Kronick's Charter Objections Cause Unrest in Pittsfield Council Chambers
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Ward 2 Councilor Charles Kronick's charter objections once again caused unrest in Council Chambers.
On Tuesday, Kronick made charter objection motions against waiving a Finance Committee review for three time-sensitive orders: to transfer and appropriate $620,000 from free cash to the Department of Public Services for snow and ice removal, to transfer $75,000 from retained sewer earnings to the Department of Public Utilities Wastewater Division for sludge handling, and to transfer and appropriate $850,000 from free cash to the Police Department for scheduled overtime.
President Peter Marchetti pleaded for him to reconsider the motions, as these costs will become taxpayers' burden if they are not appropriated by the end of the fiscal year on Friday.
To avoid this, a special meeting will be held on June 30 at 7 p.m. to address the items. The meeting was originally planned for 6 p.m.
"We cannot touch free cash [after June 30] until the state certifies free cash and at the time, this $620,000 burden, and if you're going to charter object the rest of this stuff tonight, will go on the burden of the taxpayers in November when we set the tax rate because it will need to be on our recap sheet and we'll need to pay for it then," Marchetti advised the councilor.
"So we have the ability to pay for it with free cash and then whatever the budget generates back for free cash goes back into free cash. If you want to make that charter objection, two things are going to happen. Number one: if you're the only one, the chair is going to declare a meeting for Friday, June 30, at 6 p.m. so that we can abide by the law. If there's a second, then we're all realizing what we're doing is that this is going on the recap sheet and it's going to impact the taxpayers."
Kronick said it is Mayor Linda Tyer's fault if the charter objection results in an increased burden on taxpayers.
"I understand it is an emergency however, the mayor comes to the City Council three days before the close of the fiscal year," he said.
"After the budget for 2024 has been approved and debated, she comes and she demands $620,000 expecting us to wave a finance review of it and she brings absolutely no substantiation to the request itself."
He said the council has waived Finance Committee reviews in urgent situations before but "this is different because they knew about this."
"And they wait until the very last minute and I don't like that ... it is not right to do it. It sounds fishy, frankly, and I'm going to stick to my charter objection I agree that is terribly uncomfortable," Kronick said.
"Understand also this: failure to plan on the part of the mayor does not form a crisis for the City Council. This solely goes back onto the head of the mayor if it comes down and the negative impact on the taxpayer, not on City Council. So no, I stick to my charter objection."
The conversation became increasingly tense after the third charter objection. A brief recess was called after several incidents of speaking out of order.
"I'm going to try one last time on behalf of myself and all of our colleagues that you've made your point and I let you rattle against the administration and the finance director ... ." Marchetti said before Kronick cut him off with a point of order.
It was pointed out that if there is not a quorum at Friday's meeting the costs will be on the backs of the taxpayers.
"You can blame the administration but this City Council is the body that's refusing to act," Marchetti said. "So if you would be so kind as to reconsider, you can vote no on every single one of these appropriations."
Kronick asked, "Why do we have a City Council?"
"We don't deliberate, we don't even do Finance Committee hearings, I mean, on this,"
"Why even do we have a City Council? Because we want to make sure the requests are validated. Nothing else. So yes we'll meet on Friday and if people want this to be done according to the process that we expect they will come here. The bars can wait."
The comment about bars triggered another point of order to be called.
"You can call my daughter and tell her why I'm not at her soccer game then, Charles," Ward 3 Councilor Kevin Sherman said. "That's it. Otherwise, I'm going to resign."
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio called for a recess. After the recess, Kronick was given another opportunity to reconsider his charter objections and did not.
During last year's budget process, Kronick derailed the FY24 approval with a charter objection after several weeks of departmental deliberations. A budget was adopted by default without the council's recommendations and the amendments were added in by Tyer afterward.
There was some uncertainty over whether there would be a budget and Tyer called a press conference with Marchetti to explain the situation and assure the public that there would be a spending plan.
On Tuesday, Kronick also voted against transferring $45,000 from retained water earnings to the Department of Public Utilities Water Division for short-term debt interest.
He wants to see these metrics embedded in the budget.
"Free cash policy is it is to be used for emergency. We ask for money taken out of free cash to reduce the tax debt and you insist that we need that in order to deal with broken pipes, broken lines, municipal work that has to be done. It is actually being used because you don't make budgets. You make fake budgets ... Now you say you come to the end of the year and say now we have a new budget that we need to fund and we're going to be using free cash for it," Kronick said.
"It is a fallacy and it is really wrong and this $45,000 really needs to come out of the budget that you have that was appropriated and approved by this council last year and that's why I'm going to vote against it."
Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren said it is "a wash" either way and that too much time is being spent talking about $45,000.
With the $620,000 free cash ask for winter operations, a comparative analysis of winter operations expenditures for the last four years was provided. In 2023, the city expended more than $1.9 million, which was a significant jump from 2022's costs of more than $1.4 million.
It was also explained that the $75,000 for the wastewater budget will fund a 47 percent increase in the cost to manage sludge disposal.
The police overtime is attributed to a recent contractual salary restructuring of the Pittsfield Police unions, which will result in an estimated $850,000 shortfall for fiscal 2023.
"Additionally, the department has absorbed all costs associated with the FY2023 collective bargaining agreements," a communication from interim Chief Thomas Dawley reads.
"As a result of this contractual increase, this unfunded obligation has directly impacted all the salaries in these collective bargaining units as well as the overtime accounts."
Tags: charter objection, fiscal 2024, free cash, pittsfield_budget,
