Council Receives Update On Voter Veto Petition, Town Moves Forward With Jones Borrowing

Report On The Meeting Of The Amherst Town Council (5/3/21)

Editor’s note:  This is one of three articles posted in the Indy this week about the Town Council meeting of 5/3/21.  The others can be found here and here .

The meeting was conducted on Zoom. A recording of the meeting can be viewed here.

Present 
Councilors Lynn Griesemer (President) and Pat DeAngelis (District 2), Alisa Brewer, Mandi Jo Hanneke , and Andy Steinberg (At-large), Cathy Schoen and Sarah Swartz (District 1),  Dorothy Pam and George Ryan (District 3), Steve Schreiber and Evan Ross (District 4), Shalini Bahl-Milne and Darcy DuMont (District 5)

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager), Athena O’Keeffe (Clerk of the Council), Sean Mangano (Finance Director), and Sonia Aldrich (Comptroller). Mike Morris Superintendent of Schools

Petition Of The Residents To Overturn The Council’s Vote For Borrowing For The Jones Library Renovation/Expansion
Bockelman updated the Council on the latest developments on the Jones Library proposed renovation/expansion. Using Section 8.4, Voter Veto provision of the Town Charter, petitioners submitted 1,088 signatures requesting a revote on the Council’s decision to borrow $35.6 million to pay for the project. 

However, the Town Clerk only certified 842 of the signatures, leaving the petitioners 22 votes short of the required five percent of voters in the last election. 

When the  petitioners took their case to court, the judge refused to issue an emergency injunction to give them more time or to require fewer signatures, although he did leave other avenues of redress open.

The petitioners also asked for a review of the disqualified signatures, but as of the Council meeting, the Town’s Board of Registrars had not yet scheduled a meeting to hear an appeal on the disqualification of signatures. Eighty-nine registered voters in Amherst have filed affidavits with the Town claiming that their signatures on the petition had been inappropriately disqualified. (Twelve voters submitted affidavits requesting that their signatures be removed from the petition, but only two were in time for the Clerk to remove their names.) A hearing with the Board of Registrars has now been scheduled for Friday (5/7). 

Bockelman interpreted the court’s ruling as a judgement that the petition drive had failed and as permission to proceed with the Jones project. He said he submitted the results of the Council vote approving borrowing the money to fund the project to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners by its April 30 deadline, saying that it would be needed if the library is awarded a grant in July,  so that the Town would receive the first disbursement of funds.

Councilor Pam said that, even though she had voted to approve the borrowing, she was concerned about so many of the signatures on the petition being rejected by the Town. She wanted to know what process was used to certify the signatures. 

Bockelman replied that the Town officials are not “handwriting experts,” although the Clerk has “lots of” experience in this area. He said that the Clerk followed the state’s detailed protocol.

Joanna Morse, who has lived at the same address in Amherst for 13 years (and never been questioned or disqualified before) said during public comment that she was dismayed when she learned that her signature had been disqualified. The Clerk’s office has not offered an explanation. 

Maria Kopicki said that all residents, whether they support the library project or not, should be concerned about the disenfranchisement of so many residents and the implications of this for the democratic process. She requested a review of all of the signatures on the petition.

Councilor Schreiber did not comment on the signatures that the Clerk disqualified, but said he is concerned about the rights of the petitioners  who wanted to withdraw their names but made the request too late. He said those residents were also disenfranchised.