Letter: Oversight Committee Necessary to Protect Independent Media in Amherst

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on October 31, 2024 in response to their request for public feedback for the Town Manager’s annual performance review.

I am writing this review as the former Executive Director of Amherst Media from 2007-2024. In that role I had many interactions with Paul Bockelman in his capacity as the sole manager of  the ten-year contract between the Town of Amherst and Amherst Media. (AM)  

I am writing to highlight areas of Bockelman’s benign neglect throughout his administration and  management of the aforementioned contract. It began with the first five years of his tenure during which he refused to appoint a representative to the Amherst Media’s Board of Directors (BOD).  The Town Manager’s appointed seat to the BOD is written within the organization’s bylaws. When Bockelman finally appointed Brianna Sunryd, Director of Communications & Civic Innovation, he had for a short while an active participating representative. Since Sunryd’s  departure from her town government position on September 11, 2023, the seat has remained open.  

In March of 2024, I reached out to Bockelman to suggest Alexis Reed for the seat. As a former  Amherst Media Director of Production and Interns, as well as one of the original members of  the Amherst Heritage Reparations Assembly (AHRA), Reed’s presence on the BOD would be a  boon to the town and the organization. I underscored her intimate knowledge of the technical and philosophical workings of AM, as well as the BOD’s own working relationship with Reed’s AHRA position.

Bockelman responded that he would ”consider it.” To my knowledge, the town  government’s seat on the AM BOD remains open. It appears that to date neither Reed nor anyone else has been appointed. 

It is this neglect to actively participate in the oversight and board direction of AM that allows the ongoing disregard and violation of pertinent by-laws and personnel policies by the AM  BOD. These include, but are not limited to: 

• Non-disclosure of meetings agendas or minutes; 
• non-posting of upcoming board meetings for community participation;  
• failure of notice without an appropriate time frame of changed meeting dates, locations and  times;  
• failure to reach out in an appropriate time frame for nominations to the Board of Directors;
• failure to hold the public annual meeting in the designated time frame as stated in the bylaws; 

I am the recipient of this unethical administration of personnel policies. The specific details are  available here.

Is the absence of the Town Manager’s oversight of the AM BOD what has allowed for this, and the subsequent loss of previously comprehensive services for Amherst Residents to occur?  Who will oversee the actions and inactions of the Amherst Media Board of Directors? 

Additional Comments that are to be included in the Town Council’s annual evaluation of the Town  Manager: 

• Delivery of Services: No attempt to expand diversity of language accessibility with recorded  government meetings as recorded and posted by AM. 
• Cites only the town’s You-Tube Channel for viewership – doesn’t include AM You-Tube  numbers. 
• No Press releases or use of AM’s three broadcasting channels to reach out to the over 5,000  households in Amherst with cable. 
• Finance: has not started the new ten-year contract negotiations with Comcast. 
• No mention of infrastructure updating of internet, funded by Comcast, ARPA and other funding sources. No attempt to seek municipal ownership of the internet. 

In conclusion, I have witnessed Bockelman display his contempt for the important role that AM plays, and has played in the Amherst Community for 46 years.  His refusal to participate in the management and oversight of the organization has led to a  significant loss of accountability and delivery of services to the people of Amherst.  

The Town Council needs to intervene and set up an oversight committee to ensure that the  invaluable services AM has provided the Town of Amherst these past 46 years continue to  thrive. They must ensure that AM remains a stronghold of Free Speech, an inclusive and  equitable venue for diverse voices, a safe and welcoming space for community dialogues  among differing viewpoints, education for a digital world of ever emerging media technologies, youth and multigenerational enrichment, and government transparency.  

When Democracy is under threat, whether locally, regionally or nationally, when mainstream  media is under the ownership and gag rules of billionaire ownership, the urgency of need for  free and Independent Media for and by the people, is without question. 

Jim Lescault

Jim Lescault is the former Executive Director of Amherst Media