PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Director of Finance Matthew Kerwood is looking to clean up the books on some $69 million worth of City Council bond authorizations that were never spent.

 

Kerwood says the city has a total of $190 million in authorizations to borrow for projects dating back a number of years. That includes the $120 million authorization for the new Taconic High School, which will be needed as the project continues but still leaves about $69 million in authorized but unspent funds.

 

The City Council approved a request to rescind $675,000 of the remainder Tuesday night in efforts to close out projects that were either never done or came in under budget.

 

"The majority of the projects that are on that list have been completed. The funds that you see to be rescinded are residual funds," Kerwood told the council.

 

However, the council was taken aback that a few projects for which it had approved funding were never accomplished. The rescinding orders date back to 2008 and includes some larger ticket items, such as $169,000 for South Landfill drainage projects. That was money left over from 2008 when two projects regarding the landfill and area were approved totaling $390,000.

 

Councilor at Large Melissa Mazzeo had a series of questions attempting to track down how that authorization was spent, wondering if the city spent some of the money on engineering and then never followed through with the construction work. 

 

Kerwood said one of the authorizations was for the King Street dump in response to the state Department of Environmental "putting pressure" on the city to address concerns. But, after the order was made, the DEP "backed off" and the urgency to complete the project dissipated. So that work was never completed.

 

Some work was completed with the nearby South Landfill for projects, but not all of the authorization was spent and the rest is already bonded and accounted for in the debt services line.

 

Mazzeo continued to prod about what level of work was or wasn't done. But Kerwood wasn't in his role at the time and was short on answers. The questions should be directed to the department heads at the time, he's just cleaning up the financial paperwork, he said.

 

"I think it is unfair for you to be asking me about why or why not these projects were done," said Kerwood, who was appointed to his post in January. "This is money that was left over for the most part. There were a few projects for whatever reason didn't go forward. I can't speak to the specifics."

 

In 2010, the City Council approved $50,000 to repair heating units at Conte Community School and Morningside Community School. Those, too, went unspent and instead money for the repairs have been coming from the Building Maintenance budget. Acting Director of Building Maintenance Brian Filiault said he didn't even know about that bond authorization or else he would have tapped into those funds instead.

 

In 2011, the council approved $83,000 to replace boilers at the Police Department. But, an administrative decision was made not to replace them and instead just repair them through the Building Maintenance Department.

 

"There is no desire to replace the boilers at the Police Department with the understanding that this won't be the police department building in the future," Kerwood said.

 

Those three projects were just a few of the ones Kerwood had reviewed recently when looking over the bond authorizations. He said those projects, coupled with other authorizations that came in low were unneeded. If those projects ever do move forward, he said they would probably need more money and a new authorization anyway.

 

But that the projects weren't done at all are what irritated a few of the councilors. Mazzeo said every year the capital budget is debated and review thoroughly by the City Council, and debate had been so hot that one year a budget was never approved. She said those projects approved were always seen as a necessity and years later the projects are still not complete.

 

Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Simonelli echoed that sentiment saying, "My concern is that at one point in time, every one of these projects was deemed necessary and needed."

 

Another such project was renovating the assessor's office. In 2008, the council approved $70,000 for that project. On Tuesday, the council approved taking some of that bonding authorization and putting it toward a project approved this year that was short on money. Kerwood said the administration has no intention of completing the assessor's office project.

 

"I sat in that chair and approved that capital project. Here we are seven or eight years later, the project originally envisioned was never done. There was some work done in the assessor's office but in talking to those who were around at the time, the work that was done was taken out of the building maintenance operation budget," said Kerwood, who was a city councilor at the time. "It wasn't a lot of work. They cut a hole and made a doorway."

 

The City Council pulled just short of $26,000 from that authorization and rescinded the rest. That $26,000 was transferred to the authorization to replace the counter at the tax collector's office — a project costing $56,000.

 

According to Purchasing Agent Colleen Hunter Mullett, the bids for the construction came in above the $40,000 allocated for both architectural designs and construction. The additional $26,000 will fully fund that project. 

 

"We don't have the time to do that in-house. We are so bogged down by our own projects and maintenance,"  Filiault said.

 

He said the project is a full demolition and rebuilding of the counter. That includes replacing the electrical and data systems. The counter needs to be custom made, Filiault said, adding to the cost. He said his department has the skills and the talent to do the project but not the time. The architectural work is required because of the size of the building, he said.

 

Additionally, provisions have to be made to keep the tax-collecting operations going during the two-week period in which the counter will be under construction.

 

"It is all custom made," he said. "It is a lot of money, no question about it, but there is a lot in the project."

 

Mazzeo, however, quipped that with a price like that she could renovate an entire kitchen. While Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell said, "I think we're trying to put a Cadillac in a Chevrolet garage." 

 

While Kerwood is trying to clean up the authorizations, he said there is still a lot more authorized debt available, which can be moved around similar to what was done with the assessor's project and the tax counter.

 

He and Mayor Linda Tyer are implementing a new system for capital projects, which will be released to department heads soon.

 

"You can be sure Matt and I will be holding department heads accountable for their requests," Tyer said.

 

Tyer said the new plan asks for such things from department heads as follow-ups on previous projects and project timeliness. The hope is that bond authorizations aren't on the books for nearly decades at a time. 

 

"We have a new structure in place for what that five-year capital plan will look like," Tyer said.

 

Kerwood said the administration will be working to ensure the projects are actually done in a timely manner. And in the end, the efforts to clean up unused authorizations will help the bond rating, he said.