Voting In The Digital Age

Town Clerk Sandra Burgess, center 

The nail biting time for election candidates their supporters and the media -- usually starting as soon as the polls close at 8:00 PM -- could be reduced if Amherst Town Clerk Sandra Burgess gets her lone capital item wish.

Ms. Burgess made her obligatory appearance this morning before the Joint Capital Planning Committee, the initial gatekeepers for all capital items purchased across all town departments for Fiscal Year 2014, starting July 1st.

The JCPC simply makes recommendations to Town Meeting, who holds the ultimate granting authority,  but a negative recommendation is the kiss of death.

Ms. Burgess made a modest proposal, only $8,850 for a GEMS computerized voting tabulator system that includes a (Dell) laptop , software, licensing and comes with a two year warranty.

The system would speed up the 10 precinct tally on voting night thus speeding up the breaking news of who won what position.  Equally important, the new system would also improve accuracy.

The results would still be "unofficial," however, as write ins and provisional ballots are  counted by hand the next day. Each election would cost an additional $175 in programming.  Average election cost in Amherst is around $14,000.

JCPC is using a target of 7% of the overall town budget as a spending guide, but not necessarily in a uniform manner across all departments.

The Town Clerk's operation budget for FY14 is $190,153 so a 7% share would come to $13,310, thus this request is well under her theoretical ceiling. 

The Town Clerk closed her presentation saying this system represents "The final step ... It would bring it all together for us."

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

DPW digs away at large pile of snow in front of Town Hall today

What's in a name?

Town Manager Musante, SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe, Pat Kamins at yesterday's meeting

"Permit," "license," or "business certificate" -- call it what you will, but the success of the much needed rental housing bylaw coming out of the endless meetings of the 'Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods' working group comes down to that simple concept.

Rental registration and licensing go together like auto registration and licensing.  Can you imagine the problems if anyone, regardless of license, could drive a car simply because the vehicle was properly registered?

Member Pat Kamins (a mid-sized local landlord) sarcastically asks his fellow members to think about businesses in Amherst "that require licenses or permits that can be revoked if their customers act inappropriately."

Well first of all, think about all the businesses that are not in Amherst because their customers could act inappropriately:  Strip bars, porn shops, head shops, etc. 

In fact, the Board of Health crushed the 'Smoking Ban in Bars Revolt' (by the more rowdy bars) a dozen years ago by threatening to revoke food handling permits for not enforcing the smoking ban.  Since alcohol licenses are tied to food handling permits, the bars quickly caved.

The rest, as they say, is history.  And the town is immeasurably better for it.

 
Crowd of 20 showed up for last night's meeting Safe & Health Neighborhoods working group

U Drink & Drive? U Lose!

This lad drove his car onto active RR tracks, got stuck, and was then arrested

I thought about using the title "Law & Order" because this important public document shines a light on the seamless follow up to Amherst Police Department's all too numerous arrests for the dangerous crime -- people still don't take seriously enough -- of drinking too much and then sitting behind the wheel of a car.

But I figured the text lingo would get the attention of my pre-gray-hair target audience -- not that DUIs in Amherst are solely the province of college aged youth, or people with hair for that matter.

And I thought about using "Don't drink and drive in Amherst" as a lead; but then I would have to quickly add, "Don't drink and drive anywhere!"  So I'll just go with this delayed lead:

In 2011 Amherst police arrested a whopping 144 drivers for DUI.  In 2012 even more, 155!  (And yes, I seldom use exclamation points!)

Let's hope in the current year it starts to go down.  And one good reason for that is District Attorney Dave Sullivan.  He takes drunk driving very seriously.  I present exhibit A:

Amherst Drunk Driver Conviction Rate by Larry Kelley

This 87% conviction rate (for completed cases) is better than the overall state average of 77% found in a major study released in 2012 spanning 57,000 cases over 45 months.  But that study also uncovered a major problem: "When judges consider the merits of OUI cases in a bench trial, 86% were acquitted."  86%!

Jury trials were also problematic, as 58% were acquitted.

In this snapshot of Amherst DUI cases I can't help but question if the "2 not guilty" and "3 dismissed" would have turned out differently if the state changed the absurd rule making inadmissible as evidence in a trial the refusal to take a breathalyzer.

 #####

According to my legal advisor:  

 “Nolle pros” is shorthand for “nolle prosequi”, which is a filing by the Commonwealth (DA’s office or AG) indicating that the Commonwealth is not going forward with the case.  This is usually based on a decision by one or more prosecutors that there is not enough evidence in the case, or that the witnesses have disappeared. It does not rule out the future prosecution of the case, especially if filed prior to a trial date, but I must emphasize that is rare. It is a unilateral action by the Commonwealth which is not reviewable by the Court. The Court merely accepts the filing and tells the defendant he or she can go.

