Let the chips fall...

So my “sensible center” friends (meaning they lean to the left but not enough to fall over) are suggesting I pick my battles more carefully. Hmmmm.

While Town Meeting is exempt from state conflict of interest law (because of a large membership) I would still abstain from a vote on the school budget if I were a teacher, or the public safety budget if I were a firefighter or cop. That’s just the way I am. In fact, anytime I speak against Leisure Services recreation empire I always remind folks that I run a private sector health club business—you know the kind that pay taxes to the town rather than consumes them.

But is this whistle blowing purely political? Am I targeting Mr. Kusner for political extinction? And could it backfire by generating a groundswell of support for the poor math professor (who absent mindedly forgot to file the disclosure form with the Town Clerk this time)?

No, no, and no way in Hell!

Tell it to the Judge

State Ethics Commission, Enforcement Division
One Ashburton Place
Room 619
Boston MA 02108
September 20, 2007

Dear Sir or Madam,

I wish to file a formal complaint and request a ruling by your office on a conflict of interest regarding Amherst Selectman Robert B. Kusner concerning a crucial vote taken Monday, September 17’th.

That night the Amherst Select board (acting in their role of Sewer Commissioners) voted 3-2 to waive effluent water charges for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for an annual savings of $37,000. Since this is a five-year agreement, Amherst taxpayers forfeit $200,000.

Robert Kusner is a full-time professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (thus a “special state employee”); therefore his decisive vote significantly benefited his employer.

On two previous occasions (7/25/05 and 3/1/06) where the “appearance of potential conflict of interest” may have existed, Selectman Kusner filed a disclosure form with the Amherst Town Clerk as required by M.G.L. c. 268A outlining the mitigating facts to explain why no such conflict exists.

In this particular case, however (which I believe goes well beyond merely the “appearance of potential conflict of interest”), Mr. Kusner did not file any such form with the Town Clerk. Since Professor Kusner’s vote was the tiebreaker-deciding vote, I would ask the Commission to void the action taken by the Amherst Select board.

Sincerely Yours,


Larry Kelley, 460 West St, Amherst, Ma. 01002
Amherst Town Meeting member, Amherst Redevelopment Authority, http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/
CC: Amherst Town Clerk, Amherst Select Board/Town Manager

Send in the clowns

http://www.inamherst.com/

Having just read Stephanie’s stenography of the illustrious Select Board meeting Monday night I now regret leaving so quickly.

At least two of them (former-Czar Awad and Greeney), FINALLY, get it and voted against giving Umass free gray water when previously they paid $37,000. YES, they should simply reinstitute the higher charges for water consumption, at the rate Hadley charges for it’s top level water users (that some households fall into); and that alone would equal the entire net gain from this ludicrous “strategic agreement.”

The diffident town manager thinks Umass would walk away from the “deal” if the Sewer Commissioners (that would be our illustrious Select board) didn’t support the gray water fee waiver. Now if the vote had been 2-2 then it would NOT have passed.

And last I looked Rob Kusner is a highly paid professor at Umass, Amherst. Hmmm…

Later Mr. Kusner (what’s with the dress shirt and tie?) defended his meddling in the Lincoln Avenue speed cushion experiment by trotting out a ten-year old Amherst Town Meeting resolution praising cycling and encouraging bike lanes.

But did they say you had to have a three-foot wide bike lane the entire length of the route? Unless you’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol any idiot can negotiate a one-foot wide by three-foot long safe passageway around the cushions. Yikes!

And of course his Lordship Mr. Weiss closed the meeting with a plug for the “Public Forum for Budget Priorities” tomorrow night at Town Hall. Yeah, like they’re going to learn something (and even if they did, would they act on it?).

ALL the “Public Forums” seemed to indicate overwhelming support for the May 1’st property tax Override; and we see how well that turned out. Sometimes tealeaves are simply tealeaves.

Smells like...victory

So I was two for two last night at the illustrious Amherst Select board meeting.

At 6:40 pm I was on the agenda to request the SB (that’s shorthand for Select board) designate the intersection in South Amherst, where the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School just opened, a “school zone” so the DPW can go nuts with signage. They unanimously agreed, but thought there may be a step or two more in the process so they would get back to me.

And at 7:00 we had the joint meeting between the SB and Amherst Redevelopment Authority a quasi-state agency thankfully independent of town government to replace an open seat. Great minds must think a like as we unanimously voted in Peg Roberts (an icon in downtown development).

And nothing should be made of the fact that she was the only applicant. Since it was known very early on she had applied anybody else with lesser qualifications--that would be the entire town--would have thought twice about even bothering. And (Schools take note) qualifications count.

All in all a great night for a troublemaker like me, who occasionally receives “payback” via a totally different issue: For instance, I think the shameful two-thirds vote of Amherst Town Meeting not to fly the flags on 9/11 was more an anti-Larry Kelley vote than it was against the flag, coming only two weeks after the May 1’st property tax Override (to “save our schools”) went down in flames.

Well at least kids will be safer in South Amherst; and now we can get to work expanding the downtown-parking garage.

Lassie came home. Yea!

To Hell with Bank of America, and their little branch too.

With a footprint less than the width of two parked cars my 5-year-old daughter once again summed it up best dubbing the new-and-definitely-not-improved Bank of America “A Kira sized building”.

Maybe for a Grand Opening they could hire the remaining ‘Wizard of Oz’ munchkins and—if they can still skip around—change their tag line to “follow the red brick road.” Or if Linda Carter is still available she could squeeze into her ‘Wonder Woman’ costume and be the official sliding door greeter (a la Wal Mart).

But yeah, I have to agree with Mary and her daughter; it also looks like a bad crosspollination between Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut; either of which, at least, would have live human beings inside.

And I guess it’s no coincidence that Bank Of America (#1 nationwide for ATM locations) just raised ATM fees to $3. Considering this Amherst location, at the gateway to Umass, attracts lots of students and the bank has almost zero overhead, this facility will be highly profitable—for Bank Of America. Not, unfortunately, for our community.
http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/2007/07/to-hell-with-bankofamerica.html

Lassie come home!

Okay folks, anybody from outside Amherst just keep moving along…as the cops at an accident scene say: “Nothing to see here.”

BUT: if you live around my old Amherst stomping ground—High Street, Gray Street, Main Street (otherwise known as “Crow Hill”, where the Irish hung out) could you keep an eye-or-two out for this pooch?

She’s an “indoor dog” with medical problems and her owner has terminal cancer (No, I’m not writing a screenplay here--oftentimes truth is stranger than fiction)

Call Amherst PD at 259-3000 (and please hurry as the police will have their hands full later this evening with noise/party/riot situations).