AGAWAM – During the Agawam City Council meeting hosted on July 8, the Council voted on a non-binding resolution to encourage Agawam Mayor William Sapelli to enhance spending for road and sidewalk repairs with the funds generated by the Local Option Meals Tax. The tax was approved by the City Council in June. Councilor George Bitzas and City Council President Christopher Johnson sponsored the resolution.

“I know it’s a non-binding resolution. But it is a statement. It is an official document to be in the records that this Council voted in favor for this resolution to allocate this money to go to streets and sidewalks. Not only for this mayor, because I believe this mayor supports that, but for the next mayors also. It is a great thing to do because if you put it in the general budget, it will get lost. I have many people that stop me to tell me about this. If you go sometimes to the Internet, you can see the comments. The people want us to take a stand and say, ‘yes, we want this money to go to the sidewalks and the streets.’ The sidewalks are looking pretty good. Let’s keep it that way,” Councilor Bitzas said during the meeting.

Councilor Bitzas continued, “I strongly argue to support this because it’s good for the town, it’s good for everybody and it will benefit everybody for infrastructure, streets and sidewalks only.”

Councilor Dino Mercadante said he did not support the resolution. “I understand it’s non-binding. In some sense, it could be construed as ‘feel-good legislation.’ I think our mayor is doing a great job with the streets and the sidewalks. I’m going to vote against this non-binding resolution only because I don’t want to hamstring our mayor into feeling obligated because Agawam has plenty of needs and he can be the best judge of how to spend the money and I have confidence that he’ll do the right thing. And if so be it that he wants to put extra money into roads and sidewalks, he has that latitude to do so. But to make him feel as though the will of the Council is that that’s what he has to do, I think is unnecessary,” Mercadante said.

Councilor Rosemary Sandlin said she hopes that the funds generated from the meals tax will result in a tax decrease for the town of Agawam. “I have every bit of confidence in Mayor Sapelli that he can do the right thing with monies that come in on this tax that I voted against. If he, in his wisdom and in his judgment, feels that he needs to put this money toward a reduction in the tax rate that would be wonderful. I just don’t want to tell him or future mayors what to do with this money. I think that’s their job to do the best that they can do for Agawam and hopefully if we do ever get a full $500,000, that could be a tax decrease.” Councilor Sandlin said.

Councilor Robert Rossi said he felt that the resolution would send the “wrong message” to Mayor Sapelli. “I originally was going to take the path of least resistance on this thing and just kind of like, hope it slid by. But after listening to this dissertation over here, I feel compelled to say something. The money that we’re drawing from this meals tax thing should go into the general reserve like all monies that come in from other sources and to be used in a budget process as determined by the mayor approved by the City Council. I think it sends the wrong message to say that the mayor should concentrate on a specific area and not on other areas that he feels may be important,” Rossi said.

Councilor Rossi continued, “I understand it’s non-binding. He doesn’t have to listen to this thing, but I think what we’re doing is just totally unnecessary. I don’t even want to vote for the thing, to be perfectly honest with you. That’s how badly I feel about this whole thing. I’m disappointed it even got this far. These non-binding resolutions, I’m not really crazy about. In the past, these have never gotten us anywhere and they mean absolutely nothing.”

Councilor Robert Magovern said, “I appreciate what Councilor Bitzas has had to say and I know he’s sincere in what he’s saying. But I really have confidence in our mayor that if he has to spend $500,000 next year on the roads and sidewalks, he’s going to spend it. If he has to spend a million, he’ll spend it.”

Councilor Magovern continued, “I don’t want to hamstring the mayor. I don’t want to second-guess the mayor. I think he should be allowed to make the decisions as to where the money goes, but I think he will be spending at least a half a million dollars or more every year for the next several years to repair the sidewalks and the roads in this town. Some of the roads need it and that’s where the money’s going to go. But I don’t think we as a Council should get into the business of dictating to the mayor where the money should go, even if this is a non-binding resolution.”

Councilor Joseph Mineo agreed that focus was necessary on streets and sidewalks, but disagreed with the resolution.

“I think the mayor is doing a good job. He asked me a question a few months ago, ‘are you seeing things happening out there?’ which he meant in town. Streets, sidewalks. My answer to him was yes. I think he can do what he wants with this. He’s doing a good job. I don’t think he needs us to tell him where to spend it. I’m sure wherever there’s a need, I’m sure that’s where he’s going to put it. Do we need to keep going? Fixing more streets and repairing more sidewalks? Yes, but I think it’s being done. He’s the mayor and it’s his budget. He knows where the need is better than we do,” Councilor Mineo said.

Councilor Bitzas said the resolution would be more geared toward future mayors. “I do agree that the mayor is doing a great job with the streets and sidewalks because it was neglected for many, many years. But this is the point. This is not for Mayor Sapelli. This is for next mayors because this will stay forever,” Councilor Bitzas said.

Councilor Anthony Suffriti said, “I understand where you’re coming from, George. The money being generated is from people that are utilizing the streets and the sidewalks to get to these establishments and they pay the tax and we want to give them the best means of access on our roads. But it takes more than just paved roads to have them come. He needs to take care of them plowing during the winter and salting and maintenance of them. Our job here at the Council is not to micromanage a mayor in how he effectively runs the city. Our job here is to create the funds, the tools, the resources for the mayor to do the job to the best of his ability.”

Councilor Suffriti continued, “I do understand what you’re trying to come to when you put this together and I appreciate that but I also will not be able to support it because I believe the job of where the money goes to to run the city appropriately for these visitors that come in and for the residents here falls strictly on the mayor.”

With a vote of 2-6, the resolution was defeated. To view the full meeting, visit www. vimeo.com/Agawam.