Councilors Divided On Response To Community Safety Committee. Seek ARPA Funds To Support Jones Renovation

Report On The Meeting Of The Amherst Town Council, October 3, 2022

The council meeting was held in person and over Zoom and was recorded. The recording can be viewed here. 

Present
In the Town Room at Town Hall: Lynn Griesemer (President, District 2), Andy Steinberg and Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large), Jennifer Taub (District 3), Pam Rooney (District 4), and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5)

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager) and Athena O’Keeffe (Clerk of the Council)

Participating remotely: Michele Miller and Cathy Schoen (District 1), Pat DeAngelis (District 2), Dorothy Pam (District 3), Anika Lopes (District 4), Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5), and Ellisha Walker (at large)

Although the public was permitted to attend in person, no one did. There were 18 people present on Zoom.

Highlights

• Councilors Disagree on Response To Community Safety and Social Justice Committee
• Council Approves Letter To Lawmakers Requesting Increased Funds For Library Renovations
• Letter Proposed To UMass Chancellor Search Committee
• New Requirements Adopted For Building Numbering
• Announcements

Councilors Disagree on Response To Community Safety and Social Justice Committee
The most controversial discussion concerned a drafted response by Griesemer to the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) regarding the July 5 incident (see also here) between nine teen agers and two police officers in which the youths, who had been waiting for assistance for a flat tire, were detained and told that they had no rights. 

Several councilors criticized the incomplete response to concerns raised by the CSSJC, especially the continued failure on the part of the police department to release a completed investigation of the incident. Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large) disagreed, saying that the report by Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Pamela Young was complete, adding that the town does not need another report, and that there could be legal barriers to releasing a full police report.

Miller said she would have liked an analysis of how the town’s response to the incident impacts on its  DEI goals and asked what the limitations are to releasing a full police report. Walker noted that the CSSJC wants to work with Young on formulating a more complete report. Young had only been working in Amherst for two weeks when she penned her original report. 

DeAngelis raised several questions not addressed in Griesemer’s draft letter. She wanted to know if the town has reached out to the families involved and if the police officers who responded to the incident are still on duty. Bockelman replied that outreach to the families was done and that he can’t comment on “employee issues”.

Rooney decried the slow response of the council to the CSSJC letter which was sent in July, and Pam said that the councilors represent the people of the town and should not get hung up over legal technicalities. Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5) said that in order to offer a complete response, the council needs to know more about the context of the incident than is known based on the 54-second video that was publicized on social media by the families. Steinberg cautioned about the need to respect (town) employees who are also part of the Amherst community.

Griesemer responded that it is the responsibility of town staff to deal with. many of the concerns she has heard from councilors.  She was unsure of how to move forward and expressed frustration about how much time and effort she has put into the response to CSJJC.

Miller suggested that the council needs to discuss how to proceed before drafting a response. DeAngelis suggested setting aside time outside of a council meeting, possibly at a retreat, to discuss the issue. Hanneke wanted to place the conversation on the council’s agenda for November 7, but Miller said that too much time has already passed for a response. In the end, Griesemer said she will  communicate with the chairs of the CSSJC to see how they would like the council to proceed, e.g. a time-limited place on the October 17 agenda or possibly a retreat. Hanneke said the October 17 agenda is already too full and that if the CSSJC is put on the agenda, it should be after all items requiring a vote. A vote to continue the discussion on October 17 passed 10-2-1 (Hanneke and Steinberg voted no, Schoen abstained because she will not be at the meeting).

Council Joins 11 Massachusetts Towns Requesting Increased Funds For Library Expansions And Renovations
Griesemer also drafted a letter to state legislators requesting that an addional $87.7 million in ARPA funds be earmarked for library construction, as well as other available state funds, to bridge the gap between the budgeted cost of library projects and the estimated increase in costs caused by inflation and supply chain issues. The letter was drafted in conjunction with similar requests from 11 other municipalities facing similar issues with increased costs for library additions.

