Up in smoke

Not much going on at the Extravaganja rally around noon today on the Town Common. But with the rain and early hour (for avid pot smokers anyway) not a big surprise.

UPDATE: 5:30 PM Obviously things have picked up.


2 years ago. Obviously nobody checks I.D.s

The Umass Collegian reports (they were the only ones who seemed to care)


Wow! CBS TV paid a visit

Just a little off the top

All roads lead to Florida

The Republican Reports

The Gazette has a hilarious article Friday posted on Catherine Sanderson's blog about former Amherst School Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez resurfacing in Florida after his sudden, less-than-amicable departure from the People's Republic up here in the frigid hinterlands.

Turns out the "undisclosed medical condition" that prompted his unannounced trips to Florida last winter was just a--cue the drumroll--hernia. Lucky for him it was repaired Monday, although he may get another one carrying all his ill gotten gains to the bank.

A-Rod is still receiving full pay through the end of May courtesy of Amherst taxpayers--and already has landed another job as principal at Coral Shores High School in Key West. Hired by old pal Joseph Burke, former Springfield School Superintendent pretty much fired by the State Control Board two years ago.

The Springfield School Committee met in secret to extend Burke's contract but the Control Board axed it. For the good of the system, Burke did not file suit and flew south where he obviously landed on his feet.

No big surprise Superintendent Burke would embrace Alberto--after all, Burke was a reference for him when he applied to Amherst. They have concocted a good cover story for his brief tortured tenure in Amherst: the evil School Committee "criticized him about vacation and sick time." Hmm...I thought that was me and the evil blogosphere?!

Plus they cited the women who threatened last summer to burn her tax bill in front of Rodriguez's office to protest his lavish contract. Yeah, gotta watch those women armed with a lighter.

Burke, a white guy, also clumsily plays the race card by pointing out Regional School Committee members who originally hired A-Rod left their positions and were replaced by members who "were not comfortable with him."

I guess from now on whenever the Regional School Committee hires a Superintendent (and apparently that will be a year from now) they should hold a quiet retreat W-A-Y out in the woods of Pelham and, you know, get to like each other. Kumbaya.

All Roads Lead to South Hadley

UPDATE 9:00 PM So the venerable Republican did a (slow) live blog of the meeting and to no surprise the system closed in to protect itself. School Committee Chair Edward J. Boisselle cut off the first speaker saying he was being "offensive".

And when main critic Luke Gelinas publicly asked for Superintendent Gus Sayer, and high school Principal Daniel T. Smith to resign or be fired the School Chair threw him out of the meeting. By meeting close the diffident School Committee failed to take any action on sanctioning school employees for failing to protect 15-year-old Phoebe Prince.

I have a feeling this is F-A-R from over.
#############################################
ORIGINAL POST 10:00 AM

Tonight's South Hadley School Committee meeting should be nothing if not interesting--a real shootout at the OK Corral.

I'll put my money on critic Darby O'Brien--not just because he's Irish or a Public Relations pro--but because he's right. And righteousness will not be denied. The point man is usually first to draw fire.

Of course I've been there a few times myself--what with the Amherst Select Board mulling a Muzzle Larry Kelley ordinance.

What public officials the world over never seem to understand is that passionate critics--even the ones who shoot from the hip--are motivated from their very core. Perhaps, in this case, the reason South Hadley officials don't get it is because they themselves sorely lack a core.

The Springfield Republican reports

You can always go..

Why God invented the Power of the Blog

So you have to wonder how many folks at home we're still watching three hours into last week's Select Board meeting when the Town Manager gave this soliloquy.

A blog is exactly the place for this kind of "transparent" information, access to answers (not that the Town Manager ever responded on his blog) without the bother of numerous phone calls. The Town Manager started his blog over two years ago with great fanfare and managed to average 1.25 posts per month in his rookie year, falling to 1 per month the next year and now averaging 1 every three months.

But hey, what do you expect for a lousy $128,000 per year.


