Legal Sunshine Needed

Shawn Williams, Director
Public Records Division
One Ashburton Place, 17th Floor
Boston, MA 02108

Dear Mr. Williams,

I wish to once again appeal the decision of the Amherst Regional Public Schools to stonewall my public documents request for legal settlements that have cost Amherst taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As you may remember your office sided with me last year on a previous complaint regarding ARPS settlement agreements with terminated employees totaling over $200,000.  The schools continue to refuse releasing those documents.

Now I wish to appeal the 2/26/13 decision of Rob Detweiler, Director of Finance and Operations, to withhold settlement agreements totalling $229,300 from recent "Special Education" legal cases.

Obviously I understand certain information -- names of students for instance -- should be redacted to protect privacy, but certainly with that much settlement money involved the taxpayers have a right to know how many cases it represents and the details of those cases.

Even if the money was paid by an insurance carrier a Hampshire Superior Court judge found the settlement agreement between the Phoebe Prince family and South Hadley Schools were still a pubic document even though the $225,000 payout came from liability insurance. 

Your office has also repeatedly stuck down the concept of "non disclosure agreements" citing Washington Post ., 690 F. 2d at 263 ( a government agency cannot circumvent the Federal Freedom of Information Act with a private agreement).

Please remind the Amherst Regional Public Schools that the general public has a right to know.

Sincerly,

Larry J. Kelley

   Amherst Schools legal Bills FY13 by  

Lifesaving Necessities

Firefighter/paramedic Steve Gaughan (President local union 1764) demos Lucas 

In a beauty contest for expensive new tools the Amherst Fire Department is at a bit of a disadvantage.  Turn out gear that resembles those heavy duty raincoats and clunky boots Mom made you wear to school on overcast days, or simple robotic machines that mimic a high-speed oil derrick with almost as loud a noise, aren't very sexy.

But, they are lifesavers.

And yes, maybe the department is looking out for its own by ranking $40,000 worth of  "protective gear" as their #1 priority.  But when that's the only thing potentially separating you from fire's kiss of death, protective gear is worth way more than its weight in platinum.

Protective gear: $2, 500 per person

Pants and boots ready for a quick response

Department requests for the upcoming Fiscal Year total $211,000 with the largest amount, $70,000, going toward five Lucas CPR compression devices, one for each ambulance.  The machines are far more efficient than even a trained person and they never tire during a long transport.  

They also free up one person on a heart attack incident run who can stay back at the station for other emergency calls.  The devices are already in use in surrounding communities and with Amherst's graying population, will certainly see plenty of use. 

The Lucas Machine in action

Also heart related, the department needs to finish paying for defibrillators ($50,000) that went into service two years ago.  


Obviously our highly-trained department require routine certifications such as "Advanced Class Life Support," which costs $8,250 every two years.  But if the department had their own 'Laerdal Mega Code Kelly Patient Simulator' they could do training in house, during on-duty down time (which is getting harder and harder to find).  The two requested lifelike mannequins cost a total of  $22,000. 

Mannequin down!

Chief Nelson is known as a hands on leader who routinely shows up at the scene of an emergency response at all hours of the day or night. $27,000 for a new "Fire Chief's Command vehicle" with a more fuel efficient six-cylinder engine will replace a 12 year old eight-cylinder car with almost 150,000 miles on it. The current six cylinder vehicle driven by the Chief will be handed down to an Assistant Chief.

Yes, saving lives isn't always cost effective -- but the alternative is more than we can bear.

Finally!

 Assistant Chiefs McKay and Stromgren, Chief Nelson

Thursday morning the Joint Capital Planning Committee heard a presentation from AFD top brass for capital items needed in the upcoming year to help protect public safety (more on that later).

But first Chief Nelson updated the committee on the l-o-n-g sought new South Fire Station and the breaking news was -- for a change -- good news.

Or for you folks living in South Amherst, very good news.

The Chief reports the "search and acquisition phase" for land is quickly coming to a close, one that will "finally bring this whole thing to fruition."  Chief Nelson quickly added, "It almost scares me because it makes too much sense."

While no specific seller was mentioned (or possible donor) since the project is called "South Station" it's for sure going to be located in South Amherst, and the Chief confirmed it woulld be along RT 116/South Pleasant Street within a mile or 1.5 miles of town center.

