Public Speaks In Support Of Wage Theft Bylaws At Council’s First Reading Of The New Legislation

Report On The Meeting Of The Amherst Town Council (10/19/20)

The meeting was held as a Zoom webinar and was simulcast on Amherst Media Channel 17. The recording of the meeting can be viewed here. 

Participating 
All Councilors except Cathy Schoen (District 1). Staff: Town Manager Paul Bockelman, Council Clerk Athena O’Keeffe, Town Planner Christine Brestrup, Building Inspector Rob Morra. 

Highlights

• Public comment on the proposed new wage theft bylaw, followed by discussion by the Council
• Second forum on the current Master Plan
• COVID-19 Update: a decline in active and new cases in Amherst; Town issues guidelines for Halloween
• Town Manager reported on early voting and efforts of the Public Safety Working Group Interview Committee to organize interviews for prospective members

Proposed Wage Theft Bylaw
The regular Council meeting opened with several public comments on the proposed Wage Theft Bylaw, which was scheduled for a first reading later on the agenda. A summary of these comments follows.

Reverend Rachel Hayes of the Unitarian Universalist Church said she feels that the bylaw is needed to build into law protection of workers in our community and to reward employers who play fair. 

Margaret Sawyer of the Pioneer Valley Workers’ Center (PVWC) said she sees the bylaw as a sign of Amherst’s commitment to workers and that the proposed bylaw has been critical in other towns as a preventative measure and a way to encourage employers to “play fair.” She said that PVWC receives complaints from workers in Amherst about unfair wage practices. Then she translated for Jonathan Alvarez, who said that his experience as a worker in Amherst has “not been good” and that “much goes on behind the scenes in businesses here.” He and fellow workers have experienced wage theft, without having any discernible recourse. Although he said he would not be allowed the time to go into details during the time allotted for public comments, he has been encouraged to detail his experiences in a letter to the Council.

Max Page, Vice President of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association, stated that it is a basic right of every worker to be paid fairly and on time. About $700 million is stolen every year from workers in Massachusetts, he said, and that Amherst should join other towns to support workers. He said that bylaws are preventative, they raise the bar, and they create a level playing field for those employers who play by the rules.

Jasmine Kerrissey, Professor of Sociology at UMass who has directed a project on how COVID-19 is impacting essential workers in Amherst, said that she and her colleagues circulated four surveys to essential workers and found that workers of color and low-wage workers here have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic. About one in three worried about being disciplined or fired if they raise concerns about safety and that it is logical to believe that they would be just as reluctant to raise concerns about wage theft

Frank Gomez of Worcester represented a group of 12 workers employed by a subcontractor at North Square in Amherst who had not been paid for work they had done, and were fired when they asked for their money. He said he helped them file a complaint with the State Attorney General and after a 10-month investigation, they were paid a fraction of what they were owed. He noted that the proposed bylaw would have provided these workers protection and recourse and that  the North Square project has been given tax incentives from the Town, as well as the State. 

Dan Wallack, a retired carpenter, said he feels strongly that workers should receive fair pay for their work. As a property tax payer in Amherst, he believes that workers on municipal projects should be paid justly.

Council Discussion of the Proposed Wage Theft Bylaw
Lisa Clausen, a member of the Carpenters’ Union, presented the bylaw with sponsors Mandi Jo Hanneke (At large) and Pat DeAngelis (District 2). (Cathy Schoen, District 1, who was not present at this meeting is a co-sponsor). She pointed out that wage theft goes hand-in-hand with insurance fraud, i.e. nonpayment of payroll taxes and worker’s compensation. 

The proposed bylaw has two parts: * Wage Theft geared to the restaurant and hospitality industries and * Wage Theft geared to the construction industry (the Responsible Employer Bylaw). The State Attorney General has supported municipalities in addressing wage theft locally.

In addition to fines, the proposed bylaws can be enforced when a license renewal comes due or when contractors are vetted, i.e. for publicly financed projects or for projects that would receive tax incentives. The Human Rights Director would educate employers and employees. 

DeAngelis noted that Town Counsel (K-P Law), which has expressed some reservations about the wage theft bylaw proposal, is being overly conservative because it wants to be sure that the Town cannot be sued because of a wage theft incident. She emphasized that there have been no legal challenges to date in towns that have wage-theft bylaws.

Andy Steinberg (At large and Chair of the Council’s Finance Committee), said he wonders whether there has been an estimate of how much time it would take for the Town to enforce wage theft laws. Larger municipalities have compliance staff, he said, but Amherst does not. He also questioned the advisability of including diversity standards in the wage theft bylaw. Evan Ross (District 4) asked for information about how a wage theft bylaw might affect Town staff. Town Manager Paul Bockelman said he will send information, before the November 9 Council vote on the proposed bylaw, about discussions that have already taken place addressing this question.

Clausen said that minimal additional staff time should be required because violations can be dealt with when a license comes up for renewal. A wage bond can be required to cover unpaid wages, or there can be a wage theft component to the procurement process for contractors, and that general contractors would know they cannot hire subcontractors with recent wage theft violations. Hanneke noted that there are no criminal penalties for wage theft, only civil fines.

After being discussed twice by the Council’s Town Services and Outreach Committee (TSO), the Wage Theft Bylaw was unanimously recommended for approval by the full Council.  The Government Organization and Legislation Committee also supported it (4-0-1).

