Matthew McSheehy

Matthew McSheehy

for City Council

REVIEW CITY SERVICE CONTRACTS

Two of the contracts that the city renews each year are for the city attorney and city engineer. It’s time the city put these services out for bid, not only to evaluate potential cost savings but also to assess the benefits of hiring firms that may better serve our community.

City Engineering Firm: We need to reevaluate our relationship with the current engineering firm due to budget overruns and questionable project needs. The 2021 street renewal project ran over by $110,000, requiring the city to borrow against other projects, with a repayment cost of $7,273 over 15 years. The 2023 street renewal project also had a 4% overage. Additionally, the estimates for pump house upgrades were off by nearly $400,000 last year, and the project to drill a new well has faced multiple issues. It’s time for the city to explore other engineering firms that can provide better service and cost management.

City Attorney: We should put our long-standing city attorney services out for bid to assess costs and expertise, ensuring we get the best value for our expense. The argument so far has been that this attorney knows our city’s history. However, I’m not convinced that this is a strong enough reason to stick with the current law firm. It’s time we consider other options.

CITY ASSESSMENTS

City Assessments should be fair, balanced, and transparent. We should be able to trust that the appraised benefit for improvement is equitable for all and easy to understand how that relates to the assessment fees.

OUTSOURCE CITY MAINTENANCE

Nearly 25% of the city budget goes to Public Works. That includes equipment capital expenditures, pay, health and benefits, liability insurance, etc. Many cities have chosen to outsource this at a cost savings to the city. Greenfield should investigate this.

RENEW CITY SERVICE CONTRACTS

Two of the city contracts that the city renews each year are the city attorney and city engineer. It is time the city put these services out for bid to evaluate not only the cost savings, but the benefit of hiring firms that may better serve our community.

CITY ADMINISTRATOR METRICS

The most important position in our city is the City Administrator. I am suggesting that this position be reviewed by the entire council annually, not just the mayor and one council member, allow for anonymous staff and public input and provide a set of metrics to evaluate performance that is fair to the city administrator.