Out of Africa

 Africa we hardly knew ye

The last remaining vestige of former Select Board Czar Anne Awad was briefly on display last night as our current Select Board members discussed dissolving -- due to a lack of interest -- the Nyeri Sister City Committee, the single handed handiwork of Awad back when she was at the height of her ruinous reign.

Awad had breathlessly reported to her Select Board underlings (who unanimously approved the Sister City relationship recommendation to Town Meeting) that she received paparazzi-like reception at the Kenya airport.  Apparently at the time Ms. Awad had a daughter-in-law living in Nyeri and her ego was such that that alone was reason enough to tie Amherst into a Sister City relationship.

Amherst has two long standing, active, Sister City relationships, one with  La Paz Centro in Nicaragua and the other with Kanegasaki, Japan.

The Nyeri article passed Town Meeting but not without a fair amount of discussion (scroll down to article #14).

Awad came to power in 2000 as the "fusion candidate".  The turnout that year was higher than normal (20.4%) due to a non-binding referendum that demanded local police  "deprioritize" marijuana enforcement, which Awad strongly supported as did the voters.

As a result College students actually turned out to vote for a change.  Although they supported the wrong candidate.

Awad crushed her opponent incumbent Hill Boss 2189 to 1429 and she spent the next few years orchestrating a behind the scenes power grab which was finally realized on March 31, 2004.

She of course was the lone dissenting vote on the night of September 10, 2001 when the Select Board voted 4-1 to allow the commemorative American flags to fly only on six occasions in the downtown.  She only wanted the flags to fly but once, July 4th.  

I call Awad's reign "the dark days," and the minutes of that meeting where she was unanimously elected Czar, I mean "chair", perfectly illustrates my point.  That night the Select Board voted 3-1 with (Eva Schiffer voting No and disillusioned member Carl Seppala MIA) to cut $85, 270 from the budget for two police officers.

A few moments earlier they voted unanimously to "support Cherry Hill" even though the golf course was at that point in the middle of a multi-year $100,000 annual losing streak.  So yeah, lets cut $85K for two cops but continue to squander more than that on the expensive game of golf.  

Another fitting reason for the term "dark days" is because Awad was cited a number of times by the District Attorney, responding to my complaints, for violation of the Open Meeting Law, and using email to carry on discussions (attempting to sabotage the July 4th Parade) that should have been in the bright light of a pubic meeting.

Of course the ultimate symbol of her to-Hell-with-transparency attitude was the fact she was married to fellow Select Board member Robie Hubley for over a year (and obviously had been dating prior to tying the knot) before bothering to tell the voters.   

And let's never forget how she tried to cling to power even though purchasing and quickly moving into an expensive home in South Hadley, where today she lives in obscurity. 

Ah, the bad ol' days ...

DUI Dishonor Roll

Mass had 114 drunk driving deaths in 2011; and 122 in 2010 according to MADD 

One benefit from the Governor banning traffic during the major snowstorm is a major reduction in DUIs.  After all, no driving = no drunk driving.

But there was one potentially killer incident to report earlier in the week.  Worse yet, this is her second offense, on an early Wednesday morning no less.  Once again underscoring how lenient Massachusetts court system is with drunk drivers. 

At 1:12 AM early Wednesday Amherst Police stopped Ashley Anne Strickland, age 26, for an expired inspection sticker not far from town center.  Her good judgment was also expired as she failed the Field Sobriety Test and was  arrested for Driving Under the Influence. Strike two!

Let The Sun Shine!

 Amherst Old Belchertown Road:  Ye Old Landfill

I just love documents with the heading "Confidential:  Not a Public Document."   But yes, Amherst is the home of "Open Government To The Max" initiative, so they even release documents with such a secretive heading even before I get around to a public documents request.

About the only newsworthy thing in this litigation update (at the half-way point in the Fiscal Year) is entry # 3, the status of the lawsuit by ten NIMBYs opposing the solar array at the old landfill.  Looks like the lawsuit is deader than some of the things buried in the old landfill.

So let's hope construction of the solar array commences soon.  Too bad it cost Amherst taxpayers over $8,377 to clear this legal hurdle. 

Legal costs, however, have been fairly low this year -- as evidenced by this rather brief half-year update. The other PUBLIC document being discussed tonight at the Select Board meeting is the half-way point budget update.  Legal Services has only consumed $28,157 out of an annual budget of $110,000.

Although I'm now told that the actual amount as of today is $40, 536 ... still, pretty low at the almost half way point.  The law firm of Kopelman and Paige have a minimum retainer of $44,000 with the town, so it' s not like they are ever going to starve.

Attorney Joel Bard, the face of Kopelman and Paige, at a recent ZBA meeting