Overriders last chance

UPDATE 2:00 PM. So yes--thanks for asking, I will be live-blogging the illustrious SB 7:00 PM segment tonight concerning the Override. And if I had to guess, it will indeed start pretty much on time (one thing Princess Stephanie does better than Mussolini). I would love to have Catherine Sanderson at the meeting also live posting to her blog, but she has a School Committee meeting tonight and that will prove more important than tonight's Select Board dog and pony show.

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ORIGINAL POST 10:00 AM Thus far the property tax Override campaign has been about rocky as the dark side of the moon. The Select Board had hoped to slam dunk the Override amount ($1.9 million) tonight and the structure they most prefer--lump sum general Override--but instead they will simply take "public comment" starting at 7:00 PM.

So Overriders will pack the meeting, demanding the Select Board "save our schools"--even though up to this point the School Committee has not gotten on board. And neither has the Jones Library, but that is less surprising since they did not join the lemmings parade three years ago.

The Republican Reports

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

12:25 PM
Not much going on up at Winter Fest in the remote outskirts of North Amherst, otherwise know as the municipally owned Cherry Hill Golf Course. Who would have figured that town officials would have to pay money over the last 24 hours to make snow while in Washington D.C. they are getting buried in the worst snowstorm of their existence?!

Oh well...hence the problem with things like golf or skiing: relying on Mother Nature as a business model partner is a fast track to bankruptcy (unless of course you can rely on taxpayers for life support.)

BCG: Why bother, when it's a done deal?

The Bully Reports (factual errors and all)
Of course you non news wonks will wonder what the big deal is: the Governor either submitted a level funded budget or a lousy 5% cut from last year budget (as reported in the Bully). But the difference to Amherst is $1 million. Kind of a BIG difference.

Just as someone could say what the hell difference does it make for the teachers to give up their little 3% raise and COLA next year. Well, that makes a $1.3 million difference. That too is pretty damn big.

UPDATE: 3:55 PM

My reliable sources at the BCG meeting tell me the Override will be a lump sum general amount (almost certainly $1.9 million) but "With Allocations" (meaning it will include ballot language that will allocate so much to the libraries, so much to the schools, etc.)

The BCG will meet again Wednesday at 10:15 AM, after more School Committee meetings next Monday and Tuesday. The Select Board will definitely meet next Friday at 8:30 AM, as scheduled in advance in case they needed to, to finalize things.

And Amherst School Committee lightening rod Catherine Sanderson posted this interesting strong arm incident from Tuesday's School Committee meeting:

"One final thing - I asked Stephanie O'Keeffe at the meeting last night three questions:

1. Whether it would be possible from the BCG/SB's perspective for the SC to vote simply to put an override on the ballot to let the voters decide (without the SC taking a specific stand supporting the override). She said no -- that the SB would not include the schools on an override ballot if the SC didn't take a position supporting an override."
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11:30 AM
So I'm sitting here trying to liveblog this meeting (the wireless keeps coming and going.)

Starts on time. First 'public comment' mentions "menu Override". He states that 3 members of the Facilitation's Committee are here and last year they stated an Override would be necessary withing the "next five years," BUT that Override should be a Menu Override, meaning voters can pick and choose what they support rather than an all-or-nothing, lump sum number. Maybe they should get a chance to explain that position?

I, of course, ask why we're here in the first place, since this body is supposed to forward a dollar amount and structure to the Select Board, who is meeting on Monday night, and that I also thought the Select Board on Monday would hear "public comment" on the Override--both structure and amount.

But, I'm reading today's Amherst Bulletin (dated tomorrow) that trumpets a definitive $1.9 million Override on a Front Page story--above the fold no less. So if it's a done deal, why bother with this meeting, and why bother with public input on Monday night?

Stephanie deflects by saying she can't speak for the Bulletin and they (the Select Board) are still in the process.

Vince O'Connor said he agrees a Menu Override would be best.

11:53
Andy Churchill (School Committee). Some are saying to delay the Override vote to April (thus setting up a standalone election that will cost $12,000 And since the Town Clerk is scheduled to lose an employee that's just what they need. )

The Region consists of 4 towns and the other three should have some input. They are comfortable with allowing the Amherst School Committee to come up with a figure for the Elementary Schools. The Region, however, does not meet until this Saturday.

12:05 PM
Andy Churchill actually uses the word "hardball" for the way the Select Board is strong arming the School Committee to get behind (in lockstep) with the Override. Hmm...

12:08:
Jones Library. Did not take a formal vote on supporting or opposing the Override--i.e. "took no position." They only voted to support the total amount needed so that they do not lose state certification.

Princess Stephanie (SB Chair) parses that to say that they "support" an Override. Hmm...

12:10
Town Manager asks if they are "silent on the Override". "So far," they respond.

