New Protocols For Setting Town Manager Goals Would Remove Specific Mandates for Action On Climate, Solid Waste, CRESS, And Racial Equity

Report On The Joint Meeting Of the Government, Organization and Legislation Committee, on November 30, 2022

Present
Michele Miller (GOL Chair) and Cathy Schoen (District 1), Lynn Griesemer (Council President, and Pat DeAngilis  (District 2), Jennifer Taub and Dorothy Pam (District 3), Anika Lopes and Pam Rooney (District 4),  Mandi Jo Hanneke, Andrew Steinberg, and Ellisha Walker (at large)

Back in October, The Town Services and Outreach Committee proposed to move forward with a revision of Amherst’s solid waste bylaw. The proposal would have the town move from the current arrangement in which residents contract individually with a waste hauler (currently USA) to one in which the town would contract with a waste hauler through a competitive bidding process. The contract would include universal curbside pickup of compostable organics and a pay-as-you-throw system offering lower rates for residences that produce less waste. (see here for draft language for the revised bylaw) During the discussion, co-sponsor Councilor Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5) asked Town Manager Paul Bockelman about the possibility of receiving support from Town Hall staff for pulling together a request for bids. Bockelman responded that he did not see how the proposed bylaw would benefit the town, objected to taking on the work necessary to move the proposal forward, and vowed to not commit any town staff time to the effort until the Town Council includes it specifically in his Town Manager goals.  Bahl-Milne responded that the council intended to do so in setting their goals for the Town Manager for the coming year. 

However, the Government Organization and Legislation Committee (GOL) is now considering new protocols for writing Town Manager Goals and setting Town Council priorities that would remove most specific goals and priorities and replace them with general ones, giving the Town Manager considerable leeway in how to interpret and fulfill them. A draft proposal authored by GOL member Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large), would remove specific directives concerning climate action, hauler reform, CRESS, racial equity, affordable housing, and capital projects. Here is the  red-lined version discussed at the November 30 GOL meeting.

Since GOL didn’t have time to fully discuss the proposal or make a recommendation on it, Hanneke said that she will propose it at the Town Council meeting on Monday (12/5) and meanwhile, she will add in specific goals requested by councilors pending a decision on her proposal to eliminate specific policy goals. The Town Council will vote on a final proposal – and potentially specific goals – at its meeting on December 19.

The Council evaluates the Town Manager annually based on his accomplishment of the Town Manager goals that they have put forward.

Discussion
Councilor Andy Steinberg (at large) supported taking out specific policy goals, saying that we shouldn’t be micromanaging the Town Manager and that we need to give him the flexibility to adapt to circumstances as they change, rather than locking  him into specifics that the previous council may have embraced.

Everyone else who spoke expressed some reservations about the loss of specificity in setting Town Manager priorities.

Councilor Jennifer Taub (District 3) wanted to know when and where the council’s specific goals would be documented. She said, “Regarding the waste hauler bylaw, we’ve been told that to allocate staff time for this it must be a specific Town Manager Goal. If we say we just want him to fulfill our climate action goals, then it’s up to [him] to determine what those goals are and which are most important.”

Councilor Lynn Griesemer said, “I’m concerned about some of the detail that gets lost by some of the redlining, which eliminates reference to some of the work that the council has already done and some of the priorities that have already been set.” She said that she doesn’t want to lose work that was set under the previous set of policy goals. 

Councilors Cathy Schoen (District 1), Dorothy Pam (District 3), and Anika Lopes (District 4) were also concerned about losing so much detail under policy goals. Schoen said that “[the new language on the four capital investments] cuts out some important details that we ought to specify.” Lopes said she too is concerned about the loss of specifics, but at the same time she thinks that too many specifics hurts our ability to be flexible and efficient, and to change in the face of new information.

Taub said, “It looks to me like we are saying to the Town Manager that we want you to work on climate action but it’s up to you how to do that. It seems to me we are undermining some established council priorities with that…abrogating our own responsibility and relinquishing control. [We] need to be more specific there. On the other hand, the previous council specified that the new fire station needs to be built at the old DPW [Department of Public Works site] and that tied the Town Manager’s hands unreasonably.” Regarding the waste hauler issue, she pointed out that last year “…the Town Manager said that he has no room to take that up and if we want it taken up next year we must specify it in his goals. So we ought to do that — so he can adequately plan the allocation of staff and resources.”

Schoen agreed, adding, “We need to put some specifics into his goals and we need to prioritize. To not give any specifics in the goals under the policy areas leaves things too wide open.” 

Steinberg said that we need to consider our capacities and limitations and those of the Town Manager. “We can’t keep adding policy goals without considering the time that it takes to address those additions,” he said. “We need a way to prioritize those goals.” He stressed that “ we can’t make our goals so specific that it doesn’t allow for decisions to be made and changed during the year to move things along.”

