Avoiding The Appearance Of A Conflict

Select Board & Town Attorney decided to dodge transparency issue

The Amherst Select Board had the opportunity to make this conflict of interest issue go away last night but they took the easy way out:  avoidance.

The town attorney suggested that not openly acknowledging a potential "conflict of interest" didn't fall  within the domain of a branch of government titled "Division of Open Government."

Yeah, that's a hair only a lawyer could split.

So I have now filed a complaint with the State Ethics Division.  Let's hope he gives better legal advice to the Select Board this time around.

State Ethics Commission
Enforcement Division
One Ashburton Place, Room 619
Boston, MA 02108-1501
1/12/2016


To Whom It May Concern,

I wish to file a formal complaint concerning an accidental violation of state ethics law — especially as it relates to the “appearance of a conflict of interest” — by Amherst Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer at the Select Board December 21 regular Monday night meeting (although at an unusual time). 

The five member Select Board voted unanimously to allow Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek to sign a 3.5 year Strategic Partnership Agreement with UMass/Amherst, the town’s largest employer, that could be perceived as overly generous to UMass.

Chair Alisa Brewer shows up in the online data base of UMass employees although apparently she does not work directly for UMass.  Her husband Steven Brewer, however, is a full-time professor in the biology department. 

At that December 21 meeting she did not publicly announce her affiliation(s) with UMass prior to leading the discussion and then voting in the affirmative on the UMass Strategic Partnership (estimated value just over half million annually).

Back in September, 2007 (on or about 9/18/2007) I filed a complaint naming Alisa Brewer and Select Board member Rob Kusner, who was a professor at UMass, when they voted on an earlier version of the Strategic Partnership Agreement that gave UMass free effluent water for their power plant, when the previous year they had paid the Amherst water/sewer fund $38,0000 for it.

At the time both Select Board members made somewhat of an announcement of their affiliations with UMass, but neither had filed a disclosure form with the Town Clerk.  

Within a week of the 9/17/2007 meeting both had (retroactively) filed the disclosure form.  The Ethics Commission then found no violation had taken place since the Select Board members in question had made a public announcement prior to the discussion/vote and both had, eventually, filed a disclosure form with the Town Clerk.

Alisa Brewer’s disclosure form dated 9/25/2007 is still on file with the Town Clerk, but she clearly did not make the pubic announcement at the December 21 meeting acknowledging her potential conflict of interest.  

Although there were no members of the general public present at the meeting that night, all Select Board meetings are televised and live streamed by local cable access entity Amherst Media.

The town suffered a great loss back in September with the sudden death of Town Manager John Musante, so the Select Board has been far busier than normal over the past four months.  

Since I do not believe the lack of transparency was deliberate, I would simply ask the Ethics Commission to remind the Amherst Select Board how important it is for public officials to routinely avoid the “appearance of a conflict” with a quick simple public pronouncement prior to a discussion/vote.

Sincerely,

Larry J. Kelley
596 South Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002

Quite The Party

Panda East:  Restaurant with a $3,500 "all alcohol on premises liquor license" (now endangered)

Scroll down for update

I would imagine you could forgive a busy establishment in a college town missing a single patron in a large crowd of "college aged youth" whereby a determined 20-year-old with a fake I.D. manages to acquire alcohol.

   Underaged Drinking Panda East

But you really have to wonder about that establishment when they miss 17 patrons who were all underage with many of them with not even so much as a fake I.D.  

Yes, I said seventeen.  And the alcohol they acquired was one of the more expensive drinks offered on the menu:  Scorpion bowls.

Scorpion Bowls at the ready back in October on a Thursday night

The Amherst Select Board, acting as the town's Liquor Commissioners, at the request of Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone will hold a Hearing tonight to decide how to deal with this egregious violation.

UPDATE:  7:45 PM

Select Board votes unanimously to suspend liquor license for two days -- January 25 and January 26 -- for the 17 counts of underage drinking violation.

Also placed another 5 days worth of suspensions on hold for two years as a form of probation, or what District Court calls a "continuation without a finding."  As long as there are no other violations the 5 day suspension is terminated after the two years are up.

Nuclear Option Avoided (Maybe)

Regional 7-12 Public schools include Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury

A dozen and a half community leaders from the four town Region met this Friday evening for an hour and half trying to come to a compromise they all could sell to their respective town meetings concerning the $19,539,329 chunk of the school budget paid for using the rolling five year average per student cost Regional Assessment method.

 Select Board, Finance & School Committee member (shy of a quorum of course) Administrators from all 4 towns

Shutesbury came to the meeting still wanting to partially switch back to the state statutory method for 25% of the that assessment, while Amherst, Leverett and Pelham thought they were being more than fair by supporting a 10% switch that would benefit only Shutesbury.

Since the per student cost method currently used is an alternative method it requires unanimous support of all four towns to pass, and has been used since 2008.  And the compromise of using "ability to pay" statutory method for 10% of the budget (or Shutesbury's requested 25%) would still require unanimous approval of all four towns.

A single no vote to the assessment method reverts the budget back to the state statutory method and would guarantee more cuts to a budget already cut to the bone.

Outgoing Amherst Finance Director Sandy Pooler told the group in a few days this would not be his problem so he can speak freely, which he did (supporting the 10% solution) while looking over at the Shutesbury representatives:

"Insisting we get to that ultimate goal (25%) is fraught with danger.  We need it so nobody is hurt in the short run and then to keep grappling with the problem.  A solution where nobody gets hurt is worth a lot.  The value of goodwill is enormously important.  We simply can’t have people leaving the room thinking they’ve been hurt."  