Mr. Shaffer's seldom used platform

NIMBYs on the attack

So the property was plenty big enough--parking included--for Harkness Road High School, a private, non-profit, co-ed day school established 1987 in what was formerly a retail poultry business situated on five acres.

They educated students in grades seven through twelve, utilizing 2,400 square feet (four rooms) of class space, and averaged approximately 20 students each year.

But now suddenly traffic is an issue with a Mosque? Especially a Mosque in the People's Republic of Amherst where attendance is expected to be two to five people coming for daily prayers, up to 10 people for night prayers and around 50 people attending Friday services, which take place at 1 p.m.

And interestingly the immediate long-time neighbor to the property is a commercial welding business.

But hey, at least the fifty or so complainers are not playing the terrorist card--at least not yet.

Space Pod lands in Hadley!

Probably about the ONLY thing that would attract the same media attention as the Phoebe Prince suicide story.

The media

travels in packs.

This was more than apparent this morning in front of the Juvenile Courthouse in Hadley Center for the arraignment of three juveniles in the Phoebe Prince bullying case that has taken on the aura of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Can you imagine how much it costs for those satellite vans and support staff? These days some yokel like me with a $100 point-and-shoot digital camera, $250 netbook and a Wifi connection can do it all instantaneously.

Moo Moos in the mist

Good old Boys in the People's Repubic

So the interim Amherst Regional School Superintendent Maria Geryk--appointed by a less than unanimous vote of the Regional School Committee (overly dominated by minority hilltowns) after the sudden firing/leave of Alberto Rodriguez--only 8 months into his luxurious 3 year contract--announced on their web page this afternoon that Amherst insider Michael Hayes was appointed as the new school Principal for the Regional Middle School--what we townies called "Jr. High School" back in the day.

Hayes was passed over in 2008 by Golden Boy Superintendent Jere Hochman in favor of Glenda Cresto who was fired/bullied into leaving this past September by Hochman replacement Alberto Rodriguez who also inexplicably recently walked the plank.

Hayes has vastly far less experience than the other (outside) contender, Karsten Schlenter.

Interestingly the Amherst School Committee was supposed to meet last night but cancelled at the last minute because paid professional school officials failed to provide important budget documents 48 hours in advance of the meeting (sounds like Amherst Town Meeting.)

So this important position was filled without any advance notice/discussion with the elected School Committee--you know, the folks who are supposed to be in charge.

Thus, kind of like the Captain of the Titanic turning over command to a Cabin Boy an hour after bumping into that iceberg.

Sorry about that Chief

Click to enlarge/read
UPDATE 11: AM : Already heard back from the State (gotta love email):

-----Original Message-----
From: Shallow, Joanne (SEC)
To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 9:44 am
Subject: RE: Public Documents Appeal

Where is your copy of your written request for the documents?

Did the custodian respond by e-mail? Is the attachment you sent to this office the original response from the custodian, or did you copy it?

From: amherstac@aol.com
To: Joanne.Shallow@state.ma.us
Sent: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 11:17 am
Subject: Re: Public Documents Appeal

My original written request (via email) is at the bottom of this string dated 3/15/10 9:21 AM
The custodian's response (via email) is above that dated 3/25/10 4:57 PM (which I believe is a day late)
Yes, this was all done via the Web.

I probably should have just sent you my blog upload that time date stamps everything (and is rather public):

http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-disinfectant.html

Larry


From: Shallow, Joanne (SEC)
To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 1:20 pm
Subject: RE: Public Documents Appeal

I will open an appeal for you. What is the mailing address for Mr. Hajir for hard copy?

From: amherstac@aol.com
To: Joanne.Shallow@state.ma.us
Sent: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 1:38 pm
Subject: Re: Public Documents Appeal

Hey Joanne,

Hmm...that's a good question. Since he is an elected volunteer who lives outside Amherst, I'm not sure about his home address. Probably should just mail to: Amherst Regional High Schoo,l 21 Mattoon Street, Amherst, Ma. 01002
c/o Amherst Regional School Committee

Larry

#############################################
ORIGINAL POST 8:00 AM
So I guess in addition to a copy editor I could also use a secretary. I did just now go back to the Secretary of State's webpage and found an email address for the Supervisor of Records and resent my original complaint, and the Regional Committee Chair Farshid Hajir response/denial (which was a day late) all nicely time/date stamped.

