The City Council approved the request for an efficiency consultant 7-4 on Tuesday night.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council is asking the mayor to hire an outside consultant to find ways to cut operating costs.

 

The City Council voted 7-4 Tuesday to send a request to the mayor to hire a "Lean Six Sigma" consultant.

 

The concept combines business methodologies of Lean (often used in manufacturing processes) and Six Sigma to streamline processes, reduce waste and improve customer service.

 

The effort was headed by Councilor at Large Kathleen Amuso, who said the consultants will be able to look at purchasing and processes to find ways to be more efficient with the tax dollars.

 

"This is one of the times where I think a consultant will pay for itself. We will get that money back," she said.

 

Ward 3 Councilor Nicholas Caccamo supported the idea saying that bring in "new eyes" to look at the processes could be beneficial. Amuso said consultants who were once hired for Berkshire Health Systems returned with an array of options — some easily implemented and some more difficult.

 

However, some councilors say spending money on a consultant isn't needed and that department heads can do the job.

 

"I'm not going to support this in regard to asking the mayor to hire a consultant. I don't think we need to hire a consultant. The mayor needs to get the department heads together to ask these questions," Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Simonelli said.

 

Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi said there should be a committee formed and department heads brought together to look for cost savings. 

 

"I honestly think this should be an ongoing process. We should be doing this all of the time," said Council Vice President Christopher Connell. 

 

Caccamo, however, pointed out that all of the department heads said they were level funded and have cut everything out already during the budgeting process.

 

"We need a new set of eyes coming in here who can see things that we can't on the inside," added Ward 1 Councilor Lisa Tully.

 

Connell joined Councilor at Large Barry Clairmont, Morandi and Simonelli in voting against it. The rest of the council approved it.

 

The council tabled a request for $1.1 million from the sewer enterprise fund to the Department of Utility's operating budget. The funds are intended to be used to replace two boilers and the roof. The Finance Subcommittee approved the expense but added it wanted more information from Commissioner of Public Utilities Bruce Collingwood.

 

Collingwood had to leave prior to that item coming up for discussion so he was unavailable to answer questions.

 

Some councilors said they had concerns with spending that amount at once instead of in phases. The funding is for all steps — design and construction.

 

"We should have more control over the dollars," Clairmont said. "I am not against the project. I just think we should pay for the design phase at this point and deal with the construction later." 

 

The council also approved changing the zoning on Center Street to make way for a parking lot for the proposed Hotel on North.