NORTHAMPTON — In a budget he described as “one of cautious optimism and active recovery,” Mayor David Narkewicz has released a spending plan for fiscal 2022 that boosts Health Department funding and provides money for a Department of Community Care.
The proposed budget of $121,705,839 represents an increase of 4.82%, or approximately $5.6 million, from fiscal 2021, and includes the restoration of some positions eliminated last year..
Narkewicz said “difficult decisions” were implemented in the current year’s budget, including an $870,783 overall reduction and the elimination of 22 full-time positions across nine city departments,.
The proposed budget includes “projections based on the fact that we are coming out of the pandemic and starting to see some economic recovery,” Narkewicz added. In contrast, the city assembled and approved the budget last year amid the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The balanced fiscal 2022 budget incorporates funding from a $2.5 million general operating override. Voters approved the override in early March of 2020, but the city delayed its implementation for a year due to the pandemic.
The largest increase is allocated to health and human services, which would see a funding increase of 41.74%, or $650,674. This includes money for the proposed Department of Community Care, which received a line item appropriation of $423,955.
The Department of Community Care, which was a major recommendation of the Northampton Policing Review Commission, would be independent from the police and staffed with unarmed responders to address nonviolent calls. The city established the commission last summer following the police killing of George Floyd, and tasked the 15-member group with reviewing the Northampton Police Department and making recommendations for public safety and equity improvements.
Funding for the new department will cover the hiring of a project coordinator, administrative assistant, data analysis resources, and other assessment and consulting tools.
The budget includes a 3% increase to the Police Department, running counter to calls from some community members to defund the police. In summer 2020, the City Council, amid demands to cut the department’s budget by 50%, voted to reduce police funding by 10%. The department eliminated five positions following this decision, and remains at level staffing under the fiscal 2022 budget, according to Narkewicz.
Narkwewicz said that the 3% increase mainly accounts for contractual obligations for cost-of-living increases and step raises, with a small portion that will increase the hours of an assistant animal control officer.
The city Health Department will receive an increase of 32.33%, or $144,724, under the proposed budget.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has provided many important ‘lessons learned,’” Narkewicz said of this increase in a budget introduction, “and chief among them is the need for municipalities to ensure a robust public health infrastructure to meet the current and future health challenges facing communities.”
Speaking with the Gazette, Narkewicz characterized the department as “fairly robust” before the pandemic. But COVID-19 “certainly really stretched our resources significantly, and we had to hire additional staff support, mostly using federal aid,” he said.
With the proposed fiscal 2022 allocation, the city plans to fund an assistant health director position; permanently hire a second public health nurse; and pay a prevention coalition coordinator to help reduce youth substance use. For the past decade, this position was funded by a federal grant that the city cannot renew.
Attempts to reach Health Director Merridith O’Leary for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Departments will generally maintain level services under the proposed budget, according to Narkewicz, with most departmental budgets growing by 3% or less. Some departments are allocated a higher than usual increase — public works, for instance, has a proposed jump of nearly 9%, or $321,126. Many of these unusually large shifts are due to the restoration of full-time positions that were cut last year, according to Narkewicz.
After the fiscal 2021 budget cut 22 full-time equivalent positions, the fiscal 2022 proposal restores or adds 13.2 full-time equivalent positions.
The budgets for Northampton Public Schoools and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School will increase by around 4% each.
Narkewicz will formally present the budget to City Council on Thursday at its regularly scheduled 7 p.m. meeting.
After receiving the budget, the City Council will schedule additional public hearings and deliberations, with the goal of having the budget in place by the start of the new fiscal year in July 2021.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.