Ah, the convenience of the Web.

Should have just sent them my original upload

Princess Stephanie recrowned

So if this looks a little awkward and orchestrated that's because it was. But hey, the Open Meeting Law allows for public officials to kibitz behind the scenes as long as it only involves "housekeeping."

For those of you new to the ongoing antics of the People's Republic, Stephanie O'Keeffe rose from complete obscurity to the venerable Amherst Select Board mainly via her groundbreaking blog "Stephanie's Town Meeting Experience".

Then after I took out former SB Czar Anne Awad, who was replaced in a mid-year election by Aaron Hayden, she orchestrated a coup d'état and cut off His Lordship Gerry Weiss's, errr...knees and ascended the throne.

Now she's been reelected. All hail the queen. Also worthy to note that we now have a sitting majority of Select Board members "elected" without having any competition in the election.


The good old days

White Elephants: the same all over the country

Another losing Amherst golf course (New York)

Funny how public recreation folks all think alike. Ten years ago the now defunct Cherry Hill Golf Advisory Committee wanted to a borrow millions to replace the condemned clubhouse with a Taj Mahal like structure including 5 star restaurant.

Fortunately that was downsized to a $286,000 loan for a Wal Mart quality Clubhouse that still managed to overrun its budget by 30% and a new irrigation system. The Finance Committee promised the improvements would lead to revenues falling from the heavens like manna; and of course Cherry Hill then went into its seven-year tailspin averaging over $100-K losses per year.

Now-a-days capital improvements (that are charged to a separate part of the town budget so it does not show up as an operation cost of the business) are limited to little things like the $15,000 two years ago for a security fence and above ground fuel storage tank.

Not sure if the security fence is to protect from terrorists detonating the storage tank, or just a visual screen so Hilda Greenbaum doesn't complain about the industrial view. But that open space looks big enough to drive a golf cart through...

Fire in the hole!

12:20 PM

And I thought Amherst elections were hot.

To Hell with the taxpayers

Click to read (and weep)

So at least the Budget Coordinating Group is recommending Amherst Town Meeting stick it to the voters "with extreme care and thoughtful deliberation."

Yeah, the old, just a spoonful of sugar help the cyanide go down routine.

The School Committee votes to spend money out of their cool $1 million in reserves after the Override rather than before, the Teachers Union votes a $350,000 contract giveback dependent on the Override passing and town officials promised that if more state aid came in--which it appears will happen--that they would not tax to the full extent of the levy.

Ahhhh, but nobody apparently can speak for Town Meeting. Next time folks, hold on to your wallets (or purses as the case may be.)

Gus Sayer: "Just go. I don't care how. Just go."

So in spite of being a private sector kind of guy, I know how CYA (Cover Your Ass) works.

I too, was guilty a few days ago when I first posted my reaction to the horrific South Hadley suicide by a young Irish immigrant girl, choosing to question why the DA came back so quickly with indictments against the brats involved with bullying teen-ager Phoebe Prince, but taking her sweet time with an incident in Amherst last year where a two-year-old died under the wheels of a school bus, eventually ruled an accident.

Thus demonstrating the Northwestern District Attorney is nothing if not conservative in the careful sense.

But if you are going to indict the pack of juvenile brats who drove young Phoebe Prince to suicide, then why not the paid professional adults who stood by and did nothing? And is sounds like, with Scheibel's use of the term "troubling" for their behavior, that she came pretty damn close.

My self-interested concern is that one persons bullying is another persons banter. And having been on the receiving end of Amherst Town officials trying to have me arrested for suggesting a town official should be removed from office because she no longer lived in town (eventually proven true), or another chief official railing against my "chilling effect" on his governmental board because of my respect for the Open Meeting Law, I'm just a tad sensitive to incidents sending us down that slippery slope to censorship.

