In a special election on Jan. 28, Holyoke voters will decide whether the city's treasurer should continue to be elected or be appointed by the Holyoke City Council.
At a press conference Thursday, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia said the city must have a treasurer with financial expertise in order to improve the city’s governance.
"Currently, the city treasurer is elected by our community every four years, however there is no requirement for these candidates to possess specific financial expertise or a solid understanding of municipal finance," Garcia said.
The lack of qualifications hinders the city's ability to tackle complex financial issues Garcia said, and it leaves Holyoke vulnerable.
Not a new effort
Massachusetts officials and outside auditors have been urging Holyoke to make this administrative change for years, Garcia said.
A 2007 evaluation from Massachusetts Department of Revenue showed that with an elected city treasurer, "the mayor does not function as a fully empowered, central authority who can demand that jobs get done." It went on to say the mayor's lack of authority severely limits his ability to impose sound financial management practices.
“All of Holyoke’s department heads should be held accountable to the mayor and city council,” Garcia said. “Under the existing system, there is no requirement that the treasurer be accountable. Just as bad — if not worse — there is no requirement that an elected treasurer possess any sort of credentials.”
Holyoke officials said they have been working for more than two years to bring the treasurer question to a vote; current Holyoke Treasurer Rory Casey is in lockstep.
"When the city charter was [first] written, the treasurer had two responsibilities — to have a fireproof vault to keep all of the money in and to sign checks," Casey said. "The job responsibility today is managing millions of dollars of taxpayer funds. It's all coming in electronically now. On a weekly basis we are under attack by phishing scams."
If the treasurer continues to remain an elected position — in a modern world Casey said it's a recipe for disaster. He appealed to voters that changing the city charter and appointing the treasurer will help the city in the long term.
The state inspector general has issued two "pretty scathing reports" on the city treasurer's office, Casey said, and he referenced years of troubling audits that identified past treasurer's "material weaknesses."
"They don't know what to do with bank accounts, they don't know how to wire funds, or they put money into the wrong account, or they send it to the wrong person," Casey said
A rare unified front
Changing the city's charter and hiring a treasurer out of a pool of qualified candidates is best for the city, said Holyoke City Council President Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, adding that the support for the switch is unprecedented.
"There are not many issues that we agree on completely, but this is one of them," Murphy-Romboletti said, and it's something that we believe is important for the public to consider."
In an open letter posted on the city's homepage, the city council, acknowledged the day of the special election "will likely be cold. It may even be snowy. But we ask that you make it a part of your day to make it to the polls on that day ...."
Not just Paper City, a statewide push
Holyoke, Chicopee and Attleboro are the only Massachusetts cities that continue to elect its treasurer, according to Massachusetts Department of Revenue's Division of Local Services.
For several years, state finance officials have been recommending all municipalities, town or city, consider appointing their treasurer, and other positions
"As municipal positions grow in responsibility and required skill set, communities are turning to appointed positions to attract a wider pool of candidates with strong credentials and relevant professional experience," the DOR said in a May 2023 newsletter.
The most common change the state is seeing is to the positions of treasurer and collector, "because these positions require extensive knowledge and are essential members of the community’s financial management team."
Converting an elected role to an appointed position also provides the opportunity to define job requirements and reporting structure, according to the DOR, "specifying clear expectations of the position and its relationship with management and other team members. "
Treasurer Rory Casey says 'fire me!'
In 2022, a few months after announcing he wasn't running for re-election in Holyoke, Alex Morse resigned as mayor and became the Town Manager in Provincetown, Mass.
In that same year, Katie Jackowski left her job as Holyoke's treasurer, just a few months after she was elected, to become the treasurer/collector in Provincetown, joining Morse.
That's when the Holyoke City Council appointed Casey as the city treasurer. But Thursday Casey made it clear, regardless of the special election outcome he has no interest in continuing after his term is over in February 2026.
"Most politicians would stand up in front of a group of voters and say, you know, please hire me," Casey said. "I'm a little bit different. I'm standing here in front of the voters saying, please fire me! It's a little tongue in cheek, but it's true."
