Ordinance committee approves municipal modernization draft after debate over CAFO powers and proposed comptroller

Holyoke — The ordinance committee voted July 29 to forward an amended municipal modernization ordinance to the full City Council after more than two hours of detailed line-by-line review and debate over the new chief administrative financial officer (CAFO) role and a proposed comptroller position.

The committee considered edits offered by Councilor Constance Bartley and others that clarified timelines for document requests, specified disciplinary authority, and added procedural protections for a CAFO facing removal. Councilors approved the package as amended by a 3-2 roll-call vote; an earlier motion to remove the new comptroller section failed 3-2.

Why it matters: The ordinance rewrites portions of the city charter and municipal code to centralize certain financial and auditing functions. It creates a CAFO position with defined certification and reporting duties, changes timelines for records requests, and spells out appointment and removal procedures. Committee debate focused on who should hold disciplinary authority, whether a new comptroller role duplicates the work of an auditor or internal-audit director, and what procedural protections employees should have when facing removal.

The committee’s floor work centered on textual edits. Bartley proposed replacing vague "reasonable time" language with a fixed window — she recommended 30 calendar days in several places — and inserting the word "business" to turn a…