While AFD Central Station is not quite as old as this 1888 bell, pretty close: 1928 

A $10 to $12 million capital request for a new South Station has appeared over the past couple years on five-year-plan spreadsheets brought before the JCPC. 

When I ran for Select Board in 1988 my simple platform was to sell the recently acquired municipal Cherry Hill Golf Course and put the proceeds into a new fire station in South Amherst.

The Chief also mentioned to JCPC he found reference to a 1955 consultant's report that called for a new additional station.

Safe & Healthy Controversy

Crowd of 35 at Feb 24 Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group meeting

You can tell by the growing spectator attendence that the SHNWG is getting close to their final draft which will be passed along to Town Manager John Musante, the Amherst Select Board in time for a bylaw proposal to come before Town Meeting, which will only require a majority vote.

And no, that should not take long at all.

But you have to consider this has been in the making since the 1970s when UMass went on a growth spurt and our rental housing stock has never caught up.

 Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group ... at work

Unlike the packed meeting earlier in the day over at Echo Village concerning the eviction of low income tenants, a negative offshoot of Amherst's tight rental housing market, this more formal meeting also brought together concerned players: town officials, neighbors, activists, landlords, developers ... but no tenants, student or otherwise. 

DUI Dishonor Roll

 Mill Lane near South Pleasant Street

So this drunk driving incident Sunday evening, could have been tragic in, oh, so many ways.

If not for a large old fallen tree the auto would have ended up in the freezing Fort River.  In fact a chain saw had to be called in to get the car up and out of the embankment.

And when you're impaired enough not to negotiate a very minor curve in the road, chances are you would also have trouble escaping a vehicle quickly filling up with frigid, fast moving water.

If first responders arrived in time they would put themselves at great risk fishing the driver out of the river.

Since Mill Lane is one of the last unpaved roads in Amherst it is a well used path for joggers and dog walkers, like my wife for instance.  And 9:46 p.m. is not all that late.

Click to enlarge/read

Costly Conflict

  

In case you thought the Amherst Pelham Region School Committee is a rubber-stamping flock of sheep, ponder this snippet from their 2/12 meeting where Rob Detweiler gave a budget update for the half-way point of the Fiscal Year.

So he tells the committee that with the year only half over ARPS has already paid out $200,000 in legal claims putting that part of the Special Education Budget over by $330,000.  Yikes!

And what is their response?  Nothing, nada, zip.  No questions, no observations, no nothing.

Anyone else concerned over why the taxpayers are out over $200,000 in legal settlements?

Tenants United

About 25 people packed into the Family Outreach office located in a commercial building owned by Eagle Crest Management, AKA Jamie Cherewatti, to strategize a response to sudden eviction notices for all the tenants living in Echo Village Apartments located next door, 24 units of -- by Amherst standards anyway -- affordable housing.

A little less than half the crowd was made up of a (Section 8) tenants and the rest was a fusion of government and non-profit personnel from the Amherst Schools, Amherst Housing Authority, Planning Department, Legal Services and even the NAACP.

Also hard to miss was former Echo Village tenant, who said he was "paid to leave", Motown Benny.  Although at one point in the meeting he was asked to stop talking and "get down off his political soapbox."

Motown Benny (Johnson)

The good news was tenants did not have to abide by the 3/31 deadline demand to vacate the premises. But that is the trigger date for Mr. Cherewatti to start legal eviction proceedings  in Housing Court, and then of course it's up to the judge to decide.

Eagle Crest claims all tenants can "reapply" for tenancy on April 1st (no foolin) as long as they have moved out by March 31.  Although one official reported Eagle Crest must give 60 days advance notice before implementing a rent increase to Section 8 tenants, which he has not done.  The management firm has, however, giving notice of "termination."

The really bad news is that Cherewatti can indeed raise the rent and that will price all Section 8 tenants out of the market anyway.  Said one frustrated official, "Our hands are tied on so many levels."

Six weeks ago Cherewatti purchased the property, assessed at $2.1 million, for $3 million, and is now raising rents the same 30% or so he overpaid.  Just business.

Although, you can't put a price on a positive public image.