(1/28/08)  The Select Board met for a special meeting on Thursday, January 24th at 6:15 p.m. in the Town Room at Town Hall.  Gerry Weiss, Alisa Brewer, Anne Awad and Hwei-Ling Greeney were present, and Rob Kusner was absent.  Town Manager Larry Shaffer was also present.

Mr. Shaffer noted that Conservation Director David Ziomek could not be present at this meeting.

Mr. Weiss said that this meeting had not been part of the regular Select Board meeting schedule, and that parent care prevented Mr. Kusner from attending.

Acceptance of Deed for East Leverett Road Property

Mr. Shaffer said that on November 5th, 2007, Town Meeting authorized the purchase of a 28-acre parcel on East Leverett Road from Barry Roberts.  Mr. Shaffer said that as an interim step in the process, acceptance of the deed is necessary before the formal deed transfer occurs at the closing, which he said will take place in a couple of weeks. 

Ms. Brewer moved that the deed be accepted from the Haskins View Corporation.  The vote to support the motion was 3 in favor, 1 abstention and 1 absent, with Ms. Greeney abstaining.

Special Town Meeting Warrant for February 11th, 2008

Mr. Weiss said that on Thursday, January 17th, the Budget Coordinating Group (BCG,) co-chaired by Mr. Weiss and Finance Committee Chair Brian Morton, recommended that a Special Town Meeting be held to solicit comments and recommendations regarding budget and service level priorities for FY09, and pertaining to the Town’s ongoing structural deficit challenges.  He said that the BCG is made up of two members each from the Select Board, the Finance Committee, the School Committee and the Library Trustees; as well as the Finance Director, the Town Manager, the Superintendent of Schools and the Library Director.  He said that the vote to recommend the Special Town Meeting was nearly unanimous, with one abstention. 

Mr. Weiss said that the recommendation followed weeks of consideration about how best to have a public discussion about the budget, and said that the proposal to hold a Special Town Meeting was formally floated on January 7th, the vote to recommend that to the Select Board was held January 17th, and that a draft warrant was prepared.  Mr. Weiss said that he had made the “executive decision” to have two draft warrants created – one with four articles – an article pertaining to the Solid Waste fund and three FY09 budget articles; and another warrant which adds a proposed Community Preservation Act (CPA) surcharge increase article.  Mr. Weiss said that Mr. Kusner had requested that the CPA article be presented for consideration, and had worked hard on it, and Mr. Weiss said that he (Mr. Weiss) decided to present two warrants.

Mr. Weiss said the first article was to appropriate $88,000 from the Solid Waste enterprise fund to complete a comprehensive site assessment of the former landfill site.

He said that the FY09 budget articles were the product of much BCG consideration on how best to have a public discussion of budget issues.  He said that both a public forum and a Special Town Meeting were considered, and that a Special Town Meeting was considered to be the best option for high attendance.  Mr. Weiss said that he personally considers such a discussion to be a function of Town Meeting, because Town Meeting will be expected to vote on the final budget in May or June.  He said that starting the discussion in February would allow for broader consideration, rather than adhering to the strictures of specific budget articles and amounts, and said it would be more discussion-oriented instead of lobbying-oriented.  He said it might make the spring discussions go more smoothly and quickly.

He said that a Select Board meeting was called now because of the various timing deadlines associated with calling a Special Town Meeting.  He said that if the warrant were to be signed this night, a Special Town Meeting could be held February 11th, and that the following week is school vacation, and not a good time to have a meeting.  Mr. Weiss said that if Town Meeting were to determine that it wants to have an override question on the April 1st ballot, then the Select Board needs to know that by February 25th.  He said that if the Select Board were to wait until the Monday meeting to consider this, then the earliest Special Town Meeting date would be February 12th or 13th.

Ms. Brewer said that Article 4 – about the Solid Waste Fund – is included in the FY09 proposed budget, and could be found on page 167. 

Mr. Shaffer said that a comprehensive site analysis is the next step in the Department of Environmental Protection’s process for releasing the site in order to use it for an alternate purpose.  He said that there is an opportunity to use this site in a productive way, and said that conducting the study sooner expedites the process so that the site can be used for the benefit of the people of the town. 

Ms. Brewer moved that the Select Board sign warrant A – the four article warrant – for a February 11th Special Town Meeting.  Mr. Weiss seconded the motion.

