Budget group's motive questioned

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on January 11, 2008

The Select Board won't decide until next month on whether to pursue a Proposition 2 1/2 override to support next year's operating budget, but an ad hoc committee already might be investigating how to get residents to support such a vote.

That's the contention of Select Board member Hwei-Ling Greeney, who Monday said the Budget Coordinating Group appears to be overstepping its authority by investigating how to get residents to vote in favor of such an override.

The Budget Coordinating Group is supposed to serve as a clearinghouse of budget information. But Greeney said after studying five months of its minutes, there appeared to be an effort by the committee of selling and marketing the idea of an override to voters.

"All these threads of thought run through these five months of minutes," Greeney said.

Select Board Chairman Gerry Weiss, who serves on the ad hoc committee with Select Board member Rob Kusner, said the minutes do not accurately reflect the tone of the discussions. Weiss said any discussion on the process of engaging voters has been focused on what services they want and what expenses they are willing to continue to pay.

"I've been at the meetings, and I'm not hearing a preponderance of override talk," Weiss said.

"It's not like we're sitting around and thinking, ‘How can we get an override?'" he added.

Besides the Select Board, the Budget Coordinating Group is made up of School Committee, library trustees and Finance Committee members, as well as the town manager, school superintendent, school business manager, Regional School Committee chairman, finance director and library director. According to its charge, the group develops common understanding of budget priorities and disseminates recommendations and conclusions to the public.

Greeney, though, said the minutes show that the committee has been taking a more active role, looking to find out what threshold the public could tolerate for an override. This comes on the heels of last year's rejection by Amherst voters of a $2.5 million override, and the $1.9 million structural deficit being faced in this year's budget preparation.

What is particularly troubling, Greeney said, is that the group is using town staff, at up to $750 for each session, as well as space in Town Hall, to compel voters and mount a successful override campaign.

"There's a component here I'm uncomfortable with," Greeney said.

Board member Anne Awad said she was also troubled by the dominance of override discussion and preparation, and she said the budget group should not be developing this sort of plan.

"I do have concerns," Awad said. "I do need to feel more engaged in the work of the group."

Brian Morton, the group's co-chairman, said the group is looking for feedback from the public, not trying to offer its opinion to the public. Morton is also the chairman of the Finance Committee.

Kusner said he is worried if the perception is that the group is trying to sell an override. Greeney agreed that this could be problematic.

"It's a perception, but a perception that has some basis in reality," said Greeney. She cited the group's talk about developing a "bulletproof" plan, convincing "swing voters," and the $80,000 to $100,000 cost estimates for hiring consultants to do a telephone survey.

Weiss said these are just ideas that were talked about at meetings. "You're cherry picking there. It's not very helpful," Weiss said.

Kusner noted that many of these ideas had been discussed and discarded.