Correction, 6/22, 9:26 am: We changed Moody's rating from AA+ to A1. There is no AA+ rating from Moody's. We have an A+ rating from the S&P. Both ratings are considered to be "Upper medium grade" ratings, one step below "High grade." In other words, these bond rating agencies consider Westfield to be very safe long-term investments.
Update, 5:11pm: As you might have guessed, Councilor Flaherty has refused our challenge on the MassLive forum, telling us to "do your own howework." Does this sound like someone you can trust or believe? If the situation was really so dire as he says it is, wouldn't he do everything he could to prove conclusively how right his calculations are? Maybe he really doesn't care. But most likely, he's just full of a lot of hot gas.
We are blessed, once again, to have Oracle Flaherty speak to us from his favorite shrine, the Westfield MassLive forum. Because Oracle Flaherty is easily angered and quick to remove us from his shrine if we raise his ire, we are linking to his declarations here along with our offerings to him.
And in all seriousness, we would let this go and not respond to him because there comes a point where this kind of back and forth transforms itself into a silly game of one-upmanship, as entertaining as that can be. The reason why we're responding is that real damage can be done by him. Flaherty does appear to have some followers on the City Council and if he accrues enough of them, he will be in a position to inflict harm on the city and its personnel with unnecessary budget cuts. As you'll see in our response to him, we're asking Flaherty to put all his calculations and assumptions into a spreadsheet that can be verified by a neutral expert. Until and unless he can do these two things, he should be ignored. This is a serious request we are asking him to fulfill.