"Well, isn't that Special?"

So a battered and beaten Select Board Chair, his Lordship Gerry Weiss, threw in the towel late last night on calling a Special Town Meeting to discuss our budget plight (or I should say the Schools) in February, opting instead for a “public forum.”

Score one for transparency.

The Budget Coordinating Group—the ultimate insiders—should simply disband, as average taxpayers will never take them or their “recommendations” seriously again.

(“Could it be…SATAN?")

High Noon Town Hall Budget Meeting

After the Donnybrook on Wednesday night at the Special Select Board meeting where the vote was 2-2 to run to Town Meeting on advice about the upcoming budget (think Override) today the Budget Coordinating Group (BCG) is meeting to take a second bite at the apple.

When your mix includes the Town Manager, Superintendent of the Schools, (two highestpaid employees in town) the chairs of both Regional Schools and Amherst Schools you can pretty much get as many bites as you please.

12:30 PM
Kusner is 25 minutes late because he’s been upstairs helping to draft the warrant article for a Special Town Meeting. Kinda gives you a hint as to how he will vote tonight (or would have voted on Wednesday night) at the Select board meeting to call the Special Town Meeting (only requires a majority vote)

12: 35 PM
Andy Churchill, Amherst School Committee chair asks what happened at the Wednesday evening Select board meeting. Weiss says the other two Select persons who voted NO had “made up their minds” prior to the meeting, so there was “no negotiation.”

Churchill I want the entire town to know about “the problem” and to get their input. It would be nice if we had a clear majority of the SB (at least 4).

12:43 PM
Kusner is pushing for the 3% Community Preservation Act tax (that needs Town Meeting approval to get on the April 1’st election) and nobody else seems interested--knowing it will be a suicide bomber for the Override.

12:50 PM
Town Manager: We could also do a public budget forum instead of Special Town Meeting. Weiss: getting sense of Town Meeting is different from informing the public. Churchill: Forum attracts small group of people (insiders). Special Town Meeting gets more attention and shows we’re serious. Molly Turner (Library). Special Town Meeting “looks like a set up for the Override.” Town people have sent the message they cannot afford a tax increase. Churchill: needs to be done now in order to include the potential for an Override on April 1‘st “preserves our options.”

1:05 PM
Brighty: Have BCG run an informational meeting for Town Meeting members (but not an official Special Town Meeting) in late February.

Assistant Town Manager John Musante: Will a Special Town Meeting generate heat or light? If it’s going to confuse people then “why do it?”

1:17 PM

Kusner to Superintendent Hochman: Are you going to be asking the Select board to place an Override on the ballot for the Schools?
School Committee folks answer for him (but not very directly).

Weiss: what do I say to Select board tonight? Town Meeting or forum?

1:24 PM (final one)
Hochman: Do we want to get info out to public? How do we get input in? What’s the Select board’s solution?

No clear call as to whether they will ask the Select board for the Special Town Meeting or not (no wonder the May 1 Override failed). The item is on the Select Board agenda at 9:15 tonight.

Oh say can you see...

Whenever I spy the American flag at half-staff I worry something extraordinary has tragically occurred, as in 9/11 or the Virginia Tech Campus massacre, or an X-president has died.

But with Amherst College, you never know. As of this evening their prominently placed illuminated flag (high on a hill overlooking the downtown) has been in mourning for almost a week, probably for Jenny Kim a 22-year-old senior who took her own life.

According to flag protocol only the Governor of our state or President of the United States can order the American flag to half-staff. It’s like “crying wolf”, because if Old Glory is routinely down to half-staff, you no longer notice.

I too am guilty of symbolic flag abuse as a noble gesture. In mid-May, 1994 when Jackie Kennedy Onassis succumbed to cancer about a month after Richard Nixon died, and President Clinton enforced flag protocol for President Nixon I thought “that lying SOB gets the flag down, but because Jackie was never officially anything (besides a President’s wife who carried our nation thru the darkest hours of my childhood) she’s ignored?”

So I called Amherst Town Manager Barry Del Castilho who was, naturally, on vacation, and got Nancy Maglione the Finance Director who was “acting Town Manager”, and earnestly requested the Amherst flag in town center go to half-staff to honor Jackie.

Ms. Maglione at first balked: “The flag is scheduled to be down for Nixon until this evening, so if we keep it lowered for one extra day nobody will even notice,” she replied.

“I will, and so will you!” I responded.

The next day the flag stayed down…and surprisingly some folks noticed. When one or two called Town Hall to enquire they were told it was down an extra day to honor Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

A conservative local radio jock complained most vociferously about the breech of flag protocol. “What an ass”, I thought.

The sun also rises

Even in Amherst.

Ground Control to Principal Jackson

So, it’s been a week. No sign of Mr. Jackson. Either the space aliens got him or he called up that Override PR flak from Unicom ARC for a consultation and was advised to never meet with the enemy. Oh, well.

Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:18:10 -0500
From:"Mark Jackson" To:"larry kelley"
Subject:Re: VAGINAS! Vaginas, VA GI NAS

Larry:

Rather than spar, I'd rather meet and talk. Can I buy you coffee?

Mark

Mark Jackson, Principal
Amherst Regional High School
21 Mattoon St.
Amherst, MA 01002
W: 413-362-1701
F: 413-549-9704
jacksonmk@arps.org

Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:07:19 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: VAGINAS! Vaginas, VA GI NAS
To: "Mark Jackson" From:"larry kelley"

Mark,

No offense to Dr. King but I'm open on Monday (1/21). First
coffee is at 5:35 am and second one around 9:00 am.

Larry

LIve From Amherst!

(6:35 PM. Scroll down for updates) Well, okay almost live. Four or five minute delay for spell check (and Blogger does not allow live text messaging).

First impression: lousy turnout. As in 8 people in the audience—all of them insiders. Only one reporter.

His Lordship Gerry Weiss opens. Talks a lot but doesn't say much.

Ms Awad protests the idea of a Special Town Meeting. We are abdicating are responsibility. “There are alternatives”. She also talks about how the BCG seemed overly interested in the Override. Move the start date of Town Meeting to early April. Not an appropriate use of Town Meeting.

UPDATE: (6:50 PM)
Ms. Greeney (citing a survey of 90 people): Goes after LSSE( Recreation Department). Library branches in No and So Amherst.

New Town Meeting members coming in on April 1, so why get opinion in February from some who may not be around to vote on the budget in the Spring. Not enough information available (state aid) for this early a Town Meeting.

Reads statement from a survey responder who also takes LSSE to task. Keep it simple: summer pool, groomed playing fields but not the bloated empire they have become (Tango lessons anyone?)

6:58 PM

Ms. Brewer: To hell with surveys. Not interested in talking about an Override (her nose is starting to grow). At this point not Pro Override (her nose is getting bigger). Not a huge turnover in Town Meeting, so February folks will still be around this Spring to vote on the budget.


Andy Steinberg (Finance Committee and BCG member): Town Meeting stands in for the public. Special Town Meeting on budget would be helpful.

Brian Morton (Finance Committee and BCG member): The idea for this Special Town Meeting is not just the BCG. Some Town Meeting member on a list serve came up with it (damn internet). Any member of the general public can speak at Town Meeting (yeah, but they don't).

7:05 PM

Vote is 2-2 . It fails!. Weiss, Brewer "yes"; Greeney, Awad "No". Rob Kusner was not present (and he most certainly would have voted Yes). But Weiss, obviously a sore loser, is talking about bringing it up again this Monday when Mr. Kusner is around.

7:25 PM (I'm home now). As the scant crowd dispersed I asked Select Board Chair Weiss if he knew Rob Kusner would not be present tonight (I had assumed Kusner would rush in at the last minute, bike helmet in hand, to cast the deciding vote). And he said "Yes". I then said something about wasting folks time as even the flagpole in front of Town Hall knew Awad and Greeney were going to vote NO and there are only five Select board members and you need a majority vote for something to pass. Great leadership there your Lordship.

The Vagina Override...Fore!

(6:45 am) So apparently LifefromMA, my new buddy on Masslive/Amherst forum and I have more in common than first thought. He has not played golf in years (not that I’m anti-golf, only anti-subsidizing the grandiose game with taxation) and he’s not anti-Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, the elementary school my daughter attends here in the People’s Republic Of Amherst. He only opposes the concept of Charter Schools in general (although on average they outperform public schools and at a cheaper cost).

http://www.masslive.com/forums/amherst/

But damn, now he agrees with me on ‘The Vagina Monologues’, as well as the tax Override. And, seriously, he hits a hole in one on as far as it demonstrating how clueless our top school leaders are.


I was sitting last week at the Budget Coordinating Group meeting at Town Hall with Hochman on my immediate left and Shaffer on my immediate right and I just wanted to slap them (metaphorically speaking of course).

Here you guys—the two highest paid Amherst public officials ($300,000 per year combined) are sitting here plotting with ‘All The Usual Suspects’ for a tax Override to make your bureaucratic existence easier and both of you have stepped in deep Do-Do recently on God, Country and Apple Pie issues that seriously calls into question your judgment.

Well, anyway...I will be attending the BCG meeting later this morning at Town Hall (I think it starts at 9:00 am) and if anything of interest happens will post live from the meeting (love that free wireless).

UPDATE: 9:15 AM Ooops. I guess they did enough damage last week. Bumped into the always gregarious Town Manager in the hallway who confirmed there was no BCG meeting. Well maybe I'll try the LIVE FROM AMHERST thing later this evening at 6:15 pm when our illustrious Select Board holds a Special Meeting to decide whether to hold a Special Town Meeting, setting the stage for an Override vote this Spring. Look for a 3-2 vote with Greeney and Awad dissenting (you know the same duo who opposed the May 1'st Override)