Slow Start for Charter Review

By Darcy Dumont and Anita Sarro

The Amherst Home Rule Charter requires a review of the Charter every 10 years, in years ending with a four. The town’s first Charter Review comes six years after the start of the Council/Manager form of government in Amherst. A nine-member Charter Review Committee (CRC) was appointed in the Spring of this year but did not get up and running until late September. In its third meeting, the committee elected residents Julian Hynes as permanent Chair (Hynes had served since the committees inception as Interim Chair) and Erica Mijlin as Vice Chair. The Charter is somewhat vague about when a 10-year review is due, saying only that the report should be filed “within 1 year” unless an extension is granted by the Council.

November 14 Meeting
The Charter Review Committee held its fourth meeting on November 14, with only five of the nine members attending.  Attending were Hynes, Mijlin, Bernie Kubiak, Meg Gage, Raphael Rogers, and staff liaison Athena O’Keeffe. Absent were Dan Muscat, Andy Churchill, Ken LeBlond, and Marcus Smith. The time of the meeting was changed from the date previously agreed upon by the committee to accommodate O’Keeffe’s schedule. This  prevented three members who were unavailable at that time from attending.  The next meeting will be held on December 12.

Funds for a Consultant
Last week, Town Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke noted at both the Town Council and Finance Committee meetings that a consultant for the review committee was not budgeted for FY 25, even though that had been suggested in the FY 25 finance guidelines. Hanneke  mentioned that the original Charter Commission had used the UMass Collins Center for Public Management as consultant and that it had cost “somewhere in the $20,000’s.” The Town Manager is in charge of submitting financial orders to the Town Council for the use of town funds and had said at a previous Town Council meeting that he would need the review committee to request the funds.

Committee members appeared to agree on the need for a funding request but agreed to delay submitting a request until they determine with some specificity, the amount they need and precisely how the requested funds will be used. The group voted 4-1-0 (with Hynes voting no) to gather their reasons for needing funding before their next meeting and to send a request to the Town Manager as soon as possible after that. 

Community Outreach and Community Input
After some discussion, the members concluded that before soliciting opinions about the Charter from the community, there should be an effort to educate the community on the purpose of the Charter Review Committee including some summary information about what the Charter contains and the charge to the committee. Gage agreed to draft a letter to local media, including the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Amherst Bulletin, the Amherst Indy, and the Amherst Current covering these points. She and others will begin to compile a list of the many groups in town, affiliated by neighborhood or specific interests, that could form a basis for developing a strategy for community outreach and seeking community input. 

Prior to the creation of the Charter Review Committee, the League of Women Voters collected considerable public feedback on the Charter and on the charter review process. That information can be found here and here.

The committee will be discussing the town web page structure at the December 12 meeting.  Town liaison to the committee, Athena O’Keeffe, reminded the committee that they should work through her if they want to seek guidance from other town staff, such as the town communications staff, regarding social media.  Hynes said he will bring a draft Google form to the next meeting for soliciting input from the public.  He said he will also create a draft timeline for discussion of content, including broad topics and outreach, and including space for members to volunteer for tasks.

Hybrid Meeting in December
The Committee considered whether it is advisable to hold meetings in person, on Zoom, or in hybrid format and whether meetings should be held at different locations in an effort to reach as many residents as possible. The discussion considered technical challenges in holding hybrid meetings and whether the purpose would be to have meetings where the committee members deliberate issues or, instead, educate the public on the work of the committee.  They determined that the December 12 meeting, will be hybrid and will be held in the Town Room at Town Hall. The agenda will be to review the charge to the committee and to first look at the Charter and begin discussion of what sections will be addressed. Mijlin said she will collect the ideas for revision from members prior to that meeting and create a form for submitting more revisions and comments. The committee will also discuss the specific uses of funds that may be requested from the town. 

Scope of Review Resolved
In summer of 2023, Council President Lynn Griesemer created a charge for the Charter Review Committee that outlines its tasks and timeline, and that was modified and adopted by the Town Council. From the outset, there were statements made by Griesemer about the committee’s scope of review, stating that some topics were off the table. Current member of the committee and former Chair of the Charter Commission Andy Churchill and Bryan Harvey (Griesemer’s husband and Chair of the 2002 Charter Commission) authored a piece in the Amherst Current, outlining “what can’t be changed” stating that state law excludes from the charter amendment process changes that relate in any way to “the composition, mode of election, or terms of office of the legislative body [or] the mayor or city manager.”