Mayor Council Yes!

Nine member Amherst Charter Commission

After almost two hours of deliberation comparing a Mayor/Council to the current Town Meeting/Select Board the full Amherst Charter Commission -- with one member using remote participation -- decided not to change course on their 5-4 late December "straw vote " to ditch Town Meeting.

Although they did not take a formal (concrete) vote it was obvious none of the Commissioners had changed their minds and if anything are now only more firmly entrenched.

In fact Town Meeting loyalists Gerry Weiss and Julia Rueschemeyer threatened to write a "robust minority report" although colleague Diana Stein promised to work with the five to create the best Charter possible.

This was the second meeting in a row that stalled momentum although the first hour was particularly enlightening as the Commission heard from Northampton (strong) Mayor David Narkewicz and South Hadley Administrator Mike Sullivan.

Sullivan a former Mayor of Holyoke told the Commission mayor/councils are not a one size fits all because every community has a "different texture ... a different fabric -- but if you can adopt what Northampton has go for it because it works really well there."

Mayor Narkewicz pointed out he has a highly trained credentialed finance team in place to handle the complicated finances of a city and their charter -- which gives the mayor a four year term -- makes very clear distinctions between the legislative (Council) and executive (Mayor) branch.

Sullivan concurred adding, "Mayor/Council form expedites things."

 Mayor Dave Narkewicz (ctr), Mike Sullivan (rt)

When asked about corruption Sullivan thought, "The only safeguard against corruption is individual honesty, no matter the system."

Mayor Narkewicz said Northampton passed an ordinance restricting political contributions to $500 even though the state allows $1,000 and he pointed out the Open Meeting Law keeps folks honest since anyone could access his campaign contribution report via the web.

Narkewicz acknowledged he was recently surprised to learn Representative Town Meeting members are exempt from state Conflict of Interest and Open Meeting Laws and he thought that, "was a recipe for problems."

Charter Chair Andy Churchill asked if they had any final suggestions for his Commission and Mayor Narkewicz told them "Make roles very clear.  Don't come up with a diluted mish mash.  Know where the buck stops.  Don't go with a fake Mayor."

The Mayor/Council/Manager Charter proposal in 2003 lost by only 14 votes and one of the main reasons for failure was the (unelected) Manager had more power than the (fake) Mayor.

DUI Dishonor Roll

 

Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash

Only two arrests over the weekend for impaired driving, which is a little surprising considering Amherst's population almost doubled with the return of our beloved college students.

Eric Barnes, age 26 stands before Judge Estes

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Daniel Canon, age 65

Justice Delayed

Soksot Chham Eastern Hampshire District Court Monday morning

I was a little surprised on Monday morning to see a familiar face in the District Court lock up, which is a more secure area used to present alleged criminals to the judges for arraignment or other procedural matters.

In this case Soksot Chham, brother of Soknang Chham who has been indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Joselito Rodriguez, was standing before Judge Thomas Estes for what is known as a "bindover hearing," something I'm told is rather rare these days in District Court.

According to the DA's office:

A bindover hearing is also sometimes called a probable cause hearing and yes, it is an evidentiary hearing to determine whether or not there is probable cause to believe the defendant has committed the alleged crime.  If probable cause is found then the case is “bound over” to the Superior Court. 

The Commonwealth had simply asked Judge Estes for a "continuance" because there had been some problems gathering evidence from Arizona authorities who had originally arrested the brothers.

Of course what got my attention is in his brief presentation Mr. Chham's lawyer suggested the state's time is up and he closed with a request the case against his client be "dismissed."

Judge Estes acknowledged the law concerning this situation is not overly clear but he did ascertain that he could allow one -- and only one -- continuance, so he continued the bindover hearing to February 28th.

Judge Estes felt the need for the delay was not the Commonwealth's fault and that the Chham bothers had help create the situation by running to Arizona immediately after the incident.

But as the players all started to leave the ever affable Judge seemed to suggest he would not see them again, thus telegraphing a likelihood the Commonwealth will bring that evidence to a grand jury for an indictment prior to February 28th thus sending the case to Superior Court.

The wheels of justice turn slowly but as a result they usually get it right.  And the occasional bad guy who goes free on a technicality is the (small) price we pay for living in our free society.  

Charter Challenge

Charter Commission (four men, four women) January 19

Much to the delight of the eight or nine Town Meeting loyalists in the audience the Charter Commission squandered an entire three hour meeting backtracking from their late December decision to pursue a Mayor/Council by discussing ways to improve the current Town Meeting.

Which is kind of like the horse and buggy industry discussing ways to improve that mode of transportation circa 1910 or today's newspaper industry brainstorming ways to make ink on paper more efficient.

The Commission previously voted 5-4 to put Town Meeting out to pasture but the minority folks are having a hard time accepting that vote.  Kind of like the President Trump haters who have come out of the woodwork over the past two months.

Julia Rueshemeyer -- ever the attorney -- who has transformed into an all out Town Meeting cheerleader, pointed out that close vote was only a "straw vote," and openly wondered what happens now with one mayor/council supporter absent (Irv Rhodes) when the revote is 4-4?

