LIve From Amherst!

(6:35 PM. Scroll down for updates) Well, okay almost live. Four or five minute delay for spell check (and Blogger does not allow live text messaging).

First impression: lousy turnout. As in 8 people in the audience—all of them insiders. Only one reporter.

His Lordship Gerry Weiss opens. Talks a lot but doesn't say much.

Ms Awad protests the idea of a Special Town Meeting. We are abdicating are responsibility. “There are alternatives”. She also talks about how the BCG seemed overly interested in the Override. Move the start date of Town Meeting to early April. Not an appropriate use of Town Meeting.

UPDATE: (6:50 PM)
Ms. Greeney (citing a survey of 90 people): Goes after LSSE( Recreation Department). Library branches in No and So Amherst.

New Town Meeting members coming in on April 1, so why get opinion in February from some who may not be around to vote on the budget in the Spring. Not enough information available (state aid) for this early a Town Meeting.

Reads statement from a survey responder who also takes LSSE to task. Keep it simple: summer pool, groomed playing fields but not the bloated empire they have become (Tango lessons anyone?)

6:58 PM

Ms. Brewer: To hell with surveys. Not interested in talking about an Override (her nose is starting to grow). At this point not Pro Override (her nose is getting bigger). Not a huge turnover in Town Meeting, so February folks will still be around this Spring to vote on the budget.


Andy Steinberg (Finance Committee and BCG member): Town Meeting stands in for the public. Special Town Meeting on budget would be helpful.

Brian Morton (Finance Committee and BCG member): The idea for this Special Town Meeting is not just the BCG. Some Town Meeting member on a list serve came up with it (damn internet). Any member of the general public can speak at Town Meeting (yeah, but they don't).

7:05 PM

Vote is 2-2 . It fails!. Weiss, Brewer "yes"; Greeney, Awad "No". Rob Kusner was not present (and he most certainly would have voted Yes). But Weiss, obviously a sore loser, is talking about bringing it up again this Monday when Mr. Kusner is around.

7:25 PM (I'm home now). As the scant crowd dispersed I asked Select Board Chair Weiss if he knew Rob Kusner would not be present tonight (I had assumed Kusner would rush in at the last minute, bike helmet in hand, to cast the deciding vote). And he said "Yes". I then said something about wasting folks time as even the flagpole in front of Town Hall knew Awad and Greeney were going to vote NO and there are only five Select board members and you need a majority vote for something to pass. Great leadership there your Lordship.

The Vagina Override...Fore!

(6:45 am) So apparently LifefromMA, my new buddy on Masslive/Amherst forum and I have more in common than first thought. He has not played golf in years (not that I’m anti-golf, only anti-subsidizing the grandiose game with taxation) and he’s not anti-Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, the elementary school my daughter attends here in the People’s Republic Of Amherst. He only opposes the concept of Charter Schools in general (although on average they outperform public schools and at a cheaper cost).

http://www.masslive.com/forums/amherst/

But damn, now he agrees with me on ‘The Vagina Monologues’, as well as the tax Override. And, seriously, he hits a hole in one on as far as it demonstrating how clueless our top school leaders are.


I was sitting last week at the Budget Coordinating Group meeting at Town Hall with Hochman on my immediate left and Shaffer on my immediate right and I just wanted to slap them (metaphorically speaking of course).

Here you guys—the two highest paid Amherst public officials ($300,000 per year combined) are sitting here plotting with ‘All The Usual Suspects’ for a tax Override to make your bureaucratic existence easier and both of you have stepped in deep Do-Do recently on God, Country and Apple Pie issues that seriously calls into question your judgment.

Well, anyway...I will be attending the BCG meeting later this morning at Town Hall (I think it starts at 9:00 am) and if anything of interest happens will post live from the meeting (love that free wireless).

UPDATE: 9:15 AM Ooops. I guess they did enough damage last week. Bumped into the always gregarious Town Manager in the hallway who confirmed there was no BCG meeting. Well maybe I'll try the LIVE FROM AMHERST thing later this evening at 6:15 pm when our illustrious Select Board holds a Special Meeting to decide whether to hold a Special Town Meeting, setting the stage for an Override vote this Spring. Look for a 3-2 vote with Greeney and Awad dissenting (you know the same duo who opposed the May 1'st Override)

SELL, Sell, sell the Override

As usual the Gazette on Tuesday gives us one of their typically wishy-washy “on the one hand…but on the other” kind of editorials--although the headline was perfect.

Any Group, Task Force, Blue Ribbon Panel or Ad Hoc Committee--as opposed to just a plain old Committee that has to abide by the Open Meeting Law--formed by Town officials with cherry picked, insider committee members is suspect when it comes to a Proposition 2.5 tax Override.

And the Budget Coordinating Group is the perfect posterchild! They immediately considered raiding the town treasury for $100,000 to hire consultants to lead a “public engagement process,” to package a "bulletproof" Override. Superintendent Hochman even brought a company flack from Unicom ARC to the November 7’th BCG meeting to sell, Sell, SELL the idea.

Unicom’s webpage proudly hypes feedback from a School official that obviously benefited from the hired guns: “They can steer a district through a public engagement process, secure accurate survey data, and guide election efforts to achieve even the most ambitious district goals.”

http://www.unicomarc.com/elections.php

And after the May 1’st Override failure, Superintendent Hochman and school committee folks are nothing if not “ambitious.”

Select board member Greeney outed the shady aspects of the BCG Override aspirations yet the Gazette thinks, “Ms Greeney needs to exercise caution in making claims that could unfairly tarnish the budget group’s reputation.”

Well, if the Gazette took its watchdog role seriously, maybe Ms. Greeney would not have to act as whistleblower.

