Council Invites Public Comment for Town Manager Evaluation
Photo: Blue Diamond Gallery (creative commons)
Source: amherstma.gov
Amherst Town Council is beginning its annual evaluation of the Town Manager and invites all members of the public to submit written comments by midnight on Thursday, October 31, 2024.
The Town Council conducts this annual evaluation to assess the Town Manager’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and set future goals in line with the Town Council’s Goals for the Town Manager. At the conclusion of this process, the Town Council develops new Town Manager Performance Goals for the coming year. This establishes the criteria for next year’s evaluation of the Town Manager. During the evaluation process, the Town Council gathers feedback from various stakeholders including town employees, board and committee members, and the broader community to gain a well-rounded perspective on the Town Manager’s effectiveness. This comprehensive evaluation process underscores the Town Council’s commitment to effective governance and community engagement.
The Town Manager’s Performance Goals include both policy and management goals covering a multitude of topics important to the community. Also featured again this year is the opportunity for the public to read the Town Manager’s self-evaluation. All relevant documents can be found at www.engageamherst.org/tmeval24
The public should be aware that these submissions will be read by every Town Council member and the Town Manager. However, these are personnel documents, and as such, are exempt from public disclosure. The forms become part of the Town Manager’s personnel file, with the same protections and restricted access as any employee’s personnel file.
Comments may be submitted in the following manner:
- Email towncouncil@amherstma.gov
- Online through Engage Amherst: www.engageamherst.org/tmeval24
- By mail sent to:
Amherst Town Council
Re: Town Manager Evaluation
4 Boltwood Ave
Amherst MA 01002
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Town Council office: 413-259-3001 or towncouncil@amherstma.gov.
As a former New Yorker with some experience in town and village government it should be said that publicizing a review of a town manager is unheard of. Does New Jersey or Ct. do this? If they do it would be the exception and not the rule. And in our current culture; we need less static electricity locally and nationally. The advancement of town goals, efforts, issues and their completion is the charge of the Town Council working with the Town Manager and then reviewing his efforts. We vote for our town council and there are 13 of them which is also unheard of in localities in New York State and other states. Not to mention the lack of a Mayor whether that figure is a “Strong” Mayor or a ceremonial one. Even a ceremonial Mayor would provide some touchstone for the public to communicate on the issues and hopefully, see some action. The real conversation should be about the issues and why so many of them are simply not progressing forward or taking far too long to complete. The Town Manager’s review from 2023 noted that there was “no visible progress” on the Fire, DPW and Senior Centers and here we are in 2024 with no visible progress again. These issues will only be more expensive if delayed. Recently, there was a notice that a planning committee would be formed but when? Williamsburg and Greenfield all appointed substantive planning committees for their Fire stations. Note that these committees help relieve the workload for staff. The Town Manager and his staff work very diligently on our behalf in a town with so many labor intensive issues. They deserve our assistance not another layer of review and scrutiny when the Council should be doing this. Redundancy in board and committee functions is also a conditional factor that slows or stops successful outcomes and deserves streamlining. For example, is there any one entity responsible for resolving very serious traffic safety concerns? I have lodged numerous traffic safety questions with no replies from many town stakeholders. To summarize; these issues are a collective and shared responsibility so citizens should measure how successfully we are advancing and resolving our issues and challenges as opposed to focusing on any one staff person.
I will say it again. Amherst needs a standing building committee to handle all building projects.
A standing building committee is common amongst Mass. cities and towns. Members usually include construction professionals. One or two ad hoc members can be appointed to bring project specific views to the table.
Ad hoc building committes do not relieve a burden on Town staff, they add to the burden. Ad hoc committees lack experience in the complexities of of public constuction and whatever they learn is lost when their project is complete.
At this point whether we have an “Ad Hoc” or a “Standing “Committee…something is better than nothing. Ad Hoc committees should and do contain those with experience directly related to the project. As Amherst has 3 building projects it would be a lot to place all of that on one committee at the same time. Whatever works is best – there is no one way. These projects are decades behind.