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I have questions about merger

Sept. 7, 2018 |

After years of discussing it, Chicopee is finally moving forward with plans to merge city and school departments that are redundant.  The idea behind all of this is that by merging departments, the city and our schools will be able realize benefits such as increased efficiencies, better collaboration, and yes possible cost savings.

I have long been a proponent of these mergers because the way the city does business is all too often stuck in the dark ages. With our schools struggling with budgetary and contract issues, it is time for us to get with the times and change how we do things.

A little more than a week ago, the mayor called a joint special meeting of the City Council and School Committee to discuss what he called the “easiest” merger, Information Technology.

At that meeting, we were presented a report by the Mayor’s consultant who reviewed how the city's IT and schools’ telecom departments operate.

As the only elected official that has worked intimately with the city and school IT and telecom departments, the findings were not surprising.

Some positions and processes are antiquated, job responsibilities are miscast, and there is a ton of redundancy and lack of efficiency.

The report was a major step in the right direction, but I have two major concerns.

For years the Chicopee’s public access channel, Chicopee TV (formally known as Channel 5), has been run under the umbrella of the schools' telecom department.

This arrangement was a mistake from the get go and for decades we have been mixing Public Television with school department IT.

Our Public Access station is funded entirely by you if you are a Charter cable customer. You pay a small tax on your bill so that public television, such as government meetings and high school sporting events, can be broadcasted and recorded.

The money raised through this tax, by law, must be used to directly benefit you the cable subscriber, but a very small percent of it ever has.

Ever wonder how other surrounding towns broadcast all or most of their towns high school sporting or other community events? This is how – but Chicopee is far behind.

Chicopee could easily have one of the best public access stations in the Commonwealth. It is self-funded and should stand alone as its own department going forward – like most others do.

Second and most importantly, the mayor has asked the school department to pay half of the $120,000 salary of the city's new IT department head.

The city side has already budgeted $96,000 this year for an IT Director, a position that is currently vacant. Under this new arrangement, $32,000 would be returned to the city’s coffers, while the schools get hit with $60,000 bill.

That means a new bill of $60,000, the cost of one and a half teachers, for a school department already riddled with budgetary issues and unsettled teacher contracts.

Asking the schools to come up with this money is wrong. What kind of message does that send given the current educational climate? The city can afford to pay for this on its own and should.

As I said at our joint meeting, I agree with 99-percent of this proposal. However, the one-percent I do disagree with is significant and should be corrected before we take any steps forward.


Joel McAuliffe
City Council
Chicopee

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