DeAngelis and Jennifer Taub (District 3) said they had heard from constituents who asked them to vote against sending this letter in part because they fear it would negatively impact obtaining increased funding for the new elementary school building. Griesemer informed them that there may be a similar effort to request increased funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for school construction, and said that most funding for school projects comes from sales tax revenue, usually not ARPA funding. Pam and Schoen felt that available ARPA funds should be directed toward school projects before going to libraries. 

Nevertheless, the council voted 10-1-2 to send the letter to state legislators. Walker voted no and Rooney and Schoen abstained.

Letter From Council To UMass Chancellor Search Committee Proposed
On September 16, Griesemer and Council Vice President Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5) attended a listening session in which UMass sought input for the committee charged with hiring a new chancellor to replace Kumble Subbaswamy who is retiring next year. After the session, Griesemer and Devlin Gauthier drafted a letter to UMass highlighting stresses that the university places on the town and the need for the town and university to work together.

Hanneke criticized the draft, wondering whether it is meant to be from  Griesemer and Devlin Gauthier as individuals or from them on behalf of  the whole council. She  objected to what she sees as a negative tone in referring to students (the letter uses the same words that Subbaswamy used recently at the community breakfast).  Rooney wanted more emphasis on the need for the university to increase its payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) contributions to the town. 

Miller questioned the process of drafting a letter from the whole council without incorporating the different viewpoints of individual councilors. Griesemer replied that the president can draft a letter that encompasses the views of the majority of councilors, but that individual councilors are free to submit their own letters to the university’s search committee. She will incorporate suggested revisions and bring the new draft back for discussion at the October 17 meeting.

New Requirements Adopted For Building Numbering 
The Governance, Organization, and Legislation (GOL) committee of the council, in consultation with public safety, proposed a revision of the required street numbering of houses and businesses (General Bylaw 3.39) to make it easier for the police and fire departments to quickly identify a particular building. The committee noted that many houses and businesses do not have numbers posted and some homes share a driveway, which makes it difficult to determine which house has called for aid. Also, businesses are sometimes identified by names rather than numbers. The proposed bylaw standardizes numbering by requiring all buildings to have numerical addresses with numbers at least 2.5 inches tall on the front of the building so the address can easily be seen from the public way. Buildings that are not visible from the street may need an additional posting near the street.

The building commissioner, fire department, or inspection services would be responsible for enforcement, with the first notice being a warning and subsequent notices entailing a $25 fine for each violation.

Councilor Andy Steinberg (at large) objected to the lack of community input in drafting the measure. He felt some residents of historic homes would object to having large numbers posted on their facades. Town Manager Paul Bockelman pointed out that residents can order an address post for $7 on the police department website, but Pam Rooney (District 4) said that three of these posts have disappeared from her front lawn and that numbers on the house are more permanent.

Ellisha Walker (at large) and Anika Lopes (District 4) expressed concern about the cost incurred by residents to comply with the new bylaw, but several councilors pointed out that inexpensive stick-on numbers are available at hardware stores.

Announcements
Anika Lopes opened the council meeting with a statement acknowledging Native American Heritage month, saying, “Our beloved town is named after one of the first persons to participate in biological warfare. We need to make sure we are aware of the difference between appreciation and appropriation when we deal with Native American communities and make sure that we’re reaching out to those who are working with their communities towards building collaborative relationships that are really important to all of us understanding each other.”

The Community Resources Committee is holding a public dialog on revisions to the Rental Registration Bylaw at 5:30 on Monday, October 17 prior to the regular council meeting.

The Finance Committee will hold an in-depth discussion on the capital finance model at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18.

District 2 will hold a district meeting on Wednesday, October 12 at 6:30 over Zoom.

The District 4 meeting will take place in person at the Amherst History Museum from 1 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, October 20.

The proposed bylaw requiring each building to be uniquely labeled passed 9-4 (Steinberg, Cathy Schoen (District 1), Dorothy Pam (District 3), and Pat DeAngelis (District 2) voted no). The timeline for implementing the bylaw and outreach to the town’s residents was left up to the town staff.

At midnight, Steinberg proposed adjourning the meeting and all councilors agreed. The council will next meet on October 17, with the public hearing session on the rental registration bylaw beginning at 5:30 and the regular council meeting at 6:30.