 I am Andrew Steinberg, current member of the Select Board, serving in my second term. I appreciate the honor that you have bestowed on me to allow me to serve in that position. I'm also a candidate for town council running for that large position and ask for your vote in September 4 and again in November. You can find out more about my campaign by looking at www.andyframers.org. First, a little bit about my experience. I came to Amherst in 