Town Leadership
The Mayor’s Office
The Mayor
William C. Reichelt
Will Reichelt read the town charter for a living before voters handed him the job of running it. He was West Springfield’s Town Attorney when he ran for mayor, won election on November 3, 2015, and was sworn in on January 4, 2016 as the youngest mayor in the town’s history. Voters have kept him there ever since: in November 2025 they re-elected him with about 72 percent of the vote, 4,618 to 1,783, over Town Councilor Daniel O’Brien. He was also the first West Springfield mayor elected to a four-year term, which means he faces voters less often than any councilor while holding more power than all of them combined.
That power is concrete. Under the charter the Mayor is the chief executive: the town departments, from police and fire to public works and the library, report up through this office, and the Mayor appoints the people who run them. The budget starts here too. Each year it is built in the Mayor’s office department by department and proposed as one package, and the nine member Town Council then holds hearings and votes. The Council can say no, which is the check, but the drafting happens here, which is the power. The schools are wired into the same office: the charter makes the Mayor the seventh member of the School Committee, with the same vote as the six elected members, and the committee may choose the Mayor as its chair. West Springfield’s committee has done exactly that, so the person who proposes the town budget also presides over the room where school policy is set.
The office is also easy to reach. Reichelt holds community hours at Town Hall on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from noon to 2, and the office publishes a direct phone line and email. You do not need to be a voter to use any of it. A student with a question about a park, a crosswalk, or a summer program can call or write and reach the one office in town that can move nearly every lever at once.
| Role | Mayor (chief executive) |
|---|---|
| In office | Since January 4, 2016 |
| Term | Four-year term |
| Office | Town Hall, 26 Central Street, West Springfield, MA 01089 |
| Phone | 413-263-3041 |
| mayor@tows.org | |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 4:30 PM. Community hours Tuesday and Thursday, noon to 2 PM. |
| Website | townofwestspringfield.org |
What the Mayor Does
- Runs the departments. Police, fire, public works, health, recreation, and the rest all answer to the Mayor, who appoints their leaders.
- Builds the budget. Each year the Mayor proposes how West Springfield will spend its money, then sends it to the Town Council, which holds hearings and votes.
- Appoints the volunteers too. Seats on the town’s boards and commissions are filled through the Mayor’s office, and the town posts an application form any resident can submit.
- Chairs the School Committee. Under the charter the Mayor serves as the committee’s seventh member, and the committee has elected him its chair, linking Town Hall to the classroom.
The 2025 Election, Sixteen Questions Deep
On November 4, 2025, West Springfield voters settled more than the mayor’s race. A townwide charter review had put sixteen ballot questions in front of them, and 6,521 voters, about 30 percent of everyone registered, decided each one for the whole town. Fifteen passed. The one that failed would have loosened the rule keeping people connected to the alcohol industry off the Board of License Commissioners; voters said no, 3,233 to 2,820. The closest call was Question 11, which passed by just 36 votes, 3,049 to 3,013, and it matters more than its margin suggests: it removed the old 20 percent turnout requirement for a citizens’ initiative petition, so a proposal residents put on the ballot now takes effect with a simple majority of the votes cast. The people who showed up that day made it easier for every future resident to write a question of their own.
Contact & Engage
- Town Hall: 26 Central Street, West Springfield, MA 01089. Main line 413-495-1891.
- Mayor’s Office: 413-263-3041, mayor@tows.org. Community hours Tuesday and Thursday, noon to 2 PM.
- Report a problem: streets, water, sewer, trash, and recycling run through the Department of Public Works at 413-263-3233.
- Show up: Town Council meetings are public, and the agendas and calendar are posted on the town website.
Want to weigh in on a town decision? Learn how to contact your officials so they actually hear you.