Mr. Weiss read the language of the CPA article from warrant B, so that it was clear what that warrant included.  It sought to authorize the Select Board to place a question on the April 1st ballot to increase the CPA surcharge to not more than 3%.  Mr. Weiss said that Town Meeting has to authorize the Select Board to put a CPA surcharge increase question on the ballot.  He said that people in town had requested this be proposed for a Special Town Meeting and that Mr. Kusner had obliged them.  Mr. Weiss clarified that this question was not on the warrant Ms. Brewer had moved. 

Ms. Awad said that she could not support the motion and explained her reasons:  that she was concerned about using Town Meeting in this way; that it changed the roles of the town entities involved in budget creation and approval as defined by the Amherst Town Government Act; and that it sidesteps the process to have Town Meeting deliberate on a budget that is not fully developed.  She said that in the past, Town Meeting has been presented with two budgets – one reflecting revenues available without an override, and the other with an override.  She said that allows Town Meeting to see both options.  She said that Amherst’s close ties to the academic calendar make scheduling discussions and elections problematic, and suggested that a large public information meeting would be a better alternative to a Special Town Meeting and would involve members of the community beyond elected Town Meeting members.  She said that BCG minutes talk about ways to engage the general public in such discussions and seek its sense of the necessity for an override, and said that it was the Town’s responsibility to find ways to do that, rather than hiring a consultant for that purpose.  She said that Town Meeting might be the best way to get the most attention and press coverage, and recommended as an alternative to calling a Special, that the first session of the Annual Town Meeting be scheduled for April 7th, the first Monday following the Town election, and to have it be devoted to a discussion of the full budget picture, with discussion of individual budget articles to follow several weeks later.  She said that more would be known about the various proposed local and State budgets by that time.  She said she thought the Solid Waste Fund article could be pulled from its usual place late in the budget and re-scheduled for early in the warrant.  She said that the proposed warrant and calling of a Special Town Meeting was not an appropriate use of Town Meeting, and was beyond its scope and function.

Mr. Weiss said that Ms. Awad’s suggestion for beginning the Annual Town Meeting earlier than is currently scheduled would require changing the published Town Meeting calendar, and would move all related dates and deadlines up – some to the point of now being in the past.  Per her suggestion on moving the Solid Waste article up earlier in the warrant, he said that it still wouldn’t take effect until the dissolution of the meeting, and hence, would not offer any benefit. 

Ms. Awad said that it was true that the results would not become official until the completion of Town Meeting, but said that if the Solid Waste article passed earlier, bids could be prepared and other arrangements made ready for the end of the meeting, thus expediting the process somewhat.  She said it might be possible to have the regular Town Meeting deadlines stand if only a single session on a specific topic were scheduled for earlier than the other regular sessions.  Mr. Weiss said that that would require checking with Town Counsel.

Ms. Greeney said that comments and recommendations about Town Meeting’s and the public’s budget and service level priorities had already been collected in October, and that 90 people had responded to that survey.  She said that work has already been done and doesn’t need to be repeated.  She read from some of those results, and said that to hold a Special Town Meeting for the purpose of gathering such input would be “redundant.”  She said that having a new slate of Town Meeting members after the April 1st election made it “inappropriate” for the current Town Meeting members to provide input on priorities that might differ from those of the members who will ultimately be approving the budget.  She said that it is difficult for people to stand up in front of Town Meeting and speak against funding for particular departments and services, and said that if people weren’t willing to do that, it would limit the usefulness of such a meeting.  She said that she couldn’t be for or against an override without knowing the details of what would be cut or restored in different budget scenarios, and said that February would be too early to have that information.  She read an e-mail that she said came from a Town resident, which complained about the “decadence” of having a Leisure Services department in times of fiscal crisis, and she said that it would be difficult for someone to express such feelings on the floor of Town Meeting.  She asked the Select Board to not call a Special Town Meeting, and said that doing so would create divisions, and that instead, all needed to work together because there is much to do.

Mr. Weiss said that he agrees that the October surveys covers the proposed Article 1 question about service levels, but said that it does not address Town Meeting’s feelings about the necessity of an override.  On the subject of creating divisions, he said that to call a Special Town Meeting would cause some people to be upset, but said that not doing so would cause others to be upset as well.  He said that the BCG was created to work with the budget and to come up with new ideas.  He said that a two-two vote would not carry the motion on the table, and that it was inevitable that the vote would cause divisions one way or the other.

