Tuesday, March 18, 2014

$15 Minimum Wage Runaround

Amherst Select Board:  "Just say NO"

UPDATE 6:30 p.m. 
Amherst Town Counsel has concluded that even if Town Meeting passes the article and the State Legislature approves it, the powers granted to the town would then NOT apply to the University of Massachusetts, our largest employer.

Furthermore our lawyer confirms that a "motion to dismiss" if passed (majority vote) is referendum proof.  So that's what I'll do.



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UMass Labor Grad Student Matthew Cunningham-Cook is fast becoming public enemy #1 in the little college town of Amherst, which he has called home for all of seven months now.

First he collects 200 signatures to call a Special Town Meeting when it would only have taken 10 signatures to put the exact same article on the normal Annual Town Meeting which starts April 28th.



Then he skips the public discussion period last night at the Amherst Select Board meeting where they -- like the Finance Committee last week -- voted unanimously NOT to support his article, branded by one SB member as "amateurish".

Although he did send them this email at 3:47 p.m. where he now pitches a small business exemption for mom-and-pops with 50 or fewer employees.  Yes, as a long-time small business owner even at peak success I had less than half that number of employees, so it would exempt the vast majority of Amherst businesses.



But, if you whip up a big batch of poison, I'm not overly reassured that small businesses are exempt from partaking.  If it's that bad for small business, how can it be good for BIG business?


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You raise a very messy thing under the rules of order when you tell the moderator in advance what motion you will make should he call on you.

That moderator in particular is not neutral which is why I stopped going to town meetings after the first one.

Walter Graff said...

In the words of Buggs Bunny "What a Maroon, what an ignoranamous."

Chris Hoffmann said...

Anon 2:21. The moderator is NOT supposed to be a neutral participant. He or she is an elected official, in fact the only official who faces a town-wide election every year, and is allowed to vote on any article he or she wants. It's only by convention that our moderators have abstained from voting.

And it's extremely common for people to tell the moderator that they intend to make certain motions if called upon. That's a VERY GOOD THING as the person doesn't have to wait for the luck of the draw to be recognized before debate is cut off!

As the previous moderator once said, "the job of the moderator is to help Town Meeting come to a decision". That includes calling on people that he already knows have a potentially game-changing amendment or motion to present.

Anonymous said...

In a town full of high salaries for teachers and administrators why so hostile to someone standing up for the many little guy? Who else will?

Larry Kelley said...

I knew Robin Hood. Robin Hood was a friend of mine.

Matthew Cunningham-Cook sure as Hell ain't no Robin Hood.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry: who is the "little guy"?

The person trying to run a business in Amherst? Or the person looking for a job in Amherst?

When will we get over this adolescent view of business people in Amherst somehow being robber barons?

Anonymous said...

When will we get over this adolescent view of business people in Amherst somehow being robber barons?

When the slumlords stop exploiting UM students. Or the 2nd Coming, which ever comes first...

Anonymous said...

The moderator is NOT supposed to be a neutral participant.

Maybe not in Amherst, but everywhere else, the moderator is supposed to be the most neutral person in the room. And is supposed to give up the gavel on anything he/she/it has a public position on.

He or she is an elected official.

Elected because he (theoretically) is neutral and objective. Who calls on people on a first-seen basis.

"And despite how an issue may divide a town, a town moderator must be the picture of neutrality."

See http://www.telegram.com/article/20060226/NEWS/602260597/1116

Maybe this is why Amherst town meetings get so nasty.

Larry Kelley said...

I always sit in the front row, so I'm hard to miss (by the moderator, or a sniper).

Anonymous said...

Sorry Larry, you're not worth the price of a bullet.
Just kidding...

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, these days I worry more about flying cans and bottles.

Anonymous said...

My guess is that there will be a portion of the Town Meeting membership, perhaps a majority of those present, that will not be willing to hurt the poor young sponsor's feelings.

Anonymous said...

Boy, you're getting a lot of mileage out of the Dan Quayle quote, are't you?

Larry Kelley said...

Yes, and that 's why Anon 11:11 is wrong. The kid has made the mistake of getting snarky on the Town Meeting list serve. Something Jack Kennedy would never have done, even at a young age.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, ever occur to you that he picked tonight because it is UM break and hence those students who live in town have the night free? And that all 200 might just show up? And what is the capacity of the room?

This kid reminds me of some Young Republicans I have known over the years -- he will make a big splash so he has "cred" for whatever job in DC he wants to get upon graduation. Nothing more....

And if your parliamentary move works -- assuming he isn't bright enough to raise an objection to the consideration of the motion (which is privileged) then what is to prevent him from collecting another 200 signatures from the same people and doing this all spring?

Being defeated in an election would prevent him -- but your move won't......

Larry Kelley said...

He couldn't even find a single supporter to show up at Monday night's Select Board meeting saying they were all at Spring Break.

So I don't think we will see much of a crowd at tonight's Town Meeting.


My move is a defeat. A BIG one.

Dr. Ed said...

No Larry, loosing big tonight helps him -- the same way one schmuck used being thrown out of the SGA in his faux defense of the Minuteman all the way to a job in DC.

(From which he was fired 15 months ago for writing a convoluted diatribe about how copyright law should be routinely violated. Yes that person...)

You are building his CV for him - and not even getting paid for it.

Anonymous said...

A hastily called Town Meeting session is just not the place where an important issue like the minimum wage can be addressed intelligently, competently, deliberately, and with fairness to all points of view.

Perhaps the proponent thought that he would be riding a wave of public opinion in his favor.

There's a lot of romance that has built up over the years about the greatness of the New England town meeting as a beacon of democracy, and perhaps college students are especially susceptible to this illusion.

Experience, here and elsewhere, teaches otherwise.

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, "experience" being the key word.

I hope this public slap down will add to his obvious lack of experience.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, two words: Monica Mederios -- who is 10 days away from becoming a State Senator -- you'd be amazed at how this stuff can be spun.