Speaking of censorship, Gus Sayer when he was Amherst School Superintendent in 1999 first reacted to the tempest in a teapot about the Amherst Regional High School performing 'West Side Story' and being accused of racism responded unequivocally quick: "No group, neither in the majority nor in the minority, should have the ability to censor the decisions our community’s educators make about what to teach, what to read, or what to produce on the stage."
A few days later he collapsed like a cheaply constructed Chinese school building in an earthquake, allowing the even wimpier High School Principal Scott Goldman to cancel the play--the only time in history such sacrilege would occur.

Two years later Sayer hires Steven Myers as the new principal--at $85,000 annually--to lead the Amherst Regional High School, who at least by physical appearance is gay (Not, as Seinfeld would say, "That there's anything wrong with that."). In the People's Republic of Amherst certainly worth extra credit.

Soon thereafter a mother complained that Meyers propositioned her 15-year-old son, asked him to remove his shirt to expose his breasts, invited him out to a movie, and for a soak in his hot tub.

Superintendent Sayer took the charges seriously enough to hire a lawyer and undertake an investigation of his own, thus he was then duty bound to file a report with the Department of Social Services (G.L.c.119, 51A). He did not--at least not until the news broke and created a firestorm.

Sayer told Myers that if incident became public his Principal job would be “untenable."

This all occurred in January, 2002. Daily Hampshire Gazette digging and Amherst PD uncovered Myers had been under investigation in Colorado for pedophilia and Mass Department of Social Services stepped in and removed his recently adopted 8-year-old boy. Mr Meyers was never charged, disappeared, and has not been heard from since.

Mr Sayer soon "retired" after 14 years as Superintendent of the Amherst Regional High School, but quickly assumed the post at South Hadley High School following in the footsteps of Michael Smith whose brother Dan is still Principal. The 'Good Old Boys' network.

And they rest as they sadly say, "is history." A young girl who immigrated here from from Ireland, after continuous verbal battering, wraps a scarf given to her as a Christmas present by her sister only three weeks earlier around her neck to end the torment the only way she knows how. She was only 15.

At age 67, Gus Sayer is certainly traditional "old school" when it comes to running a publicly funded education empire. Time to head out to pasture. Actually, that time --too late for Phoebe Prince--was a long time ago.

Phoebe speaks

Slate Magazine strongly hints Gus should go

An Irish paper reports

Opportunity lost

Since Town Manager Larry Shaffer champions the relationship with our "good friends" at Umass, and since he crafted a fairly useless five-year strategic agreement with them a few years back, and since he is now talking about a $12 million new fire station in South Amherst with renovations to North Station (on land donated by Umass) and Umass is currently constructing a $12.5 million police station immediately next door why couldn't he have worked out a deal to merge the projects thus creating a joint Public Safety building?

What the Hell, nearby sits the monster $10 million heating plant that never threw a BTU of heat. So Tilson Farm has plenty of space available.

Umass news flacks report

Urban Renewal

The Amherst Redevelopment Authority will take historical Town Hall in downtown center by Eminent Domain and sell it to private local developer Barry Roberts.

One of the main goals of the ARA is to stimulate the economy and reduce blight. Since not much happens at Town Hall this action falls well within the ARA purview. Although the Amherst Select Board, who meet weekly in Town Hall, also possesses the power of Eminent Domain and is chaired by Stephanie O'Keeffe, daughter of ARA Chair John Coull.

Next Thanksgiving should be interesting in that household...

"The Vagina Monologues": Third time is the charm

Amherst School Czar Mark Jackson (Principal of both the Regional High School and Middle School) announced that Amherst Regional High School would once again perform the "The Vagina Monologues" next Valentine's Day.

But this time, the play will also be used as sex education curriculum in the Middle School for a full year culminating with a joint performance next February. No indication of which school student gets to perform the "Reclaiming Cunt" monologue.

Jackson will also lead a one-man bullying seminar using his pernicious performance at the public 3/9 School Committee meeting--where he brow beat School Committee member Catherine Sanderson--as a perfect example of overly dominating male behavior.

