Mayor Domenic J. Sarno today announced that after consulting with TJ Plante, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer (CAFO), he has ordered the City of Springfield to implement a hiring and spending freeze due to the ongoing economic impact from the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
“Once again, we are in unprecedented times and in consultation with my award winning finance division headed by CAFO TJ Plante, it is the prudent and wise move with projected revenue shortfalls emanating not only from the federal and state governments but also municipalities, that unless it is for emergency or essential services we must be able to conserve as much funds as we can,” said Mayor Sarno. “In the meantime, as my administration has done with past natural and man-made disasters, through CAFO Plante and our cabinet heads, we will continue to track all our cost related to the defeating this COVID-19/Coronavirus and go after every dime of relief and recovery reimbursement funding for our residents and business community.”
CAFO Plante stated, “Based on the economic roundtable discussion with state officials and economists on April 15th, a hiring and spending freeze is the fiscally responsible thing to do at this time. We need to preserve the general fund to avoid catastrophic cuts for FY21 to the extent possible. Our goal is to maintain core city services.”