The Holyoke City Council discusses an ordinance to create a new appointed city treasurer position at its Nov. 18 meeting.
Photo credit: Holyoke Media
HOLYOKE — The City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to create a new appointed city treasurer position during its Nov. 18 meeting.
The approval comes 10 months after Holyoke voters officially approved changing the treasurer position from “elected” to “appointed.”
During the meeting, the council also established minimum eligibility requirements and a salary range for the position.
The pay range will be listed at a grade 16 annual salary, which can range from $101,000 to $140,000. Eligibility requirements include a master’s degree in accounting/finance and public/business administration, along with a minimum of three to five years of experience.
Candidates can also have a bachelor’s degree in the same fields with five to eight years of experience in a municipal setting or equivalent financial leadership role.
Those who want the position will have to apply, be interviewed by the City Council and then be appointed.
City Councilor Meg Magrath-Smith said that the Ordinance Committee would like to eventually combine the treasurer position with the collector position, although no decision has been made on that scenario.
“We discussed it being a higher grade with the understanding that, especially if this becomes a treasurer/collector position, it needs to be at a much higher grade,” Magrath-Smith said. “But [there’s] a concern that if someone was hired, it could feel a bit like a bait and switch.
Granted, I think that we would be very upfront with anyone that we hired or that we interviewed that this is a position that very well could be a combined position very soon after they take the position, and that the salary range that is in here for treasurer would be the same for a combined treasurer/collector.”
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.
In the past, the city treasurer was elected by Holyoke voters every four years. Out of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, Holyoke was one of the only remaining places that still had a standalone elected treasurer.
When the former Holyoke city treasurer resigned in July 2022, Mayor Joshua Garcia began working with the City Council to navigate the steps necessary to change the charter and make the position of city treasurer “appointed,” instead of “elected.”
The mayor and the entire City Council, said they supported changing the city charter to make the treasurer’s position appointed.
Garcia said the goal was to improve the city’s financial health and administrative efficiency, which benefits all residents.
Garcia pointed to a 2007 evaluation of the existing practice that was conducted by the DOR’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.”
Current City Treasurer Rory Casey also advocated for the change, arguing that there is too much turnover. He was the fourth elected treasurer in the past 10 years.
According to Casey, the appointment will reduce the risk of frequent turnover because of elections, and the city can focus on long-term financial planning and stability
Casey’s current tenure will end on the first Monday in February 2026. In January, he stated that he had no interest in being the appointed treasurer.
The appointed treasurer position will soon be posted by the city.
City Councilor Kevin Jourdain mentioned how the position needs to be filled by February. He added that the city is also looking to fill their auditor position that is vacant after Tanya Wdowiak announced that she is resigning from her current position to take another opportunity nearby.
“You want to build the team, and all right now we’re doing is we’re losing members of the team. We’re not building the team. We need to get that, and I think we’re going to be in a better place if we can get a qualified, strong treasurer that the public voted for,” Jourdain stated.
