Struggling in a bog

11:45 AM

So this must be serious as the Budget Coordinating Group is meeting twice in one week. They are the budget Override Czars comprised of components of the Select Board, School Committee, Library Committee, and the Town Manager.

I have a young daughter to pick up So I can't cover the entire meeting. But it looks like before the meeting is over we will know what the Override amount will be on the 3/23 ballot. I feel kind of like the Mac folks sitting around yesterday watching Apple unveil the new ipad and anxiously awaiting that all important PRICE point.

11:50 AM
John Musante, assistant town manager, talking about $2 million in cuts and possibly a $2 million Override. Budget growth next year for town about 2.5% (amazingly, corresponds to Prop 2.5) and Elementary Schools about 4% and 3.3% Regional School.

12:00 Noon
Possible going for an Override and if unanticipated money comes in from the state then the town will not implement the extra levy if the Override is approved.

12:40 PM
So Daddy duty called and I will not be able to cover the rest of the meeting (posted to end at 2:00 PM) but I can prognosticate based on the minor amount I observed:

The Override amount will be just under $2 million (and they will promise that if passed they will not come back for another Override for a few years--reminiscent of the "3 year Amherst Plan" that failed three years ago.)

And it's a safe bet the Override will be an all-or-nothing single general amount (actually maybe two) but certainly not a "menu Override" where taxpayers get to pick and choose programs they really cherish.

Say it isn't so Mike

Retired Chief Charlie Scherpa on left and Captain--now Chief--Mike Kent

So I've known a lot of cops over the years and they don't come any better than Mike Kent. Having come of age during the somewhat wild and woolly days of the early 80s where guts and instinct mattered most, to successfully straddling the gap into the new millennium where training, education and professionalism are now paramount.

After almost 30 years of patrolling the streets of the People's Republic of Amherst (not to mention many, many miles of long distance running) Captain Kent transitions to Chief Kent for the town of Burlington.

Not overly surprising to those of us who pay attention to Public Safety. When Captain Kent, who filled in as acting Chief for six weeks, and was then passed over for the permanent position in favor of boyhood friend Scott Livingstone, the writing was clearly on the wall.

Although gracious as always Mike responded: "No doubt he'll do a tremendous job; I will try to be the best second in command I can be." But as the old saying goes, "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."

And comparing the departments perhaps those roles are reversed: Amherst PD serves 27 square miles with a permanent population of 34,000, using only 26 patrol officers, 7 sergeants, 3 lieutenants and two captains with an annual budget of $4 million.

Burlington PD serves a 12 square mile area with a permanent population of 25,000 residents, using 42 patrol officers, nine sergeants, four lieutenants and two captains with an annual budget $6 million.

Sounds pretty heavenly to me.

Override rumination

The Jones Library is runner up to the venerable Amherst Public Schools in the pecking order for Sacred Cows in the People's Republic of Amherst. Three years ago the Library Trustees failed to fall into line and vote to support 'The Amherst Plan' $2.5 million Override that narrowly failed.

Recently the Jones Library received an unanticipated bequeath of over $500,000 to stash with their current endowment of $7.6 million.

Yet to save a piddly $8,575 they plan to close on Friday's next Fiscal Year because it is the most visible cut they can make to promote the Override--and apparently Friday's are a popular day for patronage. "This will be an argument for the Override," Trustee Chair Patricia Holland boldly declared.

Well hey, at least she was honest.

And the verdict is...

So now I have done my civic duty twice within a week. Last Tuesday voting in the distinct minority--at least as far as Amherst and Cambridge are concerned--for Ted Kennedy's Senate replacement and today reporting for duty to the Superior Courthouse in Northampton for Jury duty.

There were about 60 of us crowded into a room that looks built to handle half that amount, with one older medium size color tv in a corner with somewhat lousy reception. We arrived at 8:00 AM and let go about two hours later.

Apparently the perp decided to plead guilty at the last moment, after 7 of 14 jurors had been selected last week and seven more would come from my group of 60. The judge told us that our willingness to serve could easily have set the stage for the last minute plea bargain.

Since the case concerned sexual assault and it would have taken seven days of trial, I'm relieved that I did not have to serve, although going through the process would have been interesting. Except of course, jurors can't read newspapers, watch TV news or use the Internet. Going cold turkey for a week would have been hard on this humble news junkie blogger.

Thus the system worked. And like country that created it, perhaps not perfect but certainly better than anything others may offer.

Which is why I defended the right of convicted terrorist Ray Levasseur to speak at the Umass Library symposium on those turbulent days gone by. The man paid his dues and did not forever surrender his rights as an American citizen.

And I also supported on the floor of Amherst Town Meeting the idea of allowing CLEARED Gitmo refugees to relocate to our little town. As long as the word cleared equates to innocent.

If we as Americans cherish our system of justice, then let it apply to all! Bring 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to New York City for a civilian trial. Let the justice system he tried to destroy demonstrate to the entire world why we cherish it so.

President Obama bows out of jury duty

Now you know why we're the People's Republic

The Boston Globe reports

Bad news Overriders, good news Taxpayers

UPDATE SATURDAY MORNING: "No school district will receive less this year than last year," Patrick said to applause.

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6:30 PM

So Governor Deval Patrick has just announced (on Twitter no less) that his state budget this year will have no cuts to Chapter 70 education money thus giving bean counters about $1 million more to the Regional High School and $600,000 more for the Amherst elementary system than previously expected.

And since hardly anybody in this town seems to give a damn about Public Safety or the DPW, the threatened cuts there on the town side when an Override fails (now guaranteed) are not going to generate a slew of support.

Even with the sky is falling rhetoric of Overriders only concerned with the schools, as of today they could only manage 337 signatures on the blank-check Internet Override petition.

Outside the box

Patty Bode's chilling diatribe
So my friend Mr. Morse accused me of "obsessing about the Open Meeting Law"--even though as a (grumpy) prosecutor he should appreciate that the state has agreed with me more often than not on both Open Meeting Law and Public Documents appeals after initial stonewalling from town officials.

But even a zealot like me has to question a guest column in today's crusty Bulletin, one of many attacking School Committee black sheep Sanderson and Rivkin's overly dramatic Column two weeks ago comparing the abuse they get for speaking their minds and questioning authority to the Bush administration questioning the patriotism of critics at a time when patriotism was considered a good thing.

Patty Bode, a former Amherst teacher naturally, worries that Sanderson's blog could violate Open Meeting and Public Documents because it discusses "school committee business" outside the arena of a school committee publicly posted meeting, and that her blog attracts a high number of Anons who could very well be other school committee members thus creating a quorum.

And she also worries about certain postings that have been "disrespectful and slanderous to school personnel," but fails to give any examples. Kind of ironic considering her slanderous charge that some fellow School Committee members could be masquerading as Cowardly, Anon, Nitwits in order to circumvent the Open Meeting Law.

And would that really be a violation anyway?

The purpose of the Open Meeting Law is to ensure that business is transpired in public. So what the Hell does Bode think a blog is? A private little antiquated listserve? A smoke filled backroom? Sanderson teaches aerobics so it's a safe bet she doesn't smoke. A blog is the public arena.

Bode closes with the question, "Why would a public official want to establish a forum that tolerates disrespectful communication?"

Well how about that most basic, fundamental, bed rock American value: the First Amendment!
Don't stray from the flock!