The Attorney General cordially demands

So it comes as no b-i-g surprise that Amherst Regional School Committee Chair Rick Hood trampled yet another Open Government rule by failing to forward to the Attorney General an official response to my 11/23 Open Meeting Law complaint.

After all, in July of 2010--only four months into his school committee tenure--the local District Attorney cited him with an Open Meeting Law violation for deliberating with a quorum of committee members via email.

At least back then he could use the "I'm a newbie" excuse.

Now no longer a rookie, he will have to scramble to comply--no doubt enlisting the aid of $220/hour attorney Gini Tate who already advised ARPS Superintendent Maria Geryk and Human Resource Director Kathy Mazur to ignore a demand from the Division of Public Records to release documents concerning payouts totaling $200,000 to 13 former employees over the past five years.

What does it all mean?

Apparently the ARPS Good Ol' Girls network abhors sunshine. And Rick Hood needs to learn the difference between running a $20 million dollar private yacht company and a $50 million public school kept afloat via tax dollars--the lions share consumed in Amherst, the town built on education.

Somewhere...

Florida news helicopter caught in a rainbow

You have to look real close, but about a third of the way up from the treeline, dead center in the rainbow you can see the helicopter hovering. I could tell by it's behavior pattern that it was a news helicopter, and I simply assumed they were getting footage of the rainbow for a colorful puff piece to fill time in the 6:00 PM news hour.

Since I was conveniently taking photos with my wife's nifty new iPhone from the beach, I figured using a helicopter was an expensive waste of resources.

A few minutes later, using the iPhone as a cell phone, we heard from her father that a plane had crashed and burned at the nearby Venice Municipal Airport, killing the pilot. On the short trip back to his house we drove by the police check point keeping out the curious while off in the distance a firetruck had its aerial ladder fully extended at about a 45 degree angle directly above what little remained of the small, twin engine airplane.

The next day I learned the pilot had successfully taken off but developed engine trouble soon after, declared an emergency, and was desperately trying to land. He was a successful 63-year-old eye doctor who leaves behind a wife and a 16-year-old daughter. Six years from now I will be his age and my oldest daughter will be 16. Not that I need a thread of connectivity to remember this tragic occurrence that briefly interrupted my vacation routine.

Venice Municipal Airport is where Mohamed Atta and another of the 9/11 hijackers trained to pilot airplanes...although unlike the good doctor, they cared little about landing.

As South Hadley goes...

ARHS

UPDATE: Phoebe Prince's death cost the insurance company that covers South Hadley $225,000. Not enough. Not nearly enough.

Now that Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lu Rup has decided in favor of transparency and the "people's right to know" by coming down on the side of--gasp--a blogger who, unlike the mainstream bricks and mortar journalists around the Happy Valley, had the temerity to demand South Hadley officials disclose blood money paid to the family of Phoebe Prince, I'm hoping my stronger case against Amherst School officials will benefit in a collateral way.

Emily Bazelon first filed her request with the Secretary of State Public Records Division and I would bet they found in her favor, as they did with me. But then the South Hadley Schools probably did what Amherst defiantly did with me: refused to comply.

Since the Public Records folks have no enforcement power they would have to turn it over to the Attorney General's office (which I quickly requested they do in my case). They however, sheepishly suggested I take it to Hampshire Superior Court where I'm sure I would win, but only after paying a $275 filing fee.

And the schools will use big city attorney Regina Tate to defend the stonewalling, while we, the taxpayers of Amherst, cover her $225/hourly fee.

Since Ms. Bazelton works for Slate Magazine she can afford the steep up front cover charge, although she was savvy enough to request court costs as part of the settlement.

My original request for any settlement agreements over the past five years between the schools and separated employees costing taxpayers a minimum of $5,000 resulted in 13 cases with a combined cost of $200,000 and unlike South Hadley, not covered by an insurance company.

What kind of message does that send our children when public schools buy their way out of a mistake using taxpayer money, and then spend even more tax dollars trying to keep the secrets buried?

Gray Lady up

Hadley Water Tower, East Street

Will Amherst rise to the challenge?

Could be worse, we could be Easthampton

Unless we have another major power outage through the New Year, safe bet that between now and December 31 Amherst will not suddenly quadruple its adherence to saving enough electricity to garner a free $10,000 (suggested list price no doubt) solar panel for our schools.

Too bad, because the schools could use a a lot of (free) light shed upon them.

Cookie thief

Jada, Jake and Christmas cookies

Blessings of the Juggernaut

UMass Amherst

Nice to have some good news to report just before the holidays: Unemployment in Massachusetts decreased in November to 6.4%, beating the 8.6% national average, with Amherst, not surprisingly, doing w-a-y better than either at 3.7%.

The November seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for the state was 6.4%, down from 6.8% in October. Amherst's very low 3.7% is down considerable from the (off season) summer where June was the highest at 7.8% followed by July at 7.6% and August at 5.2%, thus upholding Amherst's reputation as a "college town" where low unemployment depends on the University being in full session.

UMass is the largest employer in Western Massachusetts and the number two property owner in town behind our other tax exempt higher education icon, Amherst College.