News About Nothing (Seinfeld)

While not up there with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the lack of an $ Override question on the April 9 town election ballot is only a borderline miracle, especially in light of the recent outcry over school budget cuts.

Town officials are 1-2 over the past six years with one $1.68 Override passing in 2010; but a larger more hard fought $2.5 million Override campaign failing in 2007 (mainly because of campaign director, Rick Hood).

Any marketing guru will confirm trying to get people to voluntarily raise their own taxes -- especially in a trying economy -- is a tough sell.  Even more so, the prospect of trying to raise money to buy media to sell consumers on the idea of paying more for something most people take for granted:  public services. 

Especially when the town has $6 million stashed away in reserves and the Regional Schools another  $1 million.  The old "why should I take money out of my savings account so that you can keep money stashed in yours" routine.

Of course the major downside now is the April 9 local election, with no town-wide contests and half the town meeting precincts with not enough candidates to fill the open seats, will get an abysmal turnout ... under 10%.

And no, 14 UMass students running for Amherst Town Meeting will not stimulate the vote in the least (other than the 14 who come out to vote for themselves -- if indeed they bother to vote that day).

Last November, however,  the Amherst turnout for a non competitive (in this state anyway) Presidential election was 69%.

But for matters that more directly impact them -- The People -- it's the local election that really counts. And yet there, we always come up lacking.

Amherst:  where even the H is silent. 

Regional School Committee pulls a rabbit...

8:10 AM

So freshly minted Amherst School Committee member Sir Richard Hood thinks the Teachers Union members were a tad confused when they voted to give up 3 paid "professional development" days worth $350-K in exchange for voters approving the $1.68 million Override; in that they thought the money would stay in the school budget on top of the extra $1.1 million generated by the Override.

Now in order to appease the confused Teachers Union, the Regional School Committee is going funnel $255-K from reserves out of Excess and Deficiency account to bolster the Regional budget on top of the extra $$739,195 created by the Override.

As a separate legal entity the Region has its own slush fund called Excess and Deficiency (currently with just over $1 million stashed away for a rainy day) and the Elementary Schools do not have such a fund as they are 100% town of Amherst. Although Amherst children make up a whopping 80% of the Region.

The Elementary Schools will simply have to make due with the lousy extra $400,000 created by generous taxpayers.

The Springfield Republican Reports:

...not even the beginning of the end

Don't you just love those legal disclaimers printed on motor oil, "Do not drink this product?" According to outgoing School Committee Chair Andy Churchill, the Amherst Vote Yes Overriders garnered stunning advice from their Northampton counterparts: Don't worry about the No voters concentrate on those likely to vote Yes.

Hmm...must be a bevy of brain surgeons and rocket scientists among their group.

Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change distributed a mailer to almost 4,000 voters over the age of 50. Between postage and printing about 50 cents per unit. So I went over all the mailing labels first, cross referencing for names posted on the Blank Check Override Internet Petition website and the signature ad from 3 years ago to cross them off the list, thus saving us about $300.

Ironic thing is if Mr Churchill learned at the start of his six year Amherst School Committee service how to educate children at Northampton's $4,000 per child lower cost, it would have saved Amherst taxpayers $12 million per year and then we would indeed realize the dream of "No More Overrides"

The Springfield Republican reports

The end of the begining

So I'm preparing a more detailed analysis of the election for my Umass online journalism course mid-term assignment but figured I would throw out some off-the-cuff analysis for now, as I think both sides were surprised by yesterday's margin of victory (and no, unlike Cherry Hill Golf Course I'm not going to blame it on the weather.)

1) The 31.5% voter turnout was almost exactly the same as the Override that failed in 2007 so it's hard to blame voter turnout (although we usually get almost 80% every four years for the Presidential election.) So why the different outcome this time?

Well first off, there's a big difference between $2.5 million (that failed in 07) and the current $1.68 million. And if you listened to Andy Churchill at the forum last week sponsored by the crusty Gazette/Amherst Bully he made it sound like the $350,000 teacher giveback was already factored into lowering the Override amount. Which of course it did not, although town officials claim they will not use that amount by not taxing to the full extent of the new higher levy (one year only of course.)

And this year the Vote Yes folks were smart enough to order lawn signs (in two different varieties no less.) The Amherst Bulletin ran a rather long rambling editorial supporting the Override but then the Gazette followed suit with a tighter one, probably more widely read than the bloated Bully version.

But either way, two bricks-and-mortar newspapers supporting the Override certainly ads a fair amount of value that would have to be made up with paid advertising.

The Yes folks also raised more than the No folks ($5,000 to $4,000) although I still have not figured out how they spent that last $3,000. And I did notice that their "Vote Yes" lawn signs do not appear as expenditures on the Campaign Finance Report.

Their carefully crafted message got out: The town cut $7 million over the past (I heard either "two years" or "three years" and you could not tell whether they were including this upcoming year's cuts into that figure or not.) But the fact remains, the 2007 $2.5 million Override would have generated almost $8 million by now and over $10 million if you throw in next year.

And if THAT Override passed safe bet there would not have been ANY cuts. Yet somehow the town seems to have survived...

