I'll drink to that!

So the illustrious Amherst Select Board last night approved placing on the town meeting warrant this spring an article increasing fines for all things alcohol related in the People's Republic from around $50 per infraction to a whopping $300. Now that should get the attention of those damn students!

After two late night ride-alongs with Amherst PD over the last nine months I would guess well over half of all the activity garnering police attention related to drinking. So this bylaw fine escalation should be a Hell of a money maker.

The same coalition committee of Umass folks and town officials are also considering a by-law before Town Meeting (who has to approve the fine increase on open container, nuisance party houses anyway)enacting fines for "public urination."

What an entrepreneurial concept! Generate municipal revenues via the chaotic byproduct of alcohol via open container and noise infractions and then even more fine revenues for public urination, another natural byproduct of alcohol consumption.

The Umass student newspaper otherwise known as Daily Collegian scoops the crusty Gazette

Transparency indeed!

Even the Crusty Valley Advocate gets on board

So the crusty Daily Hampshire Gazette/Amherst Bulletin finally exposed the story of Amherst's highest by far salaried public employee taking advantage of the Schools "generous as compared to private industry" sick leave benefits.

Interestingly, reporter Nick Grabbe quotes snarky anonymous Internet comments and attributes the controversy picking up steam via Catherine Sanderson's School Committee blog, when in fact she has never posted a word about it (other than to say no comment) and refused to comment when the reporter called her for an interview.

Obviously the issue first broke on this blog--although I was smart enough to simply post the public documents without any editorial comment, knowing the racism charge would quickly follow.

When I submitted what turned out to be my final column for the venerable Amherst Bulletin in 2004 railing against the High School becoming the only one in the nation to allow teen aged girls to perform the 'Vagina Monologues' editor Nick Grabb told me I couldn't use a particularly devastating comment posted on Masslive Amherst Forum because Gazette policy did not allow use of unattributed anonymous sources.

Fortunately I knew the person, former Jr. High School principal John Burruto, and he gave me permission to attribute the quote to him. And it stayed in the column. Maybe the venerable Gazette has loosened their standards in the past six years.

But being an official reporter for a bricks and mortar newspaper has its advantages as the Superintendent took reporter Grabbe's call while in Florida at his other home: "I'm a victim of transparency," Rodriguez whined. "At what point does transparency creep up into my rights?"

Naturally School Committee member Kathleen Anderson was quick to play the race card: "In U.S. culture, there's a tendency to see the same behaviors in a person of color differently than a person of European descent."

I wonder if some school principal or lower level teacher took that many sick days in advance and casually slid a memo/spreadsheet to their boss showing they were taking those days with no further explanation; would they get away with it? Probably not, no matter their color.

If Alberto Rodriguez owned his own company he could do as he damn well pleased. But he works for the taxpayers of Amherst (and to some extent Leverett,Pelham and Shutesbury.) Since the Regional School Committee hired him and can fire him, he should have been a tad more respectful by providing them a bit of explanation for that "transparent" 2/9 memo.

Arrogance goeth before the fall.

The Bulletin Reports (finally)

Winter morn

UPDATE: 2/18 Off to Disney for a few days

The benefits of Benefits

SCHOOL COMMITTEE BENEFITS POLICY FOR PRINCIPALS

Vacation Time: The Principal is entitled to twenty-two (22) days of vacation annually to be scheduled through and subject to approval by the Superintendent. Unused vacation shall be cumulative to a maximum of forty-four (44) days. Upon completion of fifteen (15) years of administrative service in the local school systems, the Principal will be eligible for twenty-seven (27) days of vacation annually, cumulative to a maximum of 54 days. Should the Principal request 30 or more vacation days for use at one time, she/he will submit such request to the Superintendent at least 6 weeks in advance of the date on which such vacation use is proposed to begin.
Holidays: The following days shall be recognized as legal holidays:

New Year's Day Patriot's Day Columbus Day
Martin Luther King Day Memorial Day Veteran's Day
President’s Day Independence Day Thanksgiving Day
Labor Day Christmas
Sick Leave:
a. Sick leave is intended to provide insurance against loss of income due to personal illness. An Administrator shall be entitled to eighteen (18) days of sick leave with full pay per contract year. Each eighteen (18) days of sick leave shall exist as of the beginning date of contract, provided that the administrator is present to assume his/her contractual obligations. In the event of non-appearance caused by accident or illness, the administrator's pay may be withheld, with due notification to the person, pending the assumption of contractual responsibility. Sick leave shall be cumulative to 240 days.

b. Absence by reason of death or critical illness in the immediate family shall not be charged against sick leave.

c. An administrator who has completed fifteen (15) or more full years of service with the Committee, may upon retirement or the administrator's estate upon death, be compensated for that portion of his/her unused accumulated sick leave in excess of 120 days, at the rate of $20/day for each unused accumulated sick leave day in excess of 120 days.