Ms. Brewer said that she doesn’t want any more surveys asking the public for its budget priorities, and said that 90 respondents split nearly half and half on whether to “eliminate or reduce” versus “continue or increase” was not conclusive or useful.  She said that the three non-binding questions about priorities put on the 2006 ballot were not useful either and that 600 people had left all of them blank.  She said that such surveys were not the way to get the desired information.  She said that she understood people’s concerns that a Special Town Meeting side-stepped official responsibility, but that she doesn’t see it that way.  She said that it might be easier to express concerns about specific funding at Town Meeting rather than at a public forum, because Town Meeting members can be speaking for constituents, while one is assumed to be speaking for one’s self at a public forum.  She said that she wants to engage the public about our town values as drivers of our finances.  She said that she isn’t interested in talking about an override yet and is tired of this proposal being portrayed as pro- or anti-override.  She said that the Governor’s budget makes it clear that the 3% the Town had been projecting in the fall is more than will be provided by the State.  She said that she is not for an override at this point, which she said might upset her friends, but said that she knows that the financial situation isn’t going to improve.  She said she wants to have a conversation about different ways of slicing the overall budget “pie.”  She said that a large percentage of Town Meeting members do not typically turn over in any election.  She asked the body, “What are we afraid of?” and said that the proposal doesn’t reduce anyone’s responsibility.  She said that last year’s process was not effective and said that months were spent discussing whether or not to have an override vote, instead of discussing what services the Town should be providing.

Andrew Steinberg said he is a member of Town Meeting, the Finance Committee and the BCG, but was speaking as an individual.  He said that a value of public engagement is that when the public is informed, the information received from it is an informed response.  He said that in our representative Town Meeting structure, Town Meeting stands in for and represents the public.  He said that the details of the Governor’s budget and the School and Library budgets would be known soon, and that to have a discussion of those and the Town Manager’s budget early would provide informed and thoughtful responses from Town Meeting that would be helpful in the continued budget development.

Brian Morton, BCG Co-Chair, said that this issue has been framed as the BCG putting forth the idea to hold a Town Meeting discussion, but he said that the idea originated with a Town Meeting member on the Town Meeting e-mail list last October.  He said the suggestion was to have an educational forum with questions which would allow Town Meeting to provide feedback that could be used in the budget development process.  He said that such a meeting would not usurp any body’s powers, but would be an additional forum for Town Meeting and the general public to learn and give feedback, and noted that any member of the general public can speak at Town Meeting.  He said that BCG wants to engage more of the public than just Town Meeting members, but has not been successful doing so yet. 

Ms. Greeney said she appreciates the “passion” with which the group was seeking to engage the public to learn its priorities.  She said that in the spirit of support and appreciation, she offered her effort, energy and experience in arranging events to work to bring the public and Town Meeting together in a public forum to gather the input BCG is seeking. 

Leo Maley identified himself as a Town Meeting member and said he was “agnostic” on how the Select Board’s vote would go.  He said that while it is desirable to have public participation, Town Meeting has a unique role because it is equivalent to an elected legislature.  He said that Town Meeting members can support one proposed budget or another, or create their own, and that what ultimately matters is “where the votes are” at Town Meeting, and not what the public says.   He said that he takes Town Meeting’s legislative role very seriously.  He said that if one wants to know what Town Meeting thinks about a matter, one asks Town Meeting.  He said the proposed discussion would be done only in an advisory capacity, to get the sense of that body, because he said that the Select Board and the Finance Committee will still have to come to Town Meeting to get the formal budget approved.  He said that just as those in the State legislature can do with the Governor’s budget, Town Meeting can start over from scratch.

Mr. Weiss said he appreciated Mr. Maley’s comments and said that he has been trying to express that as well—that it was not so much that he wanted more input from the public, but that he feels it is Town Meeting’s job as the legislative body to weigh in on the budget.  He said that he appreciates his colleagues’ comments about the public, but that he wants to hear from Town Meeting.  He said the issue could come back Monday night when Mr. Kusner returns, and said it had been addressed on this night in order to try for a February 11th Special Town Meeting date. 

Ms. Greeney asked if a Select Board majority would be required to reconsider this issue.  Mr. Weiss said that the Select Board does not use the same formal reconsideration process that Town Meeting uses.  Ms. Awad agreed and said that a topic can be reintroduced to the Select Board as if it were a new topic. Mr. Weiss said that reconsideration may or may not happen with this issue.

The vote on the motion to sign the proposed four-question warrant A for a Special Town Meeting on February 11th was 2 in favor, 2 opposed and one absent, and the motion failed.  Mr. Weiss and Ms. Brewer voted in favor, and Ms. Awad and Ms. Greeney voted to oppose. 

The meeting adjourned just before 7:00 p.m..  The next Select Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 28th, at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

-- Stephanie O’Keeffe