HAVERHILL - The School Committee voted 4-3 last night to reject James Fiorentini's proposal to accept a state law that would create one department in charge of city and school finances and one department in charge of city and school personnel matters.
Fiorentini has said the consolidation would eventually save up to $100,000 a year by eliminating workers in the School Department and City Hall who perform similar functions.
He had made several changes to the original plan he pitched for the first time six months ago. For instance, he included a provision that the measure would automatically expire at the end of one year unless the committee agreed to continue it.
The mayor said those who voted against his plan are more worried about protecting jobs than saving taxpayer money.
Those who opposed Fiorentini's proposal said they agreed with most of the details, but opposed accepting the state law that would give the mayor wide control over running the proposed joint departments.
"Your agreement doesn't matter because the law would negate it," School Committee President Kerry Fitzgerald said of language the mayor included in his plan limiting his power. "Once we pass it, you would be able to do whatever you want."
Voting against were Fitzgerald and Committee members Susan Danehy, Erin Francescone and Scott Wood Jr. Members Joseph Bevilacqua, Shaun Toohey and the mayor himself voted in favor.
"A lot of what I've heard is that people here are worried that this won't save money," the mayor said. "But what people are really worried about is that it will work — that we will find people we don't need."
Fitzgerald and Wood said they would develop their own proposal for consolidating some city and school functions without totally merging the departments and offer it at the next School Committee meeting.
Danehy insisted the members who voted against the proposal, support consolidation, just not the mayor's version.
"Some of us want to compromise," Danehy said. "But we don't want to make it punitive.
"These are people who need to feed families. We have to keep that in mind," Danehy said of those who would lose jobs.
The mayor said he was willing to compromise and asked to Danehy to offer an amendment. She offered none.
"Talk is cheap," Fiorentini said of Danehy's comment that she favors consolidation. "Only your vote counts," he said.
Bevilacqua said he favored the mayor's original plan, which offered a more comprehensive shakeup of the two departments.
"We need to get rid of redundancies like all governments and businesses are trying to do in these troubled financial times," Bevilacqua said. "We can't afford to continue to do things like we did 20 years ago."
Wood said the School Department has saved $100,000 each in the school finance and personnel departments in the last year by downsizing and consolidating.
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