12: 15
Gerry Weiss starts to browbeat Jones Library Trustee Chair Patricia Holland. "So, you want an extra $60,000--but you don't want to ask the voters? You want the Select Board to do that!"

12:16
Town Manager: "One option for the BCG is to give the Select board a number NOT to exceed..."
The community is expecting the Override on 3/23, so Shaffer is recommending for the SB to keep to that date. "The train is leaving the station."

12:20
Andy Churchill: "We need another BCG meeting next week and the Select Board should not make a decision this Monday night."

12:21
Gerry Weiss: "It's not feeling good to hear you're not ready. Delay is a bad idea."

12:30
Alberto Rodriguez (School Super)
How can we deliver school services cheaper? What are we going to bring back? Two different budgets (elementary and Region) but we're trying to integrate them and think more like a seamless K-12. Some cuts may go, so may come back. I met with Principals and they are working on a reprioritized list of cuts but will get them to me later.

In other words: they are still working on it. But says Mr. Rodriguez, "We will come up with something that everyone dislikes," eliciting the first chuckles of the meeting.

12:32
Princess Stephanie: We can still move forward and give the Select board a recommendation. We're committed to keeping the 3/23 date? (Andy Churchill and Regional School Chair say "no")

12:35
Town Manager uses metaphor, "We're not a speedboat, we're more like the Titanic." Yikes! (A few folks jump in to correct that image.)

12:40
Stephanie mentions the $12,000 cost for a stand alone election if after the normal 3/23 town election.

Alberto Rodriguez says you would get a better turnout on the already set 3/23 date.
Stephanie closes the discussion by saying it's going to be 3/23. Now moves on to THE AMOUNT.

12:45
Town Manager: "We're right around the $1.9 million figure." (Gee, he must have read the Amherst Bulletin.)

12:50:
Stephanie moves on the "the form" of the Override. Gerry Weiss wants to talk about the "surplus" the town seems to find every year, that goes into Free Cash savings. That with-or-without an Override we will still have a surplus (because of cuts.)

12:53
Musante: Recent surplus was about $720,000. Previous two years was a little over $1 million each year. Reserves are beginning "to rebound." Better than they were two years ago.

12:55
Sorry folks. I gotta go pick up my daughter. Will make a few calls in the next few hours to see what happened.

Hadley barn destroyed

UPDATE: 5:00 PM So as you can see, most of the critters are just fine. Although I have unconfirmed reports that up to a half dozen "show cows" perished in the fire.



9:00 AM
Amherst, Northampton and South Hadley FDs assisted Hadley in snuffing out the smokey fire at Goulet Farm just behind the two Malls.

Massachusetts miracle indeed!

Early this morning I was pleasantly surprised to read a guest column by Izzy Lyman, my forever friend and once the token "conservative columnist" for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. We were kind of bookends as I was then the token "conservative columnist" for the Gazette's sister publication the Amherst Bulletin.

Izzy of course submitted this over a week ago and only today it saw the light of ink. So yeah, a tad dated. Now you know why I call the Gazette crusty.

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On one recent evening – specifically January 19th – I wished I still lived in Massachusetts.

For many years, bombastic Amherst was Home Sweet Home, and I spent a chunk of that time happily writing bombastic newspaper columns.

What I would have given to cover the People’s Candidate’s victory party.

Oh, to watch herstory become history.

Oh, to be able, after years of seeing a “D” after every name in the congressional delegation, to simply gaze at the lone “R.”

Oh, to take a stand against Wall Street bailouts, ACORN hustlers, Cash for Clunkers boondoogles, and Rachel Maddow’s point of view.

Oh, to be in Massachusetts on a wintry election day and vote for Scott Brown for the seat formerly held by Teddy Kennedy.

Candidly speaking, however, Senator-elect Brown is not this Tea Party sympathizer’s cup of tea.

Brown, after all, isn’t really a social conservative. He supports civil unions, and he is pro-choice. Two strikes.

He is also “passionate” about improving that dinosaur known as public education. The Cosmo Centerfold strikes out, even with Kurt Schilling’s staunch support.

But these are times that try men’s and women’s souls, and, for once, improv, not hard-line stands, seemed the better way to take a shot at taking down the mighty Massachusetts Liberal Machine. For once, voting for a third party candidate was not only a wasted vote but a wasted opportunity.

Plus, there was something about Scott. Unlike Bill Weld, the quintessential Rockefeller Republican, as well all those other colorless moderates the Massachusetts GOP endlessly promotes, Brown comes across as playful and credible. He is of the masses and yet a cut above them - campaigning in the beloved truck, the wife and daughters who didn’t flinch in front of the camera, the grueling triathlon training, the J.D. degree, and the national guard service. If Brown insists on continued support of the War on Terror, at least, he is no chickenhawk. He has been a Minuteman-in-waiting for quite some time.

