Half Way To Bankruptcy

Cherry Hill winter wonderland (note DPW did not even bother to plow the parking lot)

Once again at the fiscal year half-way point for the golf business that straddles two calendar years, the municipally owned Cherry Hill Golf Course is, as usual, on a fast track to economic ruin. 

Only it's the taxpayers who cover the losses, not the tax-exempt White Elephant business. 

At closing in mid-November (yes, they did not stay open to take advantage of the warmest December in history) total revenues are a pathetic $99,144, down from last year's $102, 347 at this same time.

And last year they went on to finish FY15 with $211,680 total intake vs $298,133 spent, or a lost of $86,453.

But this year's budget has an extra $16,000 in capital appropriations for yet another lawnmower, so safe bet they will break the $100,000 mark for losses when the books close (June 30) on FY16.  This will about match the $103,964 lost in FY14.

   Cherry HIll Golf $ report 2015

Hey a $100K here and $100K there,  pretty soon you're talking real money.  Money that could go towards hiring a couple of badly needed first responders.

Next spring when all our ambulances are out and AFD Central and North Station are empty, Dispatch should tell a 911 caller to try the golf course.  Maybe a groundskeeper in a golf cart will be free to respond, as they sure aren't overly busy serving golf customers.

Status Quo Housing Allocation

Amherst Housing Authority Board of Commissioners

The Amherst Housing Authority Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 on Monday to set the HUD voucher payment standards for 2016 at 113% of Fair Market Rent for Amherst and 97% for Extended area which covers 388 total vouchers and gives all of them a few dollars more in monthly subsidies.

Commission member TracyLee Boutilier voted against the motion saying the Board should show "more compassion," pointing out a $10 month increase in payments for a family living in a  three bedroom apartment is too little.

The problem is Housing and Urban Development is only giving the Amherst Housing Authority an extra $38,443 in 2016 going from the current $3,077,917 up to $3,116,360.

And with the approved payment standards for 2016 the 238 Amherst vouchers will cost an additional $25,812 and the balance of them another $10,260. To suddenly increase the subsidy any higher would mean defunding some vouchers to make up the difference.

If the AHA went to 120% of the Fair Market Rate for Amherst, Executive Director Denise LeDuc estimates 35-40 vouchers would need to be terminated to fund the increase in monthly payments to the other 200 or so Amherst recipients.

Last year the average cost paid out for all 388 vouchers came to $649/month or $7,788 annually.

The problem in Amherst is too little housing supply combined with too great a demand.  Students who wish to live off campus pack themselves into sometimes sub-standard units and drive up the prices, forcing out families and blue collar workers who cannot compete.

 Click to enlarge/read

Although the recent passage of the town's Rental Registration Permit Bylaw and the successful completion of Kendrick Place, with more large mixed-use buildings on the immediate horizon, the future for affordable housing is starting to look a little brighter.

Five story mixed use Kendrick Place (mostly residential) opened September 1st

Story Of The Year 2015

John Musante

The sudden tragic death of Town Manager John Musante on an otherwise beautiful Sunday morning last September, just as summer turns to fall, is my local story of the year. How could it not be?

Like a large projectile fired into a calm expanse of water the detonation created ripples bordering on a rip tide that will be felt for many years to come.

Not that he was the perfect Town Manager. Heck, he wasn't even the first choice of the Select Board almost ten years ago when they chose, ugh, Larry Shaffer over him.

But the Select Board got it right the second the time around when he was chosen (2010) without an expensive time consuming search after Mr. Shaffer suddenly disappeared. And as I said at the time, immorality is something you never have to worry about with John Musante. Or bad financial decisions.

Although his diffidence in dealing with NIMBYs did cost us greatly in losing the Gateway Project, a collaboration with UMass that could have resulted in a potential $50+ million addition to the tax rolls in badly needed commercial/residential mixed use development.

And the original solar array project on the old landfill was also sabotaged by NIMBYs, although he turned that around just before his death.

While our current form of government is inefficient and outmoded, with John Musante at the helm the good ship Amherst always stayed on a slow steady course of financial solvency.

