Replacing Maria

Maria Geryk at 3/31 Finance Committee meeting with Mike Morris, Sean Mangano

The search to replace former school Superintendent Maria Geryk is off to an inauspicious start.  The survey of qualities folks wish to see in her replacement has not gotten very wide circulation.  And as surveys go that's not a great thing.

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One of the big criticisms of our public schools which we will hear again on the floor of Town Meeting tonight is a lack of transparency and outreach.

The hiring of a "Media & Climate Communications Specialists" (which is not funded in the upcoming fiscal year) did nothing to change that.  Obviously.

Tomorrow, & Tomorrow, & Tomorrow

Former industrial site near North Amherst center

Proposed transformation

On Thursday February 2nd the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals will convene for the 6th and hopefully final time to support the Comprehensive Permit for Beacon Communities North Square mixed use development at the Mill District in North Amherst.

Yes, academic Amherst once had industry.  Old timers refer to that area of town as "the dirty hands district" because of those long gone industries.  Today industrial land makes up less than 1% of the town tax base.

The Beacon proposal will revive that former industrial site, which currently pays the towns less than $10,000 in property taxes, in a way that will stimulate all of North Amherst via the tenants and businesses it attracts while enhancing our town coffers with over $500,000 in annual property taxes.

In order to offset the losses they will incur from having 26 subsidized housing units in the 130 unit proposal, Beacon will be seeking a temporary ten year property tax break on those units, legislation that was championed by late Town Manager John Musante.

The state requires a town to contribute financially to a Comprehensive Permit project anyway and this method is far less painful since it does not take any money out of the treasury and simply forgoes collecting money over a ten year period.

But how much exactly?

When Beacon Communities came into town four years ago and saved our bacon by buying Rolling Green to keep all 204 units on the Subsidized Housing Index, the town contributed $1.25 million up front.

Forever activist Vince O'Connor, a North Amherst resident, was circulating a sheet at the recent ZBA meeting showing the total tax breaks Beacon is seeking over ten years coming to almost $5 million.

Vince O'Connor low tech tax guestimate

But the spreadsheet presented to the Select Board on January 23rd concludes it will be far less than that (although it is a tad complicated):

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According to Mollye Lockwood,  Cowls VP of Real Estate and Community Development:

It is a reasonable request for the town to contribute about $2 million in
tax relief (that is the approximate amount for the total 10 year period
and what I believe Vince was trying to calculate) to have not only the 26
affordable units but all of the other benefits related to economic
development, village center revitalization, smart growth, etc. (The town,
or anyone else, could not build 26 affordable units deed restricted into
perpetuity for very-low and extremely-low income households for $2
million.) 

This is a great value for the community and the opportunity cost
that will be lost by not doing it would cost the town exponentially more
in the long run.

Amherst continuously pays lip service to the idea of subsidized housing.  Now it's time for town officials to put their money where their mouth is. 

100%

Atkins Reservoir Friday, January 27: 100% capacity

Atkins Reservoir, which went back online a couple weeks ago, is currently at full 200 million gallon capacity.

A far cry from early this fall when it was down by two-thirds and had to be shut down early. 

 Atkins Reservoir October 7th, 2016:  34% of capacity

Amherst managed to survive an extended period using only the wells and the return of somewhat normal New England weather has now replenished our surface water supplies in Pelham and Atkins which is located in Shutesbury.

The town lifted the water ban that went into effect on August 19th back on December 19th and the consumption levels since then have remained below 3 million gallons per day.

Amherst is permitted by the DEP to draw 4.44 million gallons per day so in our current system there's still plenty of capacity left for new growth as long as Mother Nature does not throw a hot hissy fit.




NIMBYs have embraced the recent water woes as another weapon in their anti-development war using it to attack the proposed Beacon Communities 130 unit development at the Mill District in North Amherst.

Not the first time the usual knee jerk anti-development arguments  have been all wet.

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.