On a more wonkish note, Brown’s lack of enthusiasm for nationalizing health care, as well as his unabashed support for free enterprise and lower taxes, were deal breakers in wooing social conservatives and free-thinking libertarians to his camp. And if the Next Big Thing in the U.S. Congress is passing comprehensive immigration reform, Brown’s opposition to amnesty is a stand for economic justice, especially when the unemployment rate is over 10 %. Same goes for his opposition to granting driving privileges and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

The saintly Gerald Amirault, declaring himself a Scott Brown supporter, gave the campaign gravitas. Amirault, falsely accused of child rape in the notorious Fell Acres day care case, deserved a small measure of justice for the extra time he spent in prison, thanks, in part, to Cruella de Coakley badgering Gov. Jane Swift to deny Amirault clemency.

And that brings us to the Attorney General. “Marcia” is that instantly recognizable cliche – the Northeast Corridor feminist who practices law and crusades against ‘hate’ crimes but sticks up for open borders - aloof, earnest, dull, and out-of-touch. Martha Coakley didn’t lose this race because she is a woman. It’s that she is “that woman.” The kind of gal that would have pimped, legislatively-speaking, for this Democratic administration by supporting the largely-discredited public option. Also the kind of gal that hassled little old ladies in gardening clubs, over their financials, while receiving support from Emily’s List.

No thanks.

She just wasn’t Kennedy-torch-bearing material. She was more like someone Barack Obama would have appointed ‘Social Justice Czar.’ Aloof, earnest …

Conversely, a creative thinker might argue that the silver-haired, athletic, public-servant- oriented Brown could have been a distant Kennedy cousin, albeit one who hung out with showbizzy Protestants, snuck peeks at Fox News, and shopped at Big Box stores.

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out, but supporters of Scott Brown need to remain engaged, since he is up for re-election in 2012. He is now Ken to Sarah Palin’s Barbie, and his every move will be scrutinized. The Bay State’s establishment press, academia, and branches of government remain unapologetically statist, so he will need all the help he can get from bloggers, tweeters, podcasters, youtubers, and every other establishment-rocking citizen journalist and alert citizen around. Perhaps Brown could be persuaded to go rogue vs. elite, and have a few coffees with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), instead of rushing to play hoops with the President. Being schooled by the elder statesman from Texas on how to honor the Constitution is, I would argue, the better use of this rookie’s time.

Meanwhile, January 19th remains a date to remember. It was on that day that the good people of Massachusetts liberated themselves from that ball and chain known as ‘politics as usual.’ They have now joined the mainstream.

Welcome!
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Of course at this moment State Senator Stan Rosenberg must be thinking: DAMN!

What if they gave an election...

So venerable, iconic, ancient, Amherst Town Meeting, that bastard--I mean bastion--of democracy continues to suffer from the snooze factor.

By yesterday's Ballot deadline for the 3/23 election (and it only takes one name--your own--to get on the Ballot) out of eighty 3-year-seats available seventeen of them lack a single candidate, or better than 20%.

And only one of ten Precincts (each with 8 open 3-year-seats) actually has a contest...although barely: 9 candidates for 8 seats.

As I titled yesterday's post, "When Products Compete" (they get better). When there's no competition you get, well, mediocrity.

Even this Collegian puff piece didn't help

When products compete

Maryland, roughly the same size and population of Massachusetts, has 24 school Superintendents while Massachusetts has 279. One good reason the state is now pushing cities and towns to regionalize schools. Obviating a couple hundred highly-paid bureaucrats adds up to real savings.

In overly educated Amherst the School Superintendent's position is the platinum standard of public employment.

When Gus Sayer suddenly left seven years ago at $104,000 and Jere Hochman arrived at $135,000 then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho whined his way to a mid-year $10,000 raise, but still only topped out at $125,000, which remains the salary level of the current Town Manager (+ $6,000 or $7,000 car/cell phone allowance.)

The new Amherst School Superintended Alberto Rodriguez debuted at $173,000 ($158,000+ $15,000 housing/auto allowance)--a 20% raise over his Golden Boy predecessor Jere Hochman. The School Superintendent of Longmeadow makes $124,000

No wonder Amherst spends well over the $401 per student state average on administrators: $550 per student in the elementary schools and $582 at the Amherst-Pelham regional schools . Longmeadow, on the other hand, spends $331 per pupil on administrators.

But now the Town Manager and School Superintendent, our two highest paid public employees, are hoping the teachers union will enact "give backs" on their FY11 contract--specifically step increases and COLA, which combine for a whopping $1.3 million.

Chances of that happening are right up there with Scott Brown winning over Amherst three years from now in his Senate reelection bid.