Town Mangler says sayonara

One of the better kept secrets in town now appears outed: Town Manager Larry Shaffer announced his marriage to former full-time critic Dave Keenan and both have placed their respective abodes up for sale.

Unconfirmed rumors say they will live temporarily with former Select Board Czar Anne Awad and her husband former Amherst Selectman Robie Hubley in South Hadley, repository for so many cast off Amherst town officials.

Political pundits had been scratching their heads over Mr. Keenan not running for Select Board this past March 23rd (as tenth time is the charm.)

A new saddle for a dying horse

The Select Board approved Town Manager Larry Shaffer's capital request for infrastructure improvements at the Cherry Hill Golf Course, completely enclosing the nine-hole business under a weatherproof dome. The $25 million project will be paid for with state and federal grants and--everybody's favorite Manna from Heaven--Community Preservation Act money.

"Now golfers will not have to go to Florida in the winter to get their weekly fix," said the Town Mangler.

H in Amherst comes out of the closet

After 250 years of proudly silencing the h in Amherst--thus exposing carpetbaggers, rookies and ne'er do wells only migrating here for the money or cute co-eds, town officials unanimously approved a by-law requiring the maligned letter of the alphabet be given full rights and respect when it comes to pronouncing the People's Republic of Amherst.

Rush to judgement

UPDATE: Wednesday morning

So Izzy Lyman, my conservative cohort and former (Happy) Valley Girl--also known on the Masslive Amherst Forum as 'Icky' Lyman--just jumped in with her take on the sad Phoebe Prince affair.

The Castillo Chronicles



ORIGINAL POST Monday morning
Why is it Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel took so long to issue her findings of no-fault in the tragic death of two-year-old Abraham Espinoza under the wheel of an Amherst school bus?

Even with two accident reconstruction police reports (Amherst PD and State Police) completed in May both declaring the event a tragic accident, her final report did not come out until early September--almost a full year after the horrific event.

In the equally tragic troubling case of Phoebe Prince a young girl who committed suicide, the DA after a lightening like two month investigation brings criminal charges against nine youths, some of them--"stalking" or "Statutory rape"--quite serious.

Actually, considering the overwhelming public interest in this case, any charges rendered by the DA are serious. Like for instance, "disturbing a school assembly."

Six months ago, when I published my complaint about the length of time taken on the Espinoza case, my friend the Grumpy Prosecutor replied: "A terrible fact of life is that tragic things happen, but they do not always involve criminal conduct. Not every tragic death can be vindicated in a court of law. But this case, and all the people concerned about it, deserved a thorough review, and the amount of time involved is one indication that that happened here."

And in a follow up comment: "The point is that we need the folks who are bringing criminal charges to be careful about it. Because, guilty or not, the person being charged is going to be very miserable. You remember being publicly accused of engaging in "stalking" and how that felt, don't you, Larry?"


All too well, all too well indeed.

Yeah, even the venerable Washington Post gets it

Justice delayed

Yeah, this is what I'm talkin about

The best disinfectant

Supervisor of Records
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth
McCormack Building, Room 1719
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

I wish to appeal the recent decision by Amherst Regional High School Committee Chair Farshid Hajir denying my Public Document request of March 14 for a copy of his "four notebooks" worth of "impressions" of the (former) Amherst School Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez.

Mr. Hajir boasted about those general impressions in a highly public Springfield Sunday Republican Newspaper article admitting they were garnered during meetings between Superintendent Rodriguez with staff and parents that he observed in his official capacity as Regional School Chair.

Under the recent decision of District Attorney for the Northern District v. School Committee of Wayland, 455 Mass. 561, 567--568 (12/31/2009), our Supreme Judicial Court held that evaluation of a school superintendent was not subject to an exemption under the open meeting law and must be discussed in public.

If any personal information about Mr. Hajir or his family appears in the notebooks, an independent third party can redact that sensitive information.

Since Alberto Rodriguez was the highest paid public employee in town and left suddenly after only 8 months into a 3-year contract, the taxpayers have a right to know what precipitated his demise--especially since he is receiving full compensation through 6/1/2010.

