While not everyone is likely to agree, the town of Greenfield has had a pretty good run of fiscal stability over the last few years.
Granted, the tax rate remains among the highest in the commonwealth and much is made of the increased burden taxpayers face each year. And there are always concerns that the town spends too much money on big-ticket items.
But when you objectively look at the way the town’s finances have been managed overall, Greenfield has been on a relatively even keel when compared to other communities, many of which find themselves in a some sort of financial jackpot every fifth or sixth year, usually when operating expenses begin to catch up and exceed revenues.
Those years lead to the kind of uncomfortable conversations that are happening right now in Sunderland, where the town may be forced to pass a Proposition 2½ override to fund its full budget request for next year.
Greenfield, fortunately, has much managed to avoid much of the drama since the voters chose to abandon the former “leadership by committee” form of government in favor of a strong mayor and a scaled down town council. Such stability is the sign of pretty solid financial management, led by Mayor Bill Martin, who’s about as big a budget hawk as you are likely to find in this corner of the commonwealth.
And though I’m sure he’d like the public to think otherwise, Martin hasn’t done it all by himself. At his side for much of his time in office has been Finance Director Marjorie “Lane” Kelly, who has been a steady hand and a voice of reason, particularly at those few times when the administration has come under attack for some of its spending decisions.
Having a credible budget lieutenant is vital to any mayor’s success. Just ask Martin’s Northampton counterpart David Narkewicz, who has freely admitted to me on more than one occasion that he would be in the weeds without his Finance Director Susan Wright, who has come a long way from her days at Whately’s administrative assistant. She has blossomed into one of the best small city finance bosses in the commonwealth.
The difference here is Wright is staying in Hampshire County while Greenfield is losing Kelly to retirement at the end of the fiscal year — a departure which I believe is a much bigger loss for the town than many realize.
Martin has already announced his plan to restructure much of the executive branch hierarchy to accommodate for Kelly’s departure. One of the big winners in that shakeup is current Town Accountant Elizabeth Braccia, whom Martin has already positioned as among his chief financial advisers.
There’s no reason to think Braccia won’t do a fine job, but the loss of someone with Kelly’s budget expertise and institutional memory is significant, especially in those times Martin begins to drift into areas that could have long-term fiscal implications for the town.
Make no mistake — Martin is the boss in that town hall. But he is also an “idea guy” who likes to have a lot of balls in the air, many of which are of the expensive variety. A visionary like that needs a seasoned pro like Kelly to be there to ensure that there are real dollars behind those ideas, and, more importantly, be able to speak up when there aren’t.
Will Braccia be able to fill that same role? Time will tell. In the meantime, Greenfield is losing a true professional, who is worth every penny of the $105,000 the town has been paying her.
It’s a pity the Trump White House was unable to get out of its own way long enough to properly organize the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn this year. But fortunately for the youth of Franklin County, its local radio stations have no such issues.
Tomorrow, the playing fields of Greenfield Community College will be awash in thousands of Easter eggs as WHAI and Bear Country 95.3 present their annual Easter Egg Hunt.
If you’ve never experienced this particular bit of organized community chaos, I suggest you stop down tomorrow morning around 10, which is when kids age 5 and under will be let loose to collect the eggs, followed a short time later by the 6-plus group.
The eggs are filled with candy and gift certificates for toys and other goodies. It’s a great chance to meet the radio crew and have some fun heckling us as we put out these eggs, which, as you might expect, get scooped up in record time.
It’s a great way to spend a Saturday, and I hope to see you there.
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former Recorder reporter and a Greenfield native.