WESTFIELD – After City Councilor Dave Flaherty raised concerns over the Department of Public Works (DPW) director’s job description at the council’s Sept. 18 meeting, the Personnel Action Subcommittee met with the rest of the council on Sept. 23 to update the position.

Flaherty opened the discussion at the special meeting by reading his proposal for the new requirements for the position.

“A bachelor’s degree in civil, environmental or chemical engineering required. Additional education in business management or public administration preferred. Five years or more as a director or similar executive role in a water or wastewater public utility required. 10 years’ experience as a supervisor of municipal employees required. Experience with public works preferred,” he said.

Before the new job description could be accepted, Council President Brent Bean said the current one had to be rejected.

“We would say no to this job description and move it on to the commissions. We’re just suggesting the change, hopefully they would then change it and we would move forward with our acceptance down the road,” he said.

Councilor Michael Burns said while it was important that the council was discussing the changes to the job description, he said they should also discuss the description with the commissions.

“We should get it in subcommittees and meet with the commissions. We’re spinning our wheels here, we have to do this right because this is probably the most important position in Westfield,” he said.

Councilor John Beltrandi said that the city was lucky to have someone as qualified as Dave Billups in charge of the DPW and Water and Sewer Commission and that was why the description needed to be updated.

“We were fortunate enough to have Dave Billups be able to do all of these things. It’s going to be hard to replace him with somebody the same as him. We need to plan out and say to these commissions this is what we’re going to have for our requirement,” he said.

After Councilor James Adams suggested requiring a Professional Engineer or Civil Engineering license requirement, Councilor Beltrandi said a license should be preferred.

“If you have the job description and education requirement be too stringent, you’re not going to have anyone apply so we need to be cognizant of that as well. We have to leave ourselves open to be able to accept something lesser than that depending on the applications we get,” he said.

Bean said he was also in favor of including an education requirement and a preference for an engineering license.

“I will say that I think the DPW piece is important with an engineering degree. I just like two people with that background designing these projects and watching them to fulfillment. I think this write up is good and I am comfortable with it but I agree we need some certification along with the degree,” he said.

The council unanimously agreed to turn down the original job description and to send their recommendations back to the DPW and Water and Sewer Commission for review.