HOLYOKE — The City Council voted Monday to cut $434,250 from acting Mayor Terence Murphy’s $144.6 million budget proposal, finalizing the city’s fiscal year 2022 budget before adjourning for a summer recess.
After holding lengthy budget hearings with city departments, the council met on Monday evening to finalize the city’s budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Murphy’s budget proposal reflected a 2.28% increase over the current fiscal year, though he did reduce requests from city departments by around $3 million in total.
The Holyoke Police Department saw the biggest cuts on Monday night from what Murphy had proposed. In particular, councilors cut $150,000 from HPD’s overtime account, $75,000 from a captain’s line item, $35,000 from money paid to officers appearing to testify in court, and $6,000 from motor vehicle repair and maintenance.
Ward 5 Councilor Linda Vacon proposed the cuts to the captain’s line, which she said might not be a popular proposal but was intended to keep HPD overhead costs low. The cut will mean the department will function with three captains, one less than previously. The cut passed by an 8-3 vote, with Murphy and at-large councilors Joe McGiverin and Peter Tallman casting the dissenting votes.
Vacon also proposed the cut to overtime, noting that the department typically has enough flexibility to transfer funds from unfilled personnel line items. Eight councilors approved that cut with four opposing it: Ward 4 Councilor Libby Hernandez, At-large Councilor Rebecca Lisi, Murphy and Tallman.
“The funds usually are transferable within the budget, and seeing that the police department has the largest budget in the city it seems they can manage that within it,” Vacon said.
Other departments to receive substantial cuts from Murphy’s proposal include $60,000 from the Department of Building Codes and Inspections for the demolition of unsafe buildings; $20,000 meant for police and fire network administration in the computer system administration and another $20,000 from software licensing; and $15,000 from the Department of Public Works — $5,000 for snow removal and $10,000 for refuse collection.
After the budget was passed by an 11-1 vote — with Vacon voting against and Ward 1 Councilor Gladys Lebron-Martinez absent — the council moved to go on summer recess. That means that meetings scheduled for July 6, July 20 and Aug. 17 have been canceled. Some City Council committees are still scheduled to meet during that time period, however.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.