Finance committee approves out‑of‑state travel transfers to send municipal staff to Munis conference; DPW transfer left without recommendation

The Holyoke City Finance Committee approved transfers March 11 to fund out-of-state travel for staff to attend the Tyler (Munis) systems conference, while deciding not to make a recommendation on one DPW transfer.

City personnel said the transfers — one each from police reserves, DPW, and fire department accounts — were for registration, travel and lodging to send staff to the Munis/Munisystem training and to support the city’s recent enterprise resource planning upgrade. The committee heard staff describe hands‑on classes and “train‑the‑trainer” benefits that city officials said will produce efficiencies in payroll, procurement and other systems.

Councilor Sullivan asked whether the reported savings from earlier Munis changes offset the travel. Officials said training and early registration can lower overall costs, and cited hard savings such as a reported $10,000 annual reduction from paperless pay stubs. Kelly Carter, personnel director, and city IT/implementation staff said sending a core group to the conference helps the city reduce consultant dependence in future.

Committee members debated the DPW transfer in particular. DPW vacancies (five heavy equipment operator vacancies were noted) led some councilors to argue the money should remain visible in DPW budgets for recruitment and potential wage adjustments. After discussion the committee voted to “pass without recommendation” on the DPW item so the City Council could consider alternate funding sources for that one transfer. The other two transfers (police and fire) were approved in committee.

Votes recorded in committee: item 4 (police transfer) — approved; item 8 (DPW transfer) — passed to council without recommendation; item 11 (fire transfer) — approved. Committee members noted the total estimated expense is about $15,654 but that shared rooms and conference-provided lunches will likely lower actual costs.

Officials stressed the conference’s practical training requirements: classes run long hours, have hands‑on modules and fill quickly, and early registration secures room blocks and lower rates. City staff said the city did not attend last year because the upgrade was midstream but that attending post-upgrade is now appropriate to learn best practices and reduce long-term consultant costs.