Epilogue

9:45 PM

So yeah, by now you know the Override passed handily. But the real victory (for us crotchety conservatives) is Rob Spence winning a seat on the venerable Amherst School Committee.

And although they will never admit it, the Vote Yes folks did everything in their power to take him out.

As I stated earlier today, for the first time in at least a generation, a majority of sane fiscal conservatives controls that all-volunteer, amateur committee of do-gooders overseeing well over half the $65 million Amherst town budget.

I will actually sleep well tonight.

Collateral damage

6:15 PM

So if you ask recently retired Amherst Police Chief Charles Scherpa for a shortlist of the hardest working most dedicated person in Public Safety, Animal Control Officer Carol Hepburn would be exceedingly high on that list.

And as you can see from this afternoon's photo, she is also an Elections Warden.

But when the Override goes down, her full-time job as Animal Control Officer goes to half time, thus costing her $21,820. I bumped into her at the Hess Station in front of my Club early one weekday morning and she asked me how I thought the Override vote would go? "Down," I said--and then quickly added, "Sorry about that." "Why," she responded curiously.

"Because your job is half at stake."

"Don't worry about me," she said with Yankee certainty, "I'll be fine."

I hope so.

No concentration of power there...

1:55 PM

So here we have (dead center), Princess Stephanie O'Keeffe, Chair of the venerable Amherst Select Board and to her immediate left John Coull, Chair of the venerable Amherst Redevelopment Authority who is also, of course, her Dad.

Below Mr. Coule is my stunning daughter Jada. Interestingly the Amherst Select Board and Amherst Redevelopment Authority are the only two entities in the People's Republic with the awesome power of eminent domain.

Override rage continues...

1:45 PM

Hmm...so this is a public Facebook post brought to you by an Amherst Middle School teacher (you know, somebody vested in the status quo); and normally I would say 'who cares' as she is one in a hundred or so and certainly entitled to her opinion under the First Amendment.

But what is particularly scarier is she is also part of that elite insider group known as the Middle School Principal School Search Committee. You know, that secretive little group outspoken, overly-public School Committee member (and blogger) Catherine Sanderson was recently purged from.

An anonymous letter-snail mailed to me last week from a school insider indicated great concern about not hiring an "insider" for that ultra-important position of Middle School Principal. Double Hmm...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1135648190>

These are turbulent times on the Amherst School Committee, made worse by
poor conduct on the part of Committee members associated with ACE. I've been
to several meetings of the Regional School Committee and watched, appalled,
at how Sanderson and Rivkin display open contempt and mistrust of Educators
and Aministrators, attempt to undermine the Committee chair, and are hostile
toward Committee members who don't share their views. They vote as a block,
work together to get their motions forwarded, and communicate behind other
Committee member's backs in open meeting. Adding Spence into this mix would
create an even larger "block" of these like minded folk, who really don't
represent a majority view in Amherst, and choose divisiveness over true
leadership. We need diverse views that represent the community on the
Committee, and there are several candidates that will do this. Read and
learn about all of the candidates and vote!

My Anonymous Snail Mail Letter post

Who shoots the photographer?

11:00 AM

Gordon Daniels, is by far the very best thing about the Bricks-and-Mortar Daily Hampshire Gazette. A Grand Master photographer with over 30 years experience. Look for this scene on their Front Page...umm, tomorrow.

None of the Above (mostly)

Click to enlarge

10:30 AM

So I can now confirm the No votes are in the lead--as is Rob Spence for School Committee.

Riders on the storm...

9:45 AM

So it's nice to see Ricky Boy Hood outnumbered in town center by 2-1. And notice Rob Spence for School Committee supporters are not, unlike Jonathan O'Keeffe, also holding a pro-override sign. Irony is if Spence gets elected the School Committee--for the first time in a generation--would have a majority of sensible center types and might actually wrestle that Sacred Cow under control thus obviating the need for Overrides.

All roads lead to...

The Ballot Box

7:15 AM So we're off. And already the Overriders have me confused. No large display ad in this morning's bricks-and-mortar Gazette. So where the heck did they spend the remaining $3,000 in campaign contributions? (60% of total raised!)

Maybe they figured out this was going down and they are saving it for round two, after Town Meeting comes back with yet another tweaked version of this Override. You know, Custer thought it was a good idea to divide up his cavalry...

Overriders current campaign disclosure

Say it isn't so

So this Amherst Bully web article falls into the "You gotta be kidding me category!" 105 faculty and staff of Amherst Regional High School sign a petition supporting their boss Mark Jackson, after he made an ass of himself bullying School Committee member Catherine Sanderson at the 3/9 SC meeting.

Goes to show what lousy institutional memory they have. After all, 8 years ago that many staff signed a petition penned by ARHS journalism teacher Bruce Penniman supporting pedophile principal Steven Myers, who almost days later disappeared in the middle of the night.

And in 1999 a 17-year-old Puerto Rican girl garnered 158 signatures in one day at the High School decrying the production of 'West Side Story' as the Senior class play; she managed to convince the spineless School Committee to cancel the production--the first time in history any entity has ever banned 'West Side Story.'