Councilor Ellisha Walker said, “I thought it was helpful this year to have specific examples within the broad categories and topics.” In fact, she said she’d like to see  hauler reform added to climate action goals “because that’s what we were told had to happen to move this forward.” In addition, she said she would like to see something specific about implementing anti-racism goals within the APD… in order to move that forward,’ adding that the suggestion to add this came from the Town Manager himself.

Hanneke made a statement  that she too wants the anti-racist lens to be a goal but that it should not be related to any department but rather “implemented” across the town. She also said that waste hauler reform cannot move forward until the council adopts a new bylaw, implying that it’s premature to make it a priority for the Town Manager.

GOL Chair Michelle Miller noted that the council has already asked the Town Manager to work specifically with the APD on anti-racism.

Taub observed that “…many times the Town Manager has said that something is not on his to-do list, not among his specific goals, and he has requested that if we want him to move forward we need to make it a specific request. The waste hauler bylaw is one example.”

Schoen recommended deleting the section on the council’s relationship with the colleges as it would encroach on the Town Manager, who is responsible for the town’s relationships with the colleges and UMass. (The council’s role in having an effect on those relationships or institutions is unclear.)

Public Comment
At the beginning of the meeting, five residents, representing several civic and environmental organizations, offered public comment with specific requests that hauler reform be included as a priority goal for the Town Manager. Excerpts from their testimony follow.

John Root, former chair of the town’s Recycling and Refuse Management Committee, said, “Other municipalities implementing pay-as-you-throw have experienced immediate and dramatic declines in waste. We can expect that 30% to 40% fewer tons of garbage will be hauled to landfills or incinerators from Amherst neighborhoods soon after its adoption. As I’m sure you are all aware, both unnecessary waste and consumption of non-essential food and non-food items have huge impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. Incentivizing waste reduction with a pay-as-you-throw fee structure would most likely achieve the most significant reduction of Amherst’s carbon footprint in our town’s history. We are excited that the bylaw proposal is moving along in the Town Services and Outreach Committee and that the town has been awarded a grant by the Department of Environmental Protection to get the ball rolling by researching and drafting an RFP or RFI. 

“Why should the implementation of this proposal be included in the Town Manager’s goals?
“First, it is specifically requested in the town’s Climate Action Adaptation and Resilience Plan.

“Second, it is supported by the ECAC and was specifically requested in ECAC’s most recent annual
report.“

Third, our Board of Health has specifically requested that the town show how it can move forward on implementation of this program.

“Fourth, it has widespread support from a variety of organizations in town. The League of Women Voters, the Hitchcock Center, the Amherst Common Share Food Coop, the nine member organizations of the Amherst Climate Justice Alliance, and statewide organizations like the Sierra Club and Community Action Works have all endorsed the waste management policies that are being proposed by Zero Waste Amherst.”

Sue Morello, a former member of the Amherst Recycling and Waste Management Committee and a member of Zero Waste Amherst, said, “The proposal currently before the Town Council is predicted to reduce our waste dramatically — by 40% — both by using a pay-as-you-throw incentive system and by diverting our food scraps plus other compostable items to compost.”

Elayne Berger, a member of the Steering Committee of the League of Women Voters stated,“Many homeowners have seen a jump in the cost of their trash and recycling pick up through USA, the only hauler available to Amherst citizens. Composting can be done for an additional $125 pass that can be purchased from our Transfer Center, but the burden is on the resident to bring the compost on the days it is open. Also, yard waste can be brought there, but not many people are able to haul mass quantities of leaves or branches in their automobiles. This is where curbside composting can’t be beat! Either small bins for those who only want to reduce their waste and create a beneficial product for the earth, or larger bins for those who enjoy cleaning their yards, as well as adding their food wastes are available in towns who use this system.”

Felicia Mendick, representing Mothers Out Front and the Amherst Climate Justice Alliance (a group of a dozen local environmental advocacy groups), said:
“The changeover to a town-contracted system is far lower in cost and simpler than providing trash hauling in-house, which has been considered as an option. A national hauler would still do the hauling but could be compelled, via a contract, to reduce waste both through a pay-as-you-throw system and through incorporating universal curbside compost pick up. The waste reduction by doing so, is projected to be at least 40%. That’s significant.

“In addition to reducing waste, we’d also reduce its accompanying emissions — less waste means less emissions — and we’d reduce embedded consumption emissions because when people ‘pay as they throw’ they tend to consume less. The fact that we live in a college town makes the change even more important, because we generate huge amounts of take-out waste, most of which is, or could be, compostable. 

“Towns that change to a town contract with a hauler require minimal staff responsibility. Staff in the accounting department would have to send out waste hauling bills to residents, perhaps quarterly with our water bills. There would also need to be someone, presumably a DPW staffer, who would have “contract compliance” added to his or her duties. Once the start up period passes, we will wonder why we didn’t do this long ago.”

Lydia Vernon-Jones and Julian Hynes, representing the Amherst Climate Justice Alliance,  submitted a comprehensive comment addressing several climate issues that they feel should be prioritized by the Town Manager.  Their comment is reprinted in its entirety elsewhere in this issue.