City Treasurer Rory Casey (left) and Mayor Josh Garcia (right) answer questions at a press conference about the upcoming special election.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet
HOLYOKE — After hosting a special election on Jan. 28, Holyoke voters officially approved changing the treasurer position from elected to appointed.
The unofficial results from the city clerk’s office showed that 572 people voted yes and 270 people voted no for a total of 843 voters out of 30,702 registered voters.
At a press conference regarding the special election on Jan. 9, City Clerk Brenna Murphy Leary said she expected the voter turnout to be on the lower side due to the weather but also since, “that also goes along with preliminary elections, municipal elections, they usually have the lower side anyways.”
After the results were announced, Leary stated, “I certainly wish more people turned out as this was an important question pertaining to our city government. We had it printed on our annual census that went to every household, also posted continuously to social media and did a city wide robo, text, email blast. However, I do understand this is an unusual time for a city election and I do thank everyone that did take the time to vote.”
The proposed change from an elected treasurer to an appointed treasurer aligns with recommendations from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and is a broader effort between all branches of government to modernize and strengthen the city’s financial practices.
Under the current system, the city treasurer is elected by Holyoke voters every four years and out of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, Holyoke is one of the only remaining places that still has a standalone elected treasurer.
Garcia has worked with the City Council and state Legislature for two years to bring this matter to a vote. The mayor, along with the entire City Council, said they supported changing the city charter to make the treasurer’s position appointed.
He said the goal is to improve the city’s financial health and administrative efficiency, which benefits all residents.
“State officials and outside auditors have been urging us to make this change for many years,” Garcia said.
Garcia pointed to a 2007 evaluation of the existing practice that was conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services. With an elected treasurer, the assessment concluded, “The mayor does not function as a fully empowered, central authority who can demand that jobs get done. This lack of authority severely limits the ability of the mayor to impose sound financial management practices.”
When the former Holyoke city treasurer resigned in July 2022, Garcia began working with the City Council to navigate the steps necessary to change the charter to make the position of city treasurer appointed instead of elected.
“The public has heard me talk a lot about the need to modernize our municipal administrative operations to strengthen internal controls, polices and procedures for how we manage our finances in order for us to better mitigate liability, reduce harm to local resources, protect local assets and better comply with financial standards and regulations,” Garcia said.
When asked why this election must be hosted in January, City Treasurer Rory Casey said, “It wasn’t signed off by the governor until a few weeks ago, which is why we’re in such an accelerated pace. We don’t normally in Holyoke go out in the dead of winter to vote for anything but this year’s different.”
Casey also advocated for the change as he said there was too much turnover. He was the fourth elected treasurer in the past 10 years.
Casey acknowledged that his term ends at the end of this year and there’s an election this fall so the city needs to know now what the direction is going to be before his job is up on Feb. 1, 2026.
The group at the press conference on Jan. 9 acknowledged that if the charter change was approved, the position will be a three-year term. Those who want the position will have to apply, be interviewed by the City Council and then be appointed.
The appointment will reduce the risk of frequent turnover because of elections and can focus on long-term financial planning and stability.
Casey said he had no interest in being the appointed treasurer if the change was approved.