ARHS The Graphic 1/25/02 Click to enlarge/read

Override is not the answer! (neither is WAR)

Springfield Sunday Republican reports

So yeah, this concerns me a tad: the highest read edition of the 3rd largest newspaper in Massachusetts publishes this routine overview article. Concerns me only because the uninformed voter may read it and think--because of outgoing Amherst School Committee Chair Andy Churchill comments--that the override is now down to $1.12 million, which of course it is not.

What town officials claim is that if unexpected tooth fairy revenues come in--as they always do--they will do as they did in the 2004 Override scenario and not tax to the full extent of the levy in the first year.. However after that one year they will tax to the full extent of the $1.68 MILLION Override amount PLUS THE 2.5% ALLOWED BY LAW.
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Original Post 1:00 PM

So I rolled through town center at around 12:30 PM and the anti-war folks, who have been on that corner every Sunday for 30+ years, outnumbered the "Vote Yes" people--mainly Ricky Boy Hood family and tenderfoot Field Marshal Clare Bertrand--three to one.

You know the drill: click photo to enlarge. The exceedingly small contingent of "Vote Yes" drones are, fittingly, on the extreme left.

A question of priorities in the People's Republic

Click to enlarge/read

Couldn't help but notice on the 2nd tier "gray area"--meaning possible restoration with an Override and unexpected state aid--sits the $61,092 LSSE "Customer Assistant Registrar."

Gotta wonder how that makes the average cop or firefighter feel when they make less than that--not to mention classroom teachers or DPW laborers.

And notice all the Cherry Hill Golf Course was willing to give up is $7,600 in Maintenance/Equipment/Supplies (must be those savings garnered from using convict labor.) But even then their Operation budget is up 2.6% next year while the Police budget is up less than 1%.

And while town officials keep trumpeting how the LSSE Recreation Empire is almost break even, like the Golf Course, they do not tell you that those figures ignore the employee benefits and health insurance costs. ($200,000 next year.)

And of course Capital items are also not included (and LSSE has a quite a fleet of trucks and vans.)

Overriders raise some serious cash

Click to enlarge/read

Unlike three years ago Overriders filed their campaign finance report with the Town Clerk on time.

So counting Ricky Boy Hood's $211.83 for payment of buttons, that makes just a a tad over $5,000 raised thus far for this Override campaign. And I'm impressed, I really am. What a hard sell that must be when hitting up folks for contributions: "Could you please donate money so that we can wage a campaign to raise your taxes?"

Since they have only spent $1991 and have an ending balance of $3073 as of 3/15 (but includes the half-page "signature ad" in the 3 /19 Amherst Bulletin with F-A-R less signatures than three years ago), prepare for a blitzkrieg over the next 72 hours

Rope-a-dope while avoiding Overriders rage

As Rod Serling would say, "Respectfully submitted for your perusal."

In this case, the reason why angry yellow jacket No More Overrides signs will not swarm in Amherst center over the final days of the campaign. Three years ago--a day or so before the May 1 Override vote--some Nitwit woman crashed her vehicle narrowly avoiding cyclists and pedestrians who would not have made out as well as the 4,000 pound auto she rear ended.

So in the interests of public safety--especially since our Police and Fire departments are understaffed--the Amherst Citizens for Responsible Change have decided not to stand around in town center and distract drivers.
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Original Post 4/29/07


As a passive aggressive sparky school supporter was driving thru the downtown around high-noon Saturday she rolled down the window and leaned out shouting while shaking her fist: “You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

A split second later she rear-ended the SUV in front of her. Stan Gawle, without missing a beat (after he stopped laughing) exclaimed, “God is on our side!”

Sincerest form of flattery

Three years ago Sir Richard Hood showed up in Amherst Town Center a few days before the May 1 Override vote with his Van festooned with posters ripping off the angry yellow jacket design to shout No More teachers, police, or firefighters.

Of course the problem with that hyperbole is it perfectly demonstrates the "fear factor" town officials like to use when strong-arming the taxpayers. Three years ago the Town Manager put five firefighters hired with a Federal Grant on the Override chopping block even though the terms of the grant would have caused much larger repayment to the Feds.

Three years ago I simply chalked up the copycats "sky is falling" rhetoric to the general incompetency of allowing such a naive rookie to take command of the campaign and at that point, in over his head, he simply lost his head.

But now, under new command, they went it did it again. Yikes!

Better dead than red

You can tell Mr. Hood is a "webmaster", as he picked a lively color scheme for his lawn signs (which, unlike the green pro-Override signs, will still stand out when the grass comes in.)

I guess he learned from his boo-boo three years ago that lawn signs are an essential evil in a political campaign. Although it is a tad odd that he--of all people--a true blue, blue-state kind of guy, would use red.
Yeah as one of my Anons pointed out, he borrowed from the wholesome milk company.

The Color of Money

So Overriders picked the perfect color scheme for their lawn signs. Hey, at least this time around they were clever enough to order them. Three years ago they did not bother--one of the many huge mistakes they made under the leadership of Rick Hood, now a candidate for School Committee.