Keeping Amherst Affordable: So much for 'open' and 'accountable'

By STANLEY F. GAWLE

Published on August 22, 2008

In the spring of 2007, the Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change listed 32 school and town positions with similar job titles that were costing Amherst taxpayer's more than $2.2 million in salaries and benefits.

Our group questioned whether any of these positions could be combined to use our tax dollars more efficiently.

We again raised the same question at a Select Board budget hearing in the fall.

In early January 2008, the town manager appointed a three-member Blue Ribbon Task Force.

According to the Select Board minutes of Jan. 7, 2008, it was established "to look at the way the town and schools operated and issue recommendations on how to make operations more efficient."

Members appointed were Dr. Iqbal Agha, from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts; Bruce McInnis, former chief financial officer of Continental Airlines; and Peter Shea, treasurer of Amherst College.

I recently checked with the town clerk's office and was told that the Blue Ribbon Task Force had no public meetings posted.

The town's Web site had no listing of the task force or any minutes.

At a Community Voices/Budget Choices Facilitation meeting held on Aug. 7, the town manager gave a status report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force.

He stated that he had met with them three or four times and, while there was no hard completion timeline, their report might be finished by the end of this year.

When I inquired about copies of the minutes of those meetings, he replied that there were none and that the task force was an ad hoc committee not subject to the state's Open Meeting Law since it was administrative in nature.

In response to criticism last year about Planning Board appointments becoming "politicized by board member selection," the town manager stated in a letter, "I intend to project my values of transparency, openness and accountability through appointments."

Contrary to those value assertions, his creation of this task force and the lack of public process raises several important issues:

1. The taxpayer is essentially shut out of the private review process of over $2 million worth of staff positions in the schools and town government.

2. The public is being deprived of the opportunity to scrutinize the work of the task force and to be informed about the deliberations as they unfold.

3. Many questions come to mind such as what data was requested by the task force and how will it be evaluated? Was the data provided skewed in any way as to protect certain positions? What criteria will the task force use in its review of the positions?

4. Why was the selection process exclusionary and closed? Committees normally are advertised on the Amherst Web site and residents are encouraged to submit citizen activity forms, which are used in the appointment process.

5. Why appoint only three persons? One is connected to Amherst College and one is connected to the University of Massachusetts. Given the pervasive influence of the university and Amherst College in directing town government, wouldn't it have been more representative to appoint a five-member committee?

6. Since the positions in question consist of both town and school employees, why wasn't there a role for the elected School Committee and Select Board in the task force appointment process?

Perhaps they would have insisted on a more transparent and inclusionary recruitment process and publicly invited others to step forward.

Perhaps they might have insisted that the Open Meeting Law be followed.

The town manager has circumvented the spirit of the Open Meeting Law by establishing this task force in the way he did.

It is not too late for him to have the Blue Ribbon Task Force meet in public, open session and to have minutes available for the public.

Amherst taxpayers deserve an open review process of how their dollars are being spent.

Closed meetings show a basic disrespect and disregard for the people paying the bills.

Stanley F. Gawle is a member of the Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change.