Four Shutesbury reps left the room to caucus among themselves after it became clear the other three towns would not budge from the 10% offer.  They returned ten minutes later with a counter compromise of 15%.

That did not go over well.  At all.

Because at that amount of a shift both Leverett and Pelham said they would have to cut their elementary budget to come up with the extra money for the Region.

Shutesbury reps were adamant that 15% was their  "bottom, bottom, bottom line," and now they would have to go back to their full Select Board and Finance Committee to report the impasse and seek advise.

The Regional School Committee passes a budget and the assessment method with a simple majority vote of the nine members, but Town Meeting is the final authority for both the assessement method (unanimous vote of all four) and then the budget itself (three out of four required to pass). 

Maria Geryk concluded the meeting saying she would recommend to the Regional School Committee the 10% hybrid alternative method three of the four towns supported and simply hope that Shutesbury voters will support it at their Town Meeting.

10% of a loaf is better than chaos.

Good story that captures some of the angst of small town budget issue https://t.co/9hzpmSjmv9

— JayLeonard (@JayLeonard) January 9, 2016

What's Next, Drones?

Early adopters of hoverboard technology take note

UMass Amherst, that bastion of higher education, has banned the use of hoverboards on campus effective today -- thus proving the nanny state is alive and well.

When I Tweeted about a box alarm AFD responded to this morning at the Integrated Science Center for a "smoking refrigerator" one of my twitter followers reminded me UMass is a "smoke free campus."

Fair enough.  But smoking kills over 400,000 Americans per year and to date I'm guessing hoverboards have killed one or two less than shark attacks.

But hey, you can never be too safe.  Anything that can knock out Mike Tyson ...

"In A Comfortable Spot"

Amherst FY17 budget will be "status quo"

Peter Hechenbleikner attended the first meeting of the Budget Coordinating Group on Thurdsday morning even though he technically doesn't start his $75/hour Temporary Town Manager position until February 1st.

 Temporary Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner pondering BCG info

A good thing of course, since this snapshot budget update will set the tone for the next four months leading up to, ugh, Town Meeting.

Budget Coordinating Group is made up of Town/Schools/Library heavy hitters

After the Schools, Town and Library chiefs' gave a brief update of where they are with their budgets, BCG newly reelectd co- Chair Andy Steinberg summed up the situation by telling the group they were "in a comfortable spot."

Outgoing Finance Director Sandy Pooler gave a macro-view of the state budget and how it impacts Amherst, as well as an update of the town side of the overall budget.

Pointing out that this upcoming year is a "bargaining year for all municipal employee contracts, that doesn't leave a lot of room to add anything new".  The proposed budget (coming out January 27) will not add a single employee and in fact will be a net reduction of .5 Full Time Equivalents.

Mr. Pooler did say the "add list" for any extra unanticipated revenues would prioritize a police position.  Currently the highly regarded Community Policing Officer is funded by a state grant that could lose funding when it expires at the end of the current fiscal year.

Amherst Fire Department will also get an extra $30,000 for supplies.  The Cooley Dickinson Hospital used to let them restock ambulance supplies from hospital stock but the cost conscious new owners have put a stop to that.

School Superintendent Maria Geryk confirmed her budgets would meet Finance Committee guidelines of no more than a 2.5% increase, although she will have to cut $470,000 from the Elementary School Budget and $300,000 from the Region.

Jones Library Director Sharon Sharry also confirmed the Library budget will be within the 2.5% guidelines even though they have cut back the draw from the $7.25 million endowment to only 4% ($310,000), and make up the difference through fundraising and state aid. 

Rezone This?

The 5.8 acre parcel is sandwiched between two major commercial developments

Fresh off his setback at the Amherst Historical Commission Demo Delay Hearing the night before, local attorney Tom Reidy appeared before the Planning Board Wednesday night to request they sponsor a Town Meeting zoning change article for a 5.8 acres site -- wide open but wet -- on University Drive.

The property is currently zoned Professional Office Park and the new potential owners would like it rezoned to Limited Business which would allow for the construction of an apartment complex, presumably, gasp, student housing.

In 2010 a divided Planning Board (5-3) supported just such a warrant article but it was defeated on the floor of Amherst Town Meeting where any zoning change requires a two-thirds vote of support, a high hurdle to clear.

The nearest business owner to the south adamantly opposed the rezoning due to concerns about storm water runoff.  

The project proposed at the time was for 44 units of subsidized senior housing at the back of the property and a mixed use retail/market rate housing project fronting University Drive. 

According to the assessor the property is still owned by Mohammad Idrees and it's in (farmland) Chapter 61, so assessed at $3,600, thus generating only $76 in taxes this year.

A major housing development would probably be assessed in the $10 million range and pay upwards of $200,000 annually in property taxes.

Haters Still Gonna Hate

Kendrick Place:  new mixed use anchor for the north end of downtown

After being described as "hideous" in public meetings, with charges of "good old boy" favortism on the part of the Planning Board, prognosticated to overwhelm town parking and becoming a despicable den for student parties rivaling Phillips Street, it's nice to see four months into their operations the apocalypse has not been unleashed by Kendrick Place.

And some professionals seem to appreciate the design of the building:

Click to enlarge/read