Still, the vital asset I will miss most about Mr. Musante was his keen sense of humor. 

Appointing A New Leader

Town Hall in a fog since untimely death of John Musante September 20th

Since Amherst citizens are nothing if not outspoken the Amherst Select Board -- who expects to appoint a new Town Manager this summer -- wishes to hear your input at three upcoming forums about criteria for hiring that new leader:

Bernie Lynch from Community Paradigm Associates, seen here at 12/21 Select Board meeting, will facilitate

My only suggested requirement is that he/she have a thick skin.  But I'm sure they will be forewarned about the blogosphere.

Déjà Vu Ethics Violation?

Amherst Select Board: town's highest ranking elected office

Interestingly the Select Board has been through this Conflict of Interest issue before, so you would think history would not repeat itself.

 Click to enlarge/read

Back in 2007 rookie Select Board members Alisa Brewer and Professor Rob Kusner voted to allow UMass free use of effluent water (in a close 3-2 vote) that normally would have cost them over $100,000 annually.  I instantly filed a complaint with the State Ethics Division.

 Note Ms. Brewer's body language

Interestingly they found no violation because the board members had (sort of) made a PUBLIC disclosure at the  9/17 meeting immediately before the discussion/vote.

And they had filed a disclosure form with the Town Clerk, although those forms were filed a week AFTER the 9/17/2007 Select Board meeting.

Note this disclosure filed 9/25 was for a 9/17 meeting

Whereas this time around Ms. Brewer still has the 2007 disclosure form on file, but she did NOT make a public announcement during the 12/21 meeting about her UMass affiliations.

Rob Kusner's disclosure filed 9/24 to cover a 9/17 meeting

A Conflict of Interest?

 Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek, SB Chair Alisa Brewer

Attorney General Maura Healey
Division of Open Government
12/28/2015


I wish to file a formal complaint about the 12/21 Amherst Select Board meeting that was chaired by Alisa Brewer, who shows up in the UMass/Amherst People Finder as a UMass employee, as does her husband, Steven Brewer.

Ms. Brewer did not publicly announce her potential conflict of interest when the Select Board voted unanimously to allow Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek to sign a 3.5 year, multi-million dollar "Strategic Partnership Agreement" with UMass, her employer, that is a sweet deal for the University, a sour deal for the town. 

I'm not suggesting she or her husband gained financially by this deal, but I do strongly believe the better way of handling it would have been for her to abstain on the matter and certainly not to act as chair for the very brief time period allowed for Select Board discussion. 

I believe our state law suggests public officials avoid even "the appearance of a conflict of interest."

I would ask the Select Board be ordered to do a "do over."

Larry Kelley

At the 9/25 Select Board Cable Ascertainment Hearing Ms. Brewer did publicly announce she was married to Steven Brewer before he testified in his role as Amherst Media Board President

What's Yours Is Mine

Modular classrooms back in March

Yesterday

UMass, acting as The Grinch, gave Amherst an early Christmas load of coal by destroying the town owned $215,000 portable classrooms installed behind the School of Education, aka the former "Mark's Meadow Elementary School."

Interestingly the town is still paying off the ten year $215K loan on the classrooms, which were never actually used as classrooms.  Clueless Town Meeting almost unanimously authorized the expenditure in 2007, but Mark's Meadow closed down in 2010.

According to Superintendent Maria Geryk the downsizing saved $850,000 in the town's elementary budget, but was bitterly opposed by parents and some town officials with children attending Mark's Meadow.

School Committee member Catherine Sanderson became a combination Wicked Witch of the West & Joan of Arc (aka burned at the stake) for her leadership role in shuttering Mark's Meadow.

But these days even Superintendent Geryk uses it as an example of why the town should consider mothballing the Middle School building and relocating/consolidating students into the High School.

On Monday night the Select Board, with no input allowed, approved the Interim Town Manager signing a "Strategic Partnership Agreement" with UMass that for the first time in history pays something towards the 56 children from tax exempt UMass housing attending our public schools, at an estimated cost of $1,267,000.

Of course that something is a lousy $120,000 or less than ten cents on the dollar.