Mayor Michael Bissonnette, whose staff budget was slashed, said the cuts that were proposed and made were not on any agenda, violating Massachusetts' Open Meeting Law.
CHICOPEE – The City Council’s vote to pass the budget last week may not have been done properly, which could leave the city with no spending plan when the fiscal year begins on Friday.
Michael BissonnetteWhat was expected to be a somewhat routine meeting to pass the budget last week turned hostile when the City Council eliminated the salaries for Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette’s chief of staff and his administrative assistant, reduced the hours of the city lawyer to part-time and made other cuts in 7-6 votes.
The meeting collapsed when some councilors who did not know about the last-minute cuts called their colleagues’ behavior “disgusting” and some councilors and the mayor yelled back and forth at each other.
Bissonnette said the cuts that were proposed and made were not on any agenda, violating the state’s new Open Meeting Law that calls for every item that will be discussed by a municipal body to be listed on the agenda so residents know the subjects are to be discussed, he said.
The council also posted for two meetings that night but made procedural errors when adjourning one and starting a second, he said.
James K. Tillotson“It is obvious we are creating war here and I don’t get it,” said Councilor James K. Tillotson, who did not vote for the cuts. “I don’t think it will save two pennies on the tax rate.”
Bissonnette called the cuts an attack on his office and a “shameless, political act.”
But some of the seven councilors who approved the cuts said they were trying to level-fund the budget to the previous year’s spending in a tight financial year.
The approximately $158 million budget was approved 7-6 at the end of the meeting, but Bissonnette said he feels several procedural errors were made which nullifies that vote.
The mayor has called a meeting of the City Council at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The original purpose was to reconcile end-of-the-year accounts, but now Bissonnette said he wants to the group to reconsider the cuts and, if they cannot, to pass a 1/12th budget that would be similar to the budget in June. A one-month budget will prevent a shut-down of all services on July 1 and give the council and mayor time to work out a new budget for fiscal year 2012.
William Zaskey“The position of the law department is there is no budget,” he said.
City Council President William A. Zaskey, reached while out of town, said he believed the meeting was called legally and the vote stands.
However he said he hasn’t seen the information from the mayor. He said he will be able to comment better after consulting with the council’s lawyer.
Daniel Garvey, the lawyer who represents the council, did not return calls on Monday. Several city councilors also failed to returned calls for comment.