UPDATE: 8:45 PM
So somebody on Masslive/Amherst Forum who doesn’t like my Cherry Hill stance (a golfer who plays there) and doesn’t like the Chinese Charter School my daughter attends (parent with kid in Amherst schools) posted a link to my blog because he does likes that I’m keeping tabs on town officials behind the scenes maneuvering.

So he’s probably a homeowner concerned about yet another tax increase. Pocketbook politics indeed makes strange bedfellow.

And O’reilly wanted me to post a link to the town budget. Not that anybody would read it. So I’m posting a link to BCG meetings minutes. Especially interesting is the 11/7/07 meeting where the PR flak gives a free sample of his propaganda campaign. And I especially like the Town Manager’s comment just after the presentation: “Facts can kill a campaign. Message is critical.” Hmmm….
http://www.amherstma.gov/minutes/view_minutes.asp?id=775

A final note

I was happy to see a couple Letters in this morning’s Gazette partially criticizing their coverage of but mostly lamenting Neal Ryan’s tragic loss, killed by either bumping his head after being hit by a slow-moving car or dying from other medicinal problems triggered by the shock of the accident.

Kind of like arguing about what killed Benazir Bhutto, the assassin’s bullets or the bomb. Either way they are gone. And their respective communities diminished.

Because of his disability (that many saw as a gift) he didn’t’ drive, and when the PVTA buses were on reduced schedule Neal walked everywhere. This month of course, with the University and colleges on intersession, the buses barely run.

Neal joined the Amherst Athletic Club a few years ago to lose weight and reduce high blood pressure. He was always wearing headphones and could rattle of trivia associated with whatever artists he listened to. A 1982 graduate of Amherst Regional High School, friends said he was picked on for being older than fellow classmates and, even more, for liking Elvis.

On Thursday morning, the day of his accident, Neal unexpectedly came in at 6:00 am to exercise--and he worked hard. His personal trainer later told me that he had promised her he would add an extra workout to make up for slacking off the previous week.

A promise kept…a promising life lost.

Scouts can use Kendrick Park!

As long as they are wearing skates.

Yeah, so last year the nubie Town Manager tried to make water freeze uphill on the Town Common. And like the $10 million heating plant Umass built in the 70's expecting water to defy gravity…it didn’t work.

So now he’s going to create a skating rink at Kendrick Park, even before the committee has even been formed to come up with a use policy. And Shaffer has already told the Scouts to take a hike on Christmas tree sales next year. Hmmm…
http://www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1200644432293610.xml&coll=1 This was Front Page. 3'rd largest paper in Mass.

http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/76765/(Note comments on right)

And the Captain fiddles while...

To: amherstac@yahoo.com
Subject: 'VM" morning announcements
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:20:01 -0500
From: jacksonmk@arps.orgj

Gee, Larry, I've always spoken highly of you.

Mark Jackson, Principal
Amherst Regional High School
21 Mattoon St.
Amherst, MA 01002
W: 413-362-1701

Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:41:44 -0800 (PST)
From: "larry kelley"
Subject: VAGINAS! Vaginas, VA GI NAS!
To: jacksonmk@arps.org

Hey Mark,

And I once spoke highly of you. Especially last year when you stood up to the girls and said “No” we can't allow school sanction of ‘Vagina Monologues’ because, as you told the crusty Amherst Bulletin:

"... the experience of those who were responsible for organizing the event three years ago was that it took over their professional lives. The level of detail to attend to was inordinate," Jackson wrote in an email.

Jackson also cited other priorities, such as the upcoming estimated budget shortfall that will occupy administrators' attention and deprive them of extra time to devote to the logistics of staging the controversial production.

Soooo, Superintendent Hochman is currently whining about a $300,000 shortfall in your budget for FY09, but I guess you don’t consider that significant; or maybe you have more administrators than you know what to do with this year.

And you must think that 2004--when you were not around--was just a tempest in a teapot. Yeah, Bill O’Reilly (three times), Time Magazine and The Today Show were all having slow news days.

Larry

Mark be nimble, Mark be quick...

In a message dated 1/17/08 2:04:04 PM, Amherst AC writes:
Hey Mark,
I am in receipt of your apologetic email to a couple of folks who complained about the insensitive, asinine promo for 'The Vagina Monologues' that was scheduled to be announced this morning.

When you say "I will address this issue today to ensure any future announcements are written in an appropriate fashion" one could get the impression that the original announcement was read school wide this morning but that it would not happen again (at least in so egregiously stupid a manner).

So my question is: what exactly was read to the kids in our High School this morning concerning 'The Vagina Monologues'???

Larry Kelley


In a message dated 1/17/08 2:14:02 PM, JacksonMK@ARPS.ORG writes:
Larry:

What was read today was the same thing that was read yesterday. But it will be different tomorrow.

Thanks,

Mark Jackson

Mark Jackson, Principal
Amherst Regional High School
21 Mattoon St.
Amherst, MA 01002
W: 413-362-1701
F: 413-549-9704
jacksonmk@arps.org


In a message dated 1/17/08 2:17:06 PM, Amherst AC writes:
Hey Mark,
What the Hell are you, an aircraft carrier floating in a sea of molasses?
Larry

UPDATE: 3:00 pm So just for the record here is the announcement they will make tomorrow:

The Vagina Monologues is coming to the high school stage, Friday, February 15th! Mark your calendars, and get ready to become part of the worldwide phenomenon.

Of course, I'm still shocked that Jackson is told by his Boss the previous afternoon about the inappropriate nature of the announcement that apparently was made anyway twice and Jackson even sends an apologetic email to two complainants at 6:18 am but somehow the original tacky announcement was still made this morning. For the record, ARHS starts at 7:45 am. And are they going to hype (albeit lower key) this monstrosity every day between now and February 15'th???