Sincerely,

Larry Kelley
460 West St.
Amherst, Ma 01002

###################################

To: amherstac@aol.com; Kathy Mazur; Debbie Westmoreland
Sent: Thu, Mar 25, 2010 4:57 pm
Subject: Re: Public Documents Request
Dear Mr. Kelley,

Thank you for your reminder (March 24th) of the request you made on March 15th
(attached) for a copy of my notebooks referenced in an article by Diane Lederman
in the Republican Newspaper. The notebooks mentioned in the article contain
some of my personal impressions and ideas from my work as a member of the
Regional School Committee. Some of these were jotted down during meetings but
most of the notes were written at home as I reflected over the day's events, in
the form of a diary. The notes written during meetings were not an official
record, transcript, or minutes of the meetings, and I did not communicate them
to anyone; they were the thoughts that occurred to me as the meetings took
place. I consider my notes my personal reflections for my personal use.
Inasmuch as they constitute a record merely of a public official in dialogue
with himself, in my judgment, they do not constitute a public record and I do
not have any obligation to reveal them. You may, of course, take a different
position, and take the appropriate steps to make a determination to the
contrary. If it is determined that my notes are a public record, it's my
understanding that it would still not be appropriate in that case for the
material to be made public because they would then constitute written documents
for the Superintendent's evaluation and therefore be exempt from public
disclosure in accordance with the Supreme Judicial Court Ruling of 2009 in the
Wayland case.


Thank you for your interest in the Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools.


Regards,
Farshid Hajir

###################################
Mass General Law Chapter 4, Section 7, Paragraph 26:

"Public records'' shall mean all books, papers, maps, photographs, recorded tapes, financial statements, statistical tabulations, or other documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of any political subdivision thereof, or of any authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose, unless such materials or data fall within the following exemptions in that they are: (e) notebooks and other materials prepared by an employee of the commonwealth which are personal to him and not maintained as part of the files of the governmental unit."
###################################
Mr Hajir is not an employee of the commonwealth in his role as Amherst Regional School Committee Chair--although he is as a Umass Math Professor @ $85-K per year.

Can't you read the sign...

UPDATE: April 2 (Somebody must have read the sign).

Power of the Web in Amherst Override election

Stephanie O'Keeffe Select Board Chair (center), John Coull,her dad, Amherst Redevelopment Authority Chair (ducking), Jada Kelley (cute kid).

(Note to readers: This was just submitted as part of my Umass online Journalism course as my mid-term project, so it is written for folks--unlike yourselves--who may not be insiders.)

Ballot questions are decided for a multitude of reasons, with numerous hard to measure independent variables playing a role--from weather to marketing.

The Amherst property tax Override of 2010--which passed 58% to 42% had almost exactly the same voter turnout--31.5%--as did the Amherst Override election of 2007 which failed 47% to 53%.

So why the dramatic difference?

The price point of course is number one: $2.5 million Override losing vs. $1.68 million winning. And at the 11th hour an orchestrated $350,000 "teacher giveback" and higher state aid than anticipated made it seem the most recent Override was even lower as town officials promised not to tax to the full extent of the new higher levy if such "unforeseen revenues" magically appeared after the Select Board set the $1.68 million figure in early February.

Because after the 2004 $2 million Override passed (although voters turned down a $2.5 million Override on that same ballot), $650,000 in extra state aid did materialize and the town negated that amount in 2005, but took the full amount plus 2.5% every year since.

On a more mundane level this time Override proponents (two separate ballot Committees) used lawn signs, and the main Vote Yes For Amherst group raised $5,000 to the No More Overrides group $4,000 as of March 8th filing. 'Save of Schools' spent money on lawn signs (using the maroon/white colors of Amherst Regional High School) but reported zero spending.

Both groups had a web page, but the Yes group was far more extensive, interactive and updated frequently. The local political blogosphere is dominated by two blogs--Larry Kelley's 'Only in Amherst' and Catherine Sanderson's 'My School Committee blog'.

