Letter: The Climate Emergency and the Town Manager

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on November 26, 2023.

Here is why the Town Council should keep detailed climate action items in the Town Manager goals:

1. We have a climate emergency and urgent climate goals to fulfill. These goals were adopted by the Town Council in 2019.

The 2023 Greenhouse Gas iInventory suggests the town is behind on fulfilling both municipal and town- wide goals (and that report is slated to include specific action items).

2. The Energy and Climate Action Committee (ECAC) recommended specific 2024 goals for the Town Manager.
   1. Virtually all were originally recommended by ECAC as top emissions reducing actions in the town’s Climate Action and Resiliance Plan (CAARP).
      
   2. Amherst Climate Justice Alliance (ACJA), composed of 10 community organizations, endorsed the ECAC recommendations.
      
   3. The specific goals represent the Town Manager’s prioritization of CAARP goals – The Town Manager suggested virtually all of them for Calendar year 2023 as tasks he had already prioritized and was in the process of implementing. 

Here is why the Town Council should retain the goal supporting exploration of the waste hauler/pay as you throw/universal curbside compost pick up bylaw initiative:

1. This specific goal is included in the CAARP and is a holdover goal from calendar year 2023.
2. The Board of Health has asked three times for this goal to move forward.
3. It is an example of an initiative that is favored by a large swath of the town, would reduce waste by at least 40%, and potentially bring down hauler costs for residents, but that the Town Manager feels it is an administrative burden.
4. The Town Manager has stated many times that he would only work on this if the council made it a goal.
5. We have received responses from three haulers to a Request for Information and analysis of those responses is in progress.

Here is what removing specific goals would mean:

1. Removing any goal from the list suggests the council thinks that the goal is not important enough to be included and can be foregone. It suggests that it is no longer a top priority for the town to meet its climate action and other policy goals. It also means the Town Manager can, as he suggested, forgo climate related grant opportunities because we don’t have the staff to identify, seek or manage them. 
   
2. Retaining or adding specific goals suggests that the council wants the manager to find the capacity to complete or to continue implementing them, in order to meet our climate action goals and to take advantage of the many grant opportunities.

Here is why the Town Council should retain its power to set specific goals for the Town Manager:

1. Setting goals and action items for and evaluating the Town Manager performance are key powers of the Town Council.
   
2. Councilors are elected to give direction to the unelected Town Manager.

 Here is why the Town Council should stop going around in circles:

1. The Council had this discussion last year when one councilor within the Government Organization and Legislation Committee (GOL) attempted to amend the policy goals to remove all of the specifics in all policy areas. The Council then directed GOL to retain specific goals and GOL restored the goals format accordingly.
   
2. The Town Manager has repeated many times that he prefers a checklist of action items to general goals.

Here is how the Manager goals can be consistent with the Finance Guidance:

1. As with all guidance and goals prior to FY24, leave out the parts of finance guidance that prohibit new initiatives and that allow the Manager to “forgo” certain initiatives in favor of others. Develop prioritization criteria to be used by the council for the referral of new initiatives and for spending in general. 
   
2. State the council’s commitment to fulfilling our climate action (and other policy) goals/action items and priority put on them in both documents.

ACJA FY25 budget and finance guidance recommendations

Darcy DuMont

Darcy DuMont is a former town councilor and sponsor of the legislation creating the Amherst Energy and Climate Action Committee. She is a founding member of Zero Waste Amherst, Local Energy Advocates of Western MA, and the Amherst Climate Justice Alliance and a non-voting member of Valley Green Energy Working Group. She can be contacted at dumint140@gmail.com.