen stated in a press release issued by his office on behalf of Czajkowski and himself.
“It was apparent last evening that the mayor, City Council, Agawam School Committee, and school department were working together to do what is in the best interest of the town’s children,” stated Czajkowski.
Cohen has said he has avoided resorting to layoffs in the municipal sector by not filling vacancies in the following jobs: the assistant treasurer, a Department of Public Works senior clerk, a building maintenance employee, a police officer, a half-time secretarial position in the town clerk’s office, a highway and grounds laborer, a working foreman and a heavy equipment operator in the waste water budget.