The Westfield City Council approved $9.6 million in additional spending for the 2024 fiscal year during its June 10 meeting.
The money will be distributed among multiple accounts, including the general fund, fire fund and Grand Park fund.
Mayor Scott Willis said the current budget established under the administration of former Mayor Andy Cook included $14 million of unappropriated funds, revenue coming into the city this calendar year that was not designated for spending.
“It was a good budget. It just didn’t align necessarily with my vision for Westfield and where we’d like to go as a city,” Willis said. “It’s really a reset of where the city is going in 2024. We are still in a cash flow-positive position for the city for 2024, not including what’s already been put back in the rainy-day fund, which is substantial as well.
Appropriations approved by the city council June 10 include the following:
- General fund — $4.1 million from the operating balance for administration, parks, communications, IT, economic development and facilities and events.
- Fire fund — $1.6 million from the operating balance for capital outlay and services.
- Sports campus — $3.6 million from the operating fund for capital outlay, services and supplies.
Willis said additional money in the general fund will assist across several departments, including adding a fifth staff member to the economic development department.
“We’re beefing up and expanding groups that will add more capabilities to our city and drive my vision, which is to expand our commercial tax base, diversify our tax base,” Willis said.
Elected officials pushed back on Willis’ first appropriations proposal within the general fund, which was $2.6 million higher than what was approved — specifically, an initial $1.2 million request for facilities and events that the council reduced to $300,000. Those funds will go toward updates at the city services building to accommodate staff, including 25 Westfield Welcome employees who will move from Grand Park to the City Service Center this year.
“I still don’t think we have a consensus of where we want to go, but the reality is that with (city services), we’ve outkicked the coverage of this building,” Willis said. “We are double stacked. You see two or three people in an office and we have some wasted space.”
Councilmembers said although they see the necessity of increasing space for staff, they’d like to see costs reduced, particularly because the city is in need of a new City Hall. Willis said although a new City Hall is part of a 5- to 7-year plan, it’s not something he wants to take on during his first term.
“That’s a $40- to $50 million investment. We have much bigger fish to fry right now, much more impactful priorities that we want to tackle,” he said. “(The city council) gave us $300,000 to get started (on the city services project), and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
The mayor also said $320,000 appropriated from the general fund operating balance will pay for consulting fees from Carmel-based firm Advisa.
“We made some strategic changes at the top and wanted to do an evaluation of the culture that existed here at the city, and we hired (Advisa) to take us through that process,” Willis said. “(We want) to move the culture in a direction that aligns with my vision moving forward. So, we’ve invested some money in that consulting service. That’s not something we have expertise on in-house.”
