What could have been...

The Charter revision attempt to streamline and professionalize Amherst town government by switching to a modern Mayor/Council replacing the antiquated volunteer form of dogooders-- Select Board, Town Meeting, and highly paid Town Manager--form we currently endure had another benefit that would come in handy about now:

A common sense recall provision that would already be underway in the Library Trustees travesty now unfolding.


SECTION 8-11: RECALL OF ELECTED OFFICE HOLDERS
(a) Application - Any holder of an elected office in the town, with more than six months remaining in the term of office for which the officer was elected, may be recalled therefrom by the voters of the town in the manner provided in this section. No recall petition shall be filed against an officer within six months after taking office.

(b) Recall Petition - A recall petition may be initiated by the filing of an affidavit containing the name of the officer sought to be recalled and a statement of the grounds for recall, provided that the affidavit is signed by at least two hundred fifty voters for any officer elected at large and signed by at least fifty voters from the district represented for a district councilor.

The town clerk shall thereupon deliver to said voters making the affidavit, copies of petition blanks demanding such recall, copies of which printed forms the town clerk shall keep available. Such blanks shall be issued by the town clerk, with signature and official seal attached thereto. They shall be dated, shall be addressed to the town council and shall contain the names of all the persons to whom they are issued, the number of blanks so issued, the name of the person whose recall is sought, the office from which removal is sought and the grounds of recall as stated in the affidavit. A copy of the petition shall be entered in a record book to be kept in the office of the town clerk. Said recall petition shall be returned and filed with the town clerk within five days after the filing of the affidavit, and shall have been signed by at least five per cent of the active voters of the town for any officer elected at large and signed by at least five per cent of the active voters of the district for a district councilor.

The town clerk shall forthwith submit the petition to the registrars of voters, and the registrars shall, within five working days, certify thereon the number of signatures which are names of voters.

(c) Recall Election - If the petition shall be found and certified by the town clerk to be sufficient, the town clerk shall submit the same with such certificate to the town council within five working days, and the town council shall forthwith give written notice of the receipt of the certificate to the officer sought to be recalled and shall, if the officer does not resign within five days thereafter, order an election to be held on a date fixed by them not less than forty-five and not more than sixty days after the date of the town clerk's certificate that a sufficient petition has been filed; provided, however, that if any other town election is to occur within sixty days after the date of the certificate the town council shall postpone the holding of the recall election to the date of such other election.

The Mayor Council Charter (that failed by 14 votes--less than 1%) in 2003

Trustees Carol Gray and Pat Holland both made 'Hall of Shame' for voting against American flags

Library Trustee issues SOS

The great thing about the Web is you can generate a dispatch of distress, turn it into a PDF and instantly email it to those gatekeepers of all things news and get the scary story out to thousands, almost overnight.

Jones Library Trustee Chris Hoffmann is just such an example: Click on his report below.

Chris Hoffmann reports

Library under fire

No, it's not a First Amendment book banning incident or federal request for a patrons reading habits, this time it is an outright coup d'état, orchestrated by cutthroat Carol--Gray that is--and her band of merry women, otherwise known as the "Evaluation Committee" a subcommittee of the Jones Library Trustees, elected officials who "govern" the library which is separate from the day-to-day management.

Of course this subcommittee will not even allow fellow elected members of the Jones Trustees at their little secret pow wow where they are fine tuning their attack on Jones Library long-time director Bonnie Isman, mainly because she stands in the way of their grab for power.

Kind of like Brutus meeting with his boys in a Roman Senate chamber to secretly sharpen their daggers while awaiting Caesar's arrival.

In fact, the power mad subcommittee seems to think they can invoke a contract clause to fire the director without even bringing it up before the full board of Trustees.

You would think Ms. Gray, a former Public Defender, would have a tad more sympathy for someone she is now putting on the hotseat and prosecuting as though Ms. Isman was a dangerous felon.

It's going to be a lot harder to find capable professional staff in the People's Republic if this travesty is allowed to occur, because management personnel like to manage and not be continually second guessed by volunteer do-gooders who always seem to think they can do a better job.

Now that's more like it

So apparently the Schools attorney had second thoughts after firing off the previous letter to Regional Chair Farshid Hajir and sent a kinder, gentler note not too long after:


From: Gini Tate
Date: Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:43 AM
Subject: Our conversation
To: Farshid Hajir
Cc: Kathy Mazur, Maria Geryk

Hello Farshid,

Thank you for the frank and open discussion the other night; I think it was very helpful.