Second Forum on the Master Plan
As was the case at the October 5 Council meeting, this meeting began with a half-hour public forum on the Master Plan. Town Planner Chris Brestrup again gave a brief history of the creation of the current Master Plan, approved by the Planning Board in 2010. She stated that the Council asked the Planning Board to update the plan last winter. The Planning Board found that it is still a valuable document but more work needs to be done to implement it. According to Brestrup, some areas, such as land use and demographics, need more work, but it would be best to see the results of the 2020 census before revising them, especially the demographics. 

Since a Master Plan Implementation Committee was never established, Brestrup and Planning Board Vice Chair Doug Marshall will examine the supplementary plans that have been passed since 2010 so as to assess which goals have been met and which have not. The supplementary plans are listed in an updated memo from Bockelman and Brestrup. 

The likely path forward is to begin working on a new Master Plan in five or six years with the aim of having a new Master Plan by 2030. No member of the public commented at this forum.

In reference to a proposal to adopt the current Master Plan, Councilor Alisa Brewer (At large) pointed out that the development of the current Master Plan involved a Comprehensive Planning Committee of more than 28 members who met regularly for years, and also involved hundreds of community members. She said that it is naïve to think the Planning Board, Planning Department, and a consultant can just come up with a new plan. Councilor Darcy DuMont (District 5) said she hopes more recent plans dealing with housing, transportation, and climate can be integrated into the current Master Plan. The vote on whether to adopt the current Master Plan will be taken on November 9.

Zoning Bylaw 14 to Be Extended and Expanded
Zoning Bylaw 14, which was passed by the Council last June,  gave temporary permission for certain businesses to open outdoors, with the consent of Town staff, without going through traditional approval processes, and is due to expire December 16. The Town would like to extend it into 2021, as the coronavirus is unlikely to be controlled in the near future.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra said that there are 17 restaurants with permits under the bylaw. Some have expanded outside on private property and might want to keep using the outdoor space. A salon in North Amherst and a new smoothie shop downtown have recently obtained permits. Stackers Pub is applying to permanently extend its outdoor patio and has appeared before the Design Review Board. There have not been any serious complaints about any of the businesses that have used the bylaw. Outdoor heaters will allow many of them to continue operating outside in the colder weather.

Because they do not fit the requirements of the bylaw, which specified restaurants, personal services, and retail stores, proposals for outdoor operation from the Jones Library, Survival Center, Public Schools, and a private school to erect temporary structures required site plan reviews by the Planning Board. Morra and members of the Town Planning department are thinking about other businesses that could benefit from a temporary relaxation of requirements. They suggested expanding the bylaw to include Office and Professional Research Park zones and to include temporary tents, farm stands, and medical offices (e.g. for erecting a tent to provide flu shots). Morra’s proposal is outlined here.

Brewer asked for and received assurance that the expanded bylaw will not include marijuana use of any kind.

Brestrup pointed out that administrative approval under Article 14 saves time for both Planning Department staff and the applicant. A joint public hearing of the Community Resources Committee and the Planning Board about the proposed extension and expansion of the bylaw will be held November 4 at 8 p.m. The proposal will be presented to the Town Council on November 9 and will come up for a vote on November 16.

COVID-19 Status
Bockelman and temporary Health Director Jennifer Brown reported that COVID-19 cases in Amherst have declined since early October. On September 21 there were 8 active cases in Town. On October 5, there were 75, and on October 18, there were 23 active cases. UMass has added four nurses to help with contact tracing.

With the decline in cases, the Amherst Public Schools reopened for students in pre-K to first grade and some special populations on October 15. (Note: Metrics released the following day caused another two-week closing of the schools beginning October 26.)

The Town issued guidelines for trick-or-treaters and for treaters. Basically, a lit porch light means a household is participating. If the light is off, the house is not. The detailed guidelines are listed elsewhere in the Indy. 

Brown indicated that the next 6 weeks to 3 months will be especially difficult because of holiday gatherings and pandemic fatigue and said that we need heightened awareness to stay safe.

Hanneke asked if there are any metrics estimating when public buildings and services will open to the public, especially now that restaurants, fitness centers, post offices and the Registry of Motor Vehicles are open. Community spread does not seem to be traced to those activities, but rather to mask-less gatherings.

Bockelman replied that his primary aim is to provide services, and that this can be best done by protecting the health of the staff, most of whom are working on-site. The Senior Center will be the last place to open, he said, due to vulnerability of the senior population. He hasn’t heard much public demand for Town Hall to be open to the public, so the current system seems to be working. He is not sure what the right metric would be for reopening Town buildings.

Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5) brought up two recent downtown gatherings, one an anti-mask demonstration and the other a pro-Trump rally, that involved mask-less people and lots of shouting. Bockelman replied that the Town does not issue tickets for not wearing a mask, although it does offer masks to people without them. 

Town Manager Report
The full town manager’s report for October 19 can be viewed here. Bockelman noted that early voting started on October 17 and that 238 people had voted at the Bang’s Center that day and the next. There was a consistent line and no problems.

The interview team for appointing people to the Community Safety Working Group had their first meeting to formulate questions for the interviews.

Other Comments
Darcy DuMont (District 5) stated that she appreciates the CRC’s recent debriefing about their interview process for Planning Board vacancies, but thinks that, since this is policy, it should be discussed with the entire Council. Brewer agreed. DuMont also said she hopes the Council will discuss Councilor compensation, even though the charter specifies that this must be done within the first 18 months of a term. Nonetheless, she said she has heard from a number of residents who say that they cannot afford to serve as Councilors but might consider it if the compensation is increased.

Hanneke said that Councilors should make note of any changes they would like to see in the Charter when it comes under review in 2024.

The Councilors then adjourned to Executive Session.