The Holyoke Ordinance Committee on Oct. 22 approved targeted changes to the draft job description for the city treasurer and directed staff to prepare ordinance language and salary draft for further review.

Committee members voted to add explicit duties to the treasurer job description, including preparation of payroll, reconciliations of accounts, responsibility for cash-management procedures (maximizing cash flow and investment earnings, monitoring receipts and maintaining internal controls), and a new line asking the treasurer to prepare a five-year financial forecast and capital plan for annual submission to the mayor and city council. Councilors adopted those amendments in a committee vote that passed unanimously on the motion to amend (vote recorded as 5–0).

Why it matters: Voters approved moving the treasurer from an elective to an appointive post; the committee is now converting qualification and duty language to fit an appointed, higher-skilled role. The changes clarify supervisory and fiduciary responsibilities the committee said are important to ensure reconciliations and payroll oversight are explicitly assigned.

What the committee did and next steps
The committee’s action (1) appended payroll preparation and explicit reconciliation responsibilities to the treasurer job description; (2) transplanted item 8 from a combined treasurer-collector draft — cash-management and internal-control language — into the treasurer-only draft; and (3) added a requirement that the treasurer prepare a five-year financial forecast and five-year capital plan annually. Councilors discussed certification expectations (Massachusetts municipal treasurer/tax collector certification) and possible timing for certification.

Committee members also considered a human-resources recommendation to place the position at “Grade 14” with a proposed salary range of $85,921 to $118,862. Members debated recruitment and retention tradeoffs — several councilors said the mid range would likely be too low to attract experienced external candidates and discussed whether to raise the grade or authorize limited hiring flexibility. The committee accepted HR’s recommendation for the draft but ultimately referred items 2 and 3 (qualifications and salary) to HR and legal for revision and formal drafting and tabled the items to return at a future meeting.

Key quotes
“Reconciliation is a huge issue in the treasurer’s office, so we want to make sure we have it in the job description,” Councilor Linda Bacon said as she proposed adding payroll and reconciliation language to the treasurer draft. Kelly (Human Resources) confirmed that while the ordinance lists broad duties, the job description can be more specific and that HR provided the draft language to the committee.

Implementation and timeline
The committee asked the city solicitor and HR to prepare ordinance-ready language and a final job posting that the committee will review at its next meeting. The motion left open the exact certification deadline and some timeline questions (18 vs. 36 months) for mandated certifications; committee members asked HR to clarify those timing options in the redraft.

Ending
Committee members said the goal is to finalize a clear job specification that can be used to recruit a candidate with supervisory, forecasting and reconciliation skills and that will serve as a foundation if the city later consolidates treasurer and collector functions.