The City Council again rejected a request to restore positions in the mayor's office.
Chicopee City Hall.CHICOPEE – The City Council again rejected a request to restore positions in the mayor’s office, but may reconsider previous votes to eliminate a position of grant writer and to cut the city solicitor’s salary to part-time.
It also refused to reconsider votes that cut $8,000 for a property custodian, $2,000 for travel for the mayor and $15,000 to pay for consulting services Tuesday night.
Before the Council passed the $158 million fiscal year 2012 budget on June 21, it made a number of cuts, including eliminating the jobs of two of the mayor’s staff.
That meeting turned hostile, with Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette and some councilors yelling at each other.
The City Council has twicerejected Bissonnette's petitions asking the Council to reverse the votes that eliminated the $47,299 salary for his chief of staff, the $28,114 salary for his administrative assistant and a new grant writer job for $45,641.
The first time the City Council rejected the reconsiderations in 7-6 votes. Tuesday it continued to reject proposals to restore the chief of staff and administrative assistant jobs in 6-6 votes. One member was on vacation.
“I voted in budget time to defeat this and I stand by it,” Councilor Frank N. Laflamme said.
The council did agree to discuss creating the grant writer job and expanding the city solicitor job in committee.
Councilor Charles M. Swider said a grant writer can earn far more money by winning grants that the city would spend on the salary.
“You are killing something that can possibly make hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Swider said.
Councilor Ronald R. Belair said he said he would consider adding the position if he sees a job description and other details about the position.
Councilor Frederick Krampits disagreed, saying he believes the work could done by existing staff. He cast the lone no vote in the 11-1 decision to review the issue.
“I still believe we can do some training in-house. Rather than hiring a person, I think we should try workshops and see how it goes,” he said.
The council also agreed to debate hiring a full-time city solicitor to run the law department. In the past the department was handled by a part-time lawyer who served as department head and a full-time assistant solicitor. Several other lawyers work part-time in the office.
Bissonnette has argued the city is too large for a part-time city solicitor. The City Council last year rejected the proposal to increase the salary from about $47,000 to a full-time one of $75,000. By adding new duties and $28,000 salary of a property custodian to the position, Bissonnette was able to hire solicitor Karen T. Betournay full-time.
In the original cuts, the council decided to return the salary to $47,000. On Tuesday, it referred the issue to the finance committee in a 12-0 vote and asked Betournay to attend a meeting to discuss her work.