Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Charter Commission: All Ears

Amherst Town Meeting is 258 years old (and showing its age)

Charter Commissioners have an astonishingly powerful potential:  To help change our local form of governance, to declare our independence from an unwieldy, inefficient, unrepresentative legislative body otherwise know as "Representative" Town Meeting.

But of course the blueprint they craft over the next year will be subject to voter approval.  And this time I have a feeling they will get it right -- both the Charter Commission and the voters.

Click to enlarge/read (and then show up for the meeting)

I hope the state mandated 1st public forum of our 9 member Charter Commission gets better results than their predecessors did 15 years ago, when only a dozen citizens took the initiative to speak truth to power.



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fascinating stuff from yesteryear.

Rich Morse

kevin said...

How about a form of government that 1) is not conducted behind closed doors (on the Town Meeting listserv); by 2) those with fiduciary duty (which Town Meeting does not have); by those who are 3) not immune to conflict of interest (MGL 268a); and 4) are not free to use their elected office to influence a state-mandated board, like Town Meeting. What does this sound like to you?

Anonymous said...

It's pretty obvious that an elected town council and professional manager would be an improvement on all fronts.

Should the council members be elected by precinct or at-large?

Anonymous said...

What problem is the Charter Commission trying to fix? Amherst is a great town by most accounts, is fiscally sound, beautiful, filled with open space, trails, coffee shops, 3 great public libraries, a farmers market, a vibrant downtown, many museums, 3 noted institutions of higher education, a well-educated citizenry, active volunteers….shall I go on? It's not Hell Town.

Larry Kelley said...

Exceedingly high property tax rate, minuscule commercial tax base, public schools foundering ... shall I go on?

Anonymous said...

So the Charter Commission will be looking at ways to lower taxes, build up commercial development and examine the problems in the public schools?

Larry Kelley said...

Yes.

Anonymous said...

"What problem is the Charter Commission trying to fix? Amherst is a great town by most accounts, is fiscally sound, beautiful, filled with open space, trails, coffee shops, 3 great public libraries, a farmers market, a vibrant downtown, many museums, 3 noted institutions of higher education, a well-educated citizenry, active volunteers….shall I go on? It's not Hell Town."


Hilarious!