Since the illustrious Select Board will vote to allow remote participation at their Monday night meeting that means absent member Irv Rhodes will be allowed to vote from afar his reaffirmation of mayor/council keeping the 5-4 vote intact.

And while he's at it Mr. Rhodes, who is black, should play the race card to offset Ms. Rueschemeyer playing the gender card at the last meeting praising Town Meeting for having 52% proportion of women.

Of course age, income, home ownership and skin color status is wildly out of whack compared to current town demographics.

In a recent memo to the Commission from their Collins Institute consultants the odd idea of creating a Select Board with one member being essentially a "mayor" was pretty much ruled out of order for ideas the Attorney General would allow.

All the state statutes treat a Select Board as a shared power executive branch, so in Amherst each of the five members are one-fifth of a mayor.  Which is of course the problem.  Nobody takes any one of them very seriously.

And insiders would be happy to point out over the past ten years former Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe and current Chair Alisa Brewer do/did act as sort of the Connecticut version of a "first Selectman" but it's made no difference with government efficiency.

Ms. O'Keeffe spoke during the public comment period and pointed out the signature gathering effort to get the Charter question on the ballot "reflected significant dissatisfaction with town government" and any tweaks/improvements to Town Meeting should be handled by the Town Meeting Coordinating Committee, not the Charter Commission.

Specifically addressing Ms. Rueshemeyer's pro-women rallying cry the longtime former Select Board chair said emphatically,  "This is Amherst.  We've had a majority of women on Select Board and as Chairs for decades!"

The Commission has scheduled an extra meeting for January 30th prior to the Special Town Meeting vote on the $67 million Mega School.  But members hope to take the revote after one more hour of discussion at their Wednesday, January 25th meeting, which starts at 6:30 PM.

At that meeting they will hear from Northampton Mayor Narkewicz who will no doubt be subject to "gotcha" type cross examination by the four Town Meeting loyalists.

The Commission will continue to discuss the merits of Town Meeting and perhaps take a revote later that night whether to rescind the previous "straw vote".

So even if Mr. Rhodes is absent and the Select Board has not approved remote participation the vote to reverse direction from the previous mayor council straw vote will still be a 4-4 tie and therefor the motion does not pass.

Simply enough to understand, even for a lawyer.

Party Chill

To any of my longtime readers this official "Party Smart" report will come as no surprise, since my Party House of the Weekend installments over the past two years have slowed so dramatically I should rename it Party House of the (every other) Month.

And since my monthly page views continue to be as high as ever the P.T. Barnum in me couldn't care less.

But the crusading journalist in me is overjoyed.

Ironically the Select Board gets this presentation on Monday night, the first day of classes at UMass.   They will also be discussing recreational marijuana.

No doubt the Select Board will be considering ways to both limit and slow down the establishment of recreational pot retailers in town.

Too bad because if we could get the college aged youth to switch from alcohol to pot the rowdy party house or Blarney Blowout type episodes will diminish even more. 

Either way, the town and University are winning the war on rowdyism. I'll drink, err, smoke to that!

Even In Amherst

Although trounced 10-1 in Amherst -- and some insiders were surprised it was not greater -- the town will display the 30 commemorative American flags tomorrow or early Friday morning in the downtown to honor the peaceful transition of power occurring in Washington, D.C. aka Inauguration Day, when Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States.

Some of you may remember back in 2004 after the contentious reelection of President Bush, Amherst Town Meeting member Pat Church confused the flag of Puerto Rico with that of Texas and snatched it from the pole immediately in front of Town Hall.

So I am a tad concerned about the security of the 30 commemorative flags -- especially after the flag burning incident at Hampshire College.

Our country is founded on the fundamental right to peacefully protest.  And yes, even flag burning is protected by the First Amendment.

Just not these taxpayer funded public flags originally paid for out of the Veterans Department commemorations budget.

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UPDATE Friday morning:

Amhersst even broke out the really BIG flag, although not nearly large enough to absorb all the tears that will be shed in town today.

Remote Runaround

Amherst Select Board January 9.  Executive branch (for now)

Our Select Board had the opportunity yet again to allow members of town boards and committees to remotely participate and cast votes, but as usual got bogged down in nitty gritty details.

A few days later the nine member Amherst Charter Commission met minus three members -- the most absent to date.  And none of those three got to visit by Skype, Facetime or conference call.

The Select Board, who has the all-or-nothing say for all town boards and committees, has been dilly dallying for almost five years now. 

Last summer the Charter Commission made a special request well before they knew members would have to miss meetings and Select Board liaison Andy Steinberg has reminded his fellow members a few times about how important this is.

The most game changing vote to date taken by the Charter Commission was a 5-4 vote to ditch Town Meeting/Select Board in favor of Mayor/Council, so perhaps they are not in the mood to be nice to their executioners.

But they did promise to have all the trivial concerns addressed by the their next meeting on January 23rd, so boards and committees can immediately thereafter join the 21st century.