Commissioner of Public Utilities Bruce Collingwood outlined the two capital projects eyed for the wastewater treatment plant.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council's Finance Subcommittee is recommending the approval of a long-awaited new contract for police patrol officers.

 

The three-year contract is retroactive 2 1/2 years, meaning the administration and the patrol union will be going right into negotiating the next.

 

Because of the lengthy negotiations during which the patrol union was operating under a previous contract, the city is paying about $403,000 for the retropay.

 

"What some people were thinking was that this $400,000 was a lot of money. But that is because it is retro 2 1/2 years," said Councilor at Large Barry Clairmont.

 

A rejection by the Finance Subcommittee and subsequent City Council would have led to an arbitration process. 

 

"This is a three-year contract that goes back to FY13. It was in good faith and this is what was agreed to," said Director of Finance Susan Carmel, who added that the contract translates to a 1 percent increase per year.

 

The subcommittee approved it but urged both sides to come to agreement earlier. Essentially, as Clairmont said, current city residents are paying for services they received years ago.

 

"I'd rather have the hits be a little each year than all at once," said City Council President Melissa Mazzeo.

 

The Finance Subcommittee has approved a transfer for $1.1 million from the sewer enterprise fund to the Department of Utility's operating budget. According to Director of Public Utilities Bruce Collingwood, the money will go to replacing two boilers and a roof membrane.

 

"They are over 60 years old. Overall they've got to an age where getting replacement parts are difficult and they don't meet the heating requirements of the plant," said Collingwood of the boiler replacements.

 

The boilers are expected to cost $650,000, particularly because of their size. The boilers aren't just asked to heat the buildings but to also heat the sludge in the anaerobic digester. 

 

Collingwood said they are "on borrowed time" and need to be replaced. The roof is in a similar situation and is expected to cost $450,000.

Councilors At Large Churchill Cotton and Kathleen Amuso voted in favor of both petitions.

The committee supported the projects. But, members had concerns about the process. The orders include design, oversight, bidding and construction and the councilors said they'd prefer to do each step separately.

Clairmont ultimately was the only vote against the project and for that reason.

"I would rather see us approve the money for the design for the project, get the project out to bid. And then when we have the bid, approve the funding for the rest," Clairmont said.

 

The money would go to the operating budget and could be moved between lines at Collingwood's will and that wasn't a proper way to handle such an amount, Clairmont said.

 

Councilor at Large Kathleen Amuso, however, said she was provided enough information about the projects to approve the entire order at once. 

 

Collingwood said the projects are "straightforward" so he was confident in his estimates. He added that anything that isn't spent will go back to the sewer account. But in a somewhat of a compromise, Collingwood agreed with the subcommittees' suggestion to provide a breakdown of the costs to the City Council when they meet to approve it.

 

The timing of the order came into question as well. It was first sent to the committee in June but the fiscal year ended so the enterprise funds had to be certified by the state. Now, the urgency is to design, bid and construct in the next construction season.

 

Collingwood said the enterprise account has about $2.7 million and the transfer would leave a balance of $1.6 million.