Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Simple Questions

9 member Charter Commission could have new town government ready for 2017 vote

As promised Amherst For All has issued a short survey to all 20 Charter Commission candidates who will appear alphabetically on the March 29 local election ballot, thanks to the four month campaign that snagged the 3,215 required signatures.

 Click to enlarge/read

If anyone refuses to answer all 5 questions, voters should immediately eliminate them in favor of ones who did take the time to fully respond.

And anyone who refused to sign the petition to get the vote on the ballot in the first place should also be automatically rejected.

As should at least half of any husband and wife combinations.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry

I agree we should NOT vote for husband+ wife: Weiss+McKenna. I don't really care what they stand for--it's really bad form for them both be on the ballot.

Remember Orville+Gert and their snarky remarks about family members in town politics?

Anonymous said...

So, better to have The Family involved instead, huh?

Anonymous said...

Bery interesting, but not bery funny. Seriously, no one likes having something shoved down their throat. I hope the voters of Amherst are as smart about this questionairre as they should be about the candidates and give it WIDE BERTH. I was expecting more. Like, 1) should Town Government have fiduciary duty (Town Meeting does not). Or, 2) should Town Goverment be subject to state ethics and conflict of interest laws (Town Meeting is not). And, 3) should members of our governing body be permitted to use their elected position to influence state-mandated boards (Town Meeting can)? Anyone who clings to the idea of Town Meeting must believe they are above the law.

Anonymous said...

This list of questions is an embarrassment. I thought this was about doing a study?

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah by all means, let's hire a few grad students, form a task force, and do a study.

Anonymous said...

"This list of questions is an embarrassment. I thought this was about doing a study?"

The commission will do a study, this is only for the candidates. I bet some of the candidates won't even be able to handle the 5 questions.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a job interview, not an elected position. Isn't all of this going a bit too far?

Scrooge McDuck said...

It will be essential for AFA to get a "voting card" into many many voters' hands to take into the ballot box. Need to do a bit of fundraising probably. You can bet your sweet bippy the TM shills will be doing this.

Anonymous said...

I think these questions (and Larry's method) will be good enough to sort the wheat from the chaff. It remains to be seen the result of alphabetical listing will have on the process, but at least Weiss will be at or near the bottom!

Anonymous said...

Simple question: Will Amherst For All endorse any candidate that is a supporter of Town Meeting?

Larry Kelley said...

Dumb question.

Anonymous said...

And the answer to the dumb question is….?