BLANDFORD – Town Administrator (TA) Joshua A. Garcia recently took out papers seeking election as mayor of Holyoke. Garcia, who was born and raised in Holyoke and still lives there with his wife and children, said seeking the office was something he always had in the back of his mind and he was encouraged in that direction by family, friends and teachers. 

“Even today, in my adulthood, people would often joke, ‘Look, Mr. Mayor,’” he said.

Garcia has been town administrator in Blandford since the spring of 2018, when he came on in an interim appointment following the departure of the former town administrator. Initially, he was still employed as the municipal services manager for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC), and his duties in Blandford were considered part of his work with PVPC.

In August of 2018, when the search for a permanent TA failed to hire a candidate, Garcia left PVPC and came on full-time in Blandford, still on a “temporary” basis, pledging to give up to three years of service to the town.

At the time, Blandford was reeling from the aftermath of several challenges, including straightening out the financial disarray left by a former collector who had embezzled an estimated $150,000 from the town from 2002 to 2011 and who had been convicted of the crime earlier in 2018.

“After the tax embezzlement issue, there was a great deal of distrust between departments. There were a lot of things going on internally that didn’t allow for the community to bounce back and recover the way it needed,” Garcia said.

He said there had been no audit in the town since 2012, when the Department of Revenue issued an unfavorable report citing negative free cash balances, untimely reporting, no reconciliations, and budget items posted in the wrong places; ultimately leading to the discovery of the fraud.

Garcia called Blandford “a hurting community – you saw it in infrastructure and services.

The number one priority for the town was to straighten out the finances. Garcia said they had no other choice, because every department is dependent on how the financial departments operate, including payroll, procurement, large capital purchases, warrant processing and paying the bills.

The town started working on systemic changes that would allow each of the department’s needs to be supported. They voted and petitioned the commonwealth to change the position of treasurer from elected to appointed and consolidated the position to be a treasurer/collector to make it more efficient. They out-sourced municipal accounting to a municipal accounting firm and got the board of assessors a professional assessing firm to provide better administrative oversight.

“When I came in, we created a reorganization plan. We assessed the interoperability of departments and put together a plan to achieve levels of efficiency,” Garcia said.

He said they made the departments professional and put people in positions who knew what they were doing. They put the assessors and treasurer/collector in one room for better cross collaboration. They also strengthened the position of the finance committee.

“We were able to finally get an auditor to come in and provide the first audit since 2012. The audit was for FY18, and we knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. We knew there were going to be problems; we were hired to work on them,” Garcia said.

The town has now established a financial management policies manual for transparency purposes and to guide expectations. Garcia said the town’s treasurer/collector, Sara Hunter, has been an important part of the reorganization, giving them a five-year plan on what it would take to resolve the financial issues in the town. They are now in the fourth year of the plan, he said, and meet every month to make sure they’re working on the deficiencies defined in the audit and on their strategic objectives.

“Our new team meets monthly. Every month we look at accomplishments to date, to be sure that everyone is meeting expectations as far as the roles are concerned,” he said.

Garcia said the meetings are also for transparency purposes. They established a two-week warranty period, and every two weeks when everything is posted, they get an all-department expense report. “If we’re halfway through the year, we should be at 50 percent spent. The Select Board reviews all department expense reports at their meeting every week and looks at the line items underspent and overspent. We’ve really strengthened nearly to the penny our watch on how departments are spending, to eliminate opportunities for fraud and waste,” he said.

Garcia said the town is now working on its third audit, which should be done soon. “The audit gets better and better every year. Over 10 years, there was a lot of catch-up work. It was not cheap, the town had to invest, but the town has seen a return on its investment,” he said. 

With its finances in order, the town has been able to turn its attention to other pressing matters, including deferred maintenance and capital projects. Garcia said they’ve done over $1 million in road improvements the last few years, are working on getting a new garage for the highway department and retrofitting the existing garage for the fire department. They’re also expecting delivery of a new tanker in June.

The town is also forming a Resilient Master Plan with the help of the PVPC. 

“We have a lot of strategic initiatives underway. These are objectives we’re able to focus on with our house in order,” Garcia said.

After attending Holyoke public schools, Garcia attended Westfield State University where he received his bachelor’s in psychology and regional planning, and his master’s in public administration.

He said seeking the mayor’s office is something that was expected of him since he was very young.  “People just assumed I would be a good public officer,” he said.

Garcia’s announcement makes him the sixth candidate for mayor, in what he called a “unique situation happening right now in Holyoke.” 

Whatever happens in the race, he has pledged to make sure that Blandford is on solid footing.    

“We’re going to make sure Blandford is taken care of,” Garcia said.