The purpose of this email is to confirm our discussion of Wednesday, December 16th. During that discussion, I indicated that if the Committee were to review the firm, its services, costs and accessibility in good faith with an open mind, and if the Committee felt that despite everything that has transpired, it could have and/or develop trust with my firm, such that it would be a viable attorney-client relationship, then the firm would be willing and interested in being one of the firms reviewed by the legal services subcommittee.

Gini

Regina Williams Tate
Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane, LLP

Yet another shake up in the schools?

So our School Committees are rethinking expensive legal services for the four-town Regional High School (Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury) and Amherst Schools (comprising over 75% of the Regional) and, you know, wish to seek proposals for their lucrative "business" which state law requires for any supplies or service over $5,000--except of course for attorneys or superintendents who coincidentally all seem to cost taxpayers well over $100,000 annually.

The current firm, who has been handling legal advice forever, balked at the idea of entering a competition to maintain their lucrative contract; attorney Regina Tate sent (12/4/09) an "I object!" insubordinate letter to at the time newbie Region Chair Farshid Hajir, who apparently rolled over like a beaten puppy.

"I received your emails dated November 19,2009 in which you indicated that the school Committees are engaged in the periodic review of the services and costs of legal counsel, and you asked for the submission of materials. In view of the fact that none of the School Committees has ever engaged in a "periodic review" of legal counsel services and costs during the entire time this firm has represented the school districts, I have assumed that the School Committees are actually searching for new counsel.

On behalf of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane, I wish to inform the School Committees that the firm will not be applying to continue as counsel."

She goes on (and you gotta hope she did not bill us for her time producing this insubordinate missive): "It is clear to me that the positive relationship which I have enjoyed in the past, and which enabled me to produce excellent results for the Committees, is probably not possible."

A small business owner would not have gotten beyond the first paragraph before picking up the phone and bellowing Donald Trump's patented line, "You're fired!"

Shake up in the Regional School Committee

Sir Richard Hood (rt) Baer Tierkel--the Wizard behind the curtain (left)

UPDATE: Friday 7:15 AM

So Mr. Hood (guess I can't call him "Ricky Boy" anymore) is now Regional School Committee Chair after only a few months as member of the venerable Amherst School Committee (and by extension a member of the Region) thus culminating the fastest rise to power since Princess Stephanie assumed the throne of the venerable Amherst Select Board. Must be the power of their blogs.

The vote was 5-4 so Mr. Hood voting for himself made THE difference (all his colleagues on the Amherst School Committee voted for Irv Rhodes.) Catherine Sanderson was voted to remain as Vice Chair by the same 5-4 vote.
##################################
Original Post early Thursday evening
So Regional School (Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury) Chair Farshid Hajir, after only a year at the helm, is about to be replaced because his fellow Leverett School Committee members did not reelect him as representative to the Region this past Monday; although he will stay on--as Chair of course--until tomorrow night when a new Regional Chair will ascend the throne, quite possibly Amherst School Committee newbie Rick Hood, who was recently by cited the Northwester District Attorney for using email to violate the Open Meeting Law.

Apparently Amherst's most seasoned representative and current Regional Vice Chair Catherine Sanderson, is a tad too uppity.

Save the trees, damn the bike path

So the illustrious town Select Board voted last night to oppose a waiver from, you know, the state on widening--but mainly repairing/rehabilitating--the Norowottuck rail trail which produces flat tires way quicker than those industrious beavers build dams.

Years ago the state built the bike path using recycled glass. Except they forgot to grind up the glass. Did not take long for shards to work their way up threw a thin layer of asphalt and wreak havoc on tires that require air pressure. Gotta wonder if it was the same engineering firm that designed the $10 million Umass heating plant that never threw a BTU of heat.

Finally, they want to make amends and do the job right. And since it is kind of a sunk cost getting construction equipment into out-of-the-way areas, they figured why not expand the width of the bike path by 25% creating a safer travel experience for more people.

Not in the People's Republic of Amherst. Losing trees is just too much to bear. So we will have more delays, more expenditure of tax money and eventually the job will get done--beavers and trees notwithstanding.

As usual the 45 minute meeting with this item the only one on the agenda was almost entirely one-sided, although Princess Stephanie did allow 45 seconds for another viewpoint. Hardly fair and balanced.