Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Transfers topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance committee approves multiple budget transfers, a sewer grant and contract oversight funding
Summary
The committee approved transfers including $350,000 for police overtime, a $1,000 records stipend, a $13,421,739 correction to health insurance lines, a $265,000 no-match sewer grant, $50,000 to hire a contract manager for Veolia oversight, and $54,000 for professional engineering services.
The Holyoke City Finance Committee on Feb. 11 approved a series of routine and targeted transfers and accepted a state sewer grant to cover consulting and project-preparation work.
Key votes and amounts approved by voice vote:
- Police overtime: transfer $250,000 from patrol and $100,000 from dispatchers for a total of $350,000 to cover overtime needs for the fiscal year; Police Chief said he expects to finish the year under prior overtime totals.
- Records stipend: $1,000 stipend required by the police collective bargaining agreement for the senior records officer; council noted organizational changes may remove the need going forward.
- Health insurance correction: Auditor Sharon Bittner explained an entry error in the city's self-funded insurance budgeting and the committee approved a $13,421,739 transfer to correct the health insurance expense line.
- Sewer grant: Council accepted a $265,000 no-match grant from the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development to fund sewer surveying, consultant work and bid-packaging in areas slated for development.
- Veolia oversight: Council approved transferring $50,000 from the Veolia contract line to a city professional services line to procure a city-funded contract manager to monitor the Veolia wastewater contract's deliverables.
- Engineering services: Because the city has been unable to hire a senior civil engineer, the committee approved transferring $54,000 from the senior civil engineer line to professional engineering services to continue contracted work.
All motions were approved by voice vote during the meeting; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript.
What happens next: Departments will implement the transfers; the auditor and department leads will report back as required by normal budget procedures.
