Within town and city halls, areas of focus vary greatly

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on April 25, 2008

While staffing levels and operating budgets for departments in the town of Amherst and the city of Northampton have many similarities, Amherst has seemingly placed more emphasis on certain areas, including maintaining its conservation land holdings and centralizing technological improvements.

Town Manager Larry Shaffer said that because Amherst is committed to conservation, including acquiring significant tracts of land through the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program and having a well-maintained trail system, the town has typically budgeted resources for this.

"Buying land also means managing it," Shaffer said.

Just under four employees, with salaries totaling $202,994, are part of the Conservation Department, which includes a full-time land manager, a part-time wetlands administrator and an assistant land manager. The town manages 1,965 acres of land, 80 miles of trails and has assisted in the acquisition of 1,842 acres of farmland, according to statistics published on the town's Web site. Similar figures for Northampton were not available by press time.

Finance Director John Musante said the greater number of paid conservation staff in Amherst is a reflection of community decisions that place importance on natural resources.

By comparison, Northampton has its land-use and conservation staff within its Planning Department.

In next year's proposed budget, Amherst will spend a combined $851,853 in the planning, conservation and inspection departments, where there are a total of 14.36 full-time equivalent employees.

In the Planning Department, this includes $281,420 in salaries for a full-time director of planning, two full-time senior planners and a full-time associate planner.

This is comparable to Northampton, which in fiscal year 2008 spent $285,336 for staff that includes a planning director, senior land-use planner, a clerk, a GIS coordinator and a land use and conservation planner. In addition, Northampton receives grants fully support a principal clerk, Community Development Block Grant administrator and a housing and community development planner within the department.

But former Select Board member Hwei-Ling Greeney argued that Amherst's Planning Department might be overstaffed, noting that Hadley is successfully able to have more commercial development despite no full-time staff.

Musante said the model in Amherst, of having professional, staff leads to better, more controlled development.

The time which projects take to go through permitting is an indication of this, Shaffer said. "I know that Amherst puts a lot of value in the planning process," Shaffer said.

<h4>Information technology</h4>

Kristopher Pacunas, director of Amherst's IT department, notes the town has long been unique in consolidating technology for all town departments.

"The technology needs of the town, library, public safety and public works have been met or exceeded," Pacunas said.

Unlike other communities, Pacunas notes that no technology spending is done outside the department, except at the schools. Besides the day-to-day operations of ensuring smooth operations for the 500 computers and 700 users, the department has embarked on projects such as the downtown wireless system. One project being worked on now is the new town Web site, which will be ADA accessible, allow citizen complaints to be filed electronically and should make town government even more transparent, after the town already won an E-Government Award from Common Cause. Second is MUNIS, a code-, enforcement- and permitting-process tracking system that will improve record keeping for the inspections department by making it more effective and efficient.

Information technology has 4.5 full-time equivalents in Amherst, with a salary of $304,176 paying for a director, assistant director, network administrator, PC technician and part-time software analyst.

Northampton's department, by contrast, has four full-time employees and a salary impact of just $160,395, where there is a director, systems analyst, database analyst and a clerk.

Shaffer said information technology is one of the best ways to enhance how much is being produced by staff, pointing to the introduction of MUNIS. "They become the key behind these productivity efforts," Shaffer said.

Efficiency is important, Shaffer said, because town personnel can't work any harder than they already do. He observes, for example, that having citizen activity forms online already streamlines the process for applying to serve on committees.

Vanessa Oquendo, MIS director in Northampton, said that Amherst has been better staffed to more quickly move forward with projects.

"Amherst has enjoyed, for many years, a more robust network infrastructure to link their buildings than Northampton," Oquendo said. "That has allowed them more flexibility in implementing technology solutions and keeping the rest of their technical infrastructure up to date."

Oquendo said Northampton is currently working to build a better network.

<h4>Economic development</h4>

One area that Northampton has additional staffing is with its full-time economic development director, who, Musante said, is being used to work on business retention, the redevelopment of the former state hospital grounds and potential development at the city's fairgrounds.

Shaffer has proposed adding a similar position to Amherst's budget next year if funding becomes available, though he has said this will only be pursued if there is a tangible project ready to proceed and it can show results.

<h4>Health departments</h4>

Amherst and Northampton also depart on the mission statements for the health departments, Musante said, with Amherst having a component on community health education and prevention that does not exist in Northampton.

The $268,766 Amherst spends for its Public Health Department includes a director, a sanitarian, a housing/building inspector, an outreach worker, a full-time secretary and a part-time nurse.

In Northampton, the $157,741 spent on the Health Department includes a health agent, clerk, a part-time sanitarian and a part-time nurse.

Making comparisons between most departments is a challenge. Amherst, for instance, spends $188,162 for its Senior Center, including paying a director, program director, full-time administrative assistant and part-time program assistant. In Northampton, the $117,527 budget, along with $163,770 in grant funding, supports six full-time employees, four part-time employees and three senior aides.

With recreation, Amherst has two outdoor pools and one indoor pool to administer, and also runs the Cherry Hill Golf Course. The $612,678 budget for Leisure Services includes a director, three full-time program directors, two-part time program coordinators, a part-time program assistant, two part-time management assistants, a crew supervisor and three customer assistants.

In Northampton, $181,482 is spent on Recreation Department, which has 4.1 full-time equivalents paid through taxation and 2.9 full-time equivalents paid for through grants.

Both Amherst and Northampton also employ part-time and seasonal staff at their pools and for other youth-oriented recreation programs.

Rather than comparing Amherst to other communities, Musante said he prefers to "benchmark" Amherst against itself. This means examining staffing levels over the years and determining how well the needs of the public are being met.

"It's almost more important to look at ourselves," Musante said.

In terms of staffing, next year the municipal side of the town budget, which includes firefighters and police officers, will only have 246 full-time equivalent staff positions, a loss of seven positions in the last three years. That is still five more employees than were in the budget six years ago.