And while Sanderson never took a formal position on the Override, her lack of cheer-leading which she provided in 2007, spoke volumes. In fact, Override supporters cast her as a villain for not providing that lock step support commonly demanded for anything pertaining to the Schools.

'Only in Amherst' launched about a month before the 2007 Override and was a constant source of irritation to pro-Override forces. Even more so this time around, peaking with nine uploads on election day and over 800 viewers.Click to enlarge/read

On the Web front, Override proponents first salvo was an online (blank check) petition started the first week of January with a inauspicious goal of 1,000 signatures targeting Amherst's five member Select Board the gatekeepers of all things Override. A blog counterstrike.

Rules allowed for anyone of any age to sign and obviously an Internet signature collection is far and away easier than acquiring ink-and-paper signatures. Today, even after getting 3,058 yes votes on paper ballots the Internet petition stands at only 658 signatures (many from "name not displayed," or out-of-state, or High School aged non voters.)

Localocracy, a website founded by two Umass/Amherst students dedicated to getting local voters involved with local elections launched in early February using Amherst as a beta test market. Rules were you had to be a town registered voter to post comments or vote on issues and you were given 10 rating points to vote up or down comments that supported your views thus driving them higher up on the page. But anyone could come "view" the results.

By election day Localocracy garnered 816 views (after almost two months) for the Override issue with 53 votes cast giving the Override a whopping 4-1 margin of victory rather then the actual 3/2 victory. Conversely on election day alone 'Only in Amherst' received 827 views and 'My School Committee Blog' 673 views.

But 'Only In Amherst' strongly advocated against the Override while 'My School Committee Blog' tried to remain neutral. So who had a bigger impact?

Since the Web loves to be free, wild and woolly anytime you place restrictions--having to register, or using a real name for posting comments--you greatly restrict participation. And both local Amherst blogs receive a majority of hits from viewers outside Amherst.

Recently Sanderson enabled "Comment Moderation" which suspends comments until "Blog owner approval" thus slowing down the freewheeling give-and-take. As a result, her daily visits have decreased by 20% or so, but still well above Localocracy.
Neither Sanderson or Localocracy use photos or video while 'Only in Amherst' almost always does. The Comments on Localocracy are limited to a Twitter-like 500 characters although you can post comments more than once (not obvious to neophytes.) On some posts Sanderson receives over 100 comments and even now with moderation enabled she still gets dozens and dozens of comments per post.

Sanderson's power emanates from her public role as elected School Committee member just telling her thoughts (and sometimes feelings) in a strait forward manner that blogging so easily encourages. Localocracy provides a somewhat stilted platform for engaged voters to do the same. But in Amherst, the average voter is not overly engaged.

While local spring elections for town offices average a 15% turnout (Override and changing the form of government Charter questions get twice that) the Presidential election every four years garners over a 75% turnout.

Another reason Localocracy may have failed to become a hot bed of comments and discussion like two the local blogs is Override opponents are typically older/retired and may not have fully embraced the Web. Also, Baer Tierkel, a leading architect of the 2007 and this 2010 Override is listed as one of only three members of their "advisory board," thus creating mistrust.

But if you viewed the module dedicated to the Override discussion at any point during the six or seven weeks it was up for discussion/voting clearly the outcome was predicted.

The Override victory was won, not in cyberspace, but simply by having more boots on the ground.

Over a hundred volunteers using traditional methods: displaying hundreds of lawn signs, making thousands of phone calls, huddling in town center and media advertising in the same newspapers that editorially supported the Override.

This time the Dinosaurs won. This time...


Sunday 3:45 PM. Peak day being Tuesday Election Day

30

Standing out

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...

No way to start the day

A truck stalled in the middle of a busy intersection on Rt. 116 around 7:45 AM

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

Prime location promo

Wow, the town must really be taking this election seriously as the red reminder to "VOTE tomorrow" displaced the cute Cherry Hill Golf Course logo on the town's main web page.

Left out in the cold

The Republican reports

The town spins it

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.