11. Personal Leave: Up to three (3) days per year of personal leave will be allowed for each full-time administrator. Such personal leave will not be charged against sick leave. Additional personal leave, up to a combined maximum of eighteen (18) days per year may be granted by the School Committee. Such additional leave is normally charged against sick leave at the discretion of the School Committee. Personal leave will be used to take care of problems or business for which absence is not authorized under any other portion of this contract and will be granted without reference to the specific nature of the request. Personal leave shall not be used to gain extended vacation time, and personal leave shall not be cumulative.
##############################################

So the Superintendent gets the same benefits package as do the Principals and the document entitled "School Committee Benefits Policy For Principals" was attached to Alberto Rodriguez's original contract. But there's something else called Family Medical Leave Act:

This is a federal law which entitles anyone who has worked in a job for a year to twelve weeks unpaid, intermittent sick leave to support a family member or oneself if validated by a licensed physician.

There are forms (FMLA) that must be completed to be granted this. For sake of consistency, the Amherst Schools use these forms as validation of an illness even if someone, like Dr. Rodriguez, has not worked here a full year.

Furthermore, the Schools permit staff to use 10 of their own sick days in a school year to support family illness, so they suffer no loss in pay. They permit staff to accrue up to 245 total sick days. (In general, staff get 12-15 sick days annually.)

In Superintendent Rodriguez's case, he has not been here a year--but was instantly granted 20 sick days upon signing his contract last spring. All staff, regardless of their length of service, are required to complete the FMLA paperwork if they have either a planned sick leave or an unexpected sick leave which is more than 3 consecutive days.

So Dr. Rodriguez's 2/22 "sick day" does not trip the FMLA paperwork--because it's only one day--and neither does the April 15th and 16th sick days; but 4/20 to 4/23 will because it is 4 days.

UPDATE: 1:00 PM Reliable sources confirm that Nick Grabbe, forever reporter with the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette, is on the story.

And according to this puff piece in the Bully, he can take the heat.

Amherst School Super's super contract

Click boxes to read


Wikipedia:
Paid sick days, sometimes referred to as sick leave, guarantees workers time off to stay home when they are sick without losing pay or their jobs. Some paid sick days policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care for sick family members, to attend doctor or medical appointments or to address health and safety needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Nearly half of workers in the private sector (48 percent) do not have a single paid sick day to recover from illness or to care for a sick family member. As a result, they face difficult choices: lose a day's pay or even their jobs, or go to work sick and risk infecting coworkers and customers. Parents who lack paid sick days are often forced to choose between their jobs and their sick children. Nearly half (49 percent) of working mothers miss work when a child contracts a common illness. Three in four low-wage workers (79 percent) do not have a single paid sick day. These workers are least able to afford to take unpaid time off or risk losing their jobs.

Let the backstabbing begin...

Hitchcock's Psycho Shower Scene: Flickr.com

From:
To: Richard B. Morse
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:46:35

Rich--

I've just read your 7:30 AM comment on Catherine's blog. My take is that over the last few weeks or so, you've been baiting a number of people to come out and play on her and Larry's blogs.

Here's my other take: You were once a measured, thoughtful citizen with strong, challenging opinions. You've now become a bitter, public asshole.

I'm sorry to say that. With no sarcasm, I truly hope all's well with you.

J

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

Mrs. Morse pulling the same stupid stunt 3 years ago


Soooooooo, Overriders are already desperately eating their own--or I should say formerly one of their own.

I can't think of a more "centered" (although listing to the left) mainstay for all things Amherst than Rich Morse, who I always affectionately refer to as the "Grumpy Prosecutor"--with no disrespect intended to his vital profession.

And he freely admits to voting for every Override that has come down the pike in his relatively brief years inhabiting the People's Republic.

So when he recently started to question the wisdom of this current Override I knew Overriders were in serious trouble. This nastygram from Mrs. Churchill only confirms that!

How soon they forget:

When the 'Amherst Plan' Override failed 3 years ago Mr. Churchill received a threatening phone call from then Selectman Rob Kusner:
The Amherst Bulletin gleefully reported (with audio file no less)

Mr. Morse's offending remark from this morning (Oh my!):

Marty K's post may be the most vivid demonstration that we may not be able to have an honest debate on these issues in this town.

And last time I checked, Rivkin and Sanderson are in the majority on the local School Committee. In other words, the touchstone of effectiveness in elected office in Amherst is not whether or not one is able to work with Andy Churchill. It's forging working majorities. And for the time being they have one.

Rich Morse

February 12, 2010 7:31 AM

Lay on Macduff...

So the die has been cast, the Rubicon crossed or as General Custer so famously last exclaimed, "We got 'em boys!"

As expected the Select Board this morning rubber stamped the orchestrated package presented to them by the Budget Coordinating Group--albeit slightly less (looks like the Regional Schools cut their demands a bit, maybe by tapping the $1 million stashed in their E+D Account.)

Now the amount is $1,680,441 and it's a single amount, all or nothing lump sum with "allocations". And because it's a General Operation Override, it is FOREVER.

But yes, the following year the "allocations" are gone; only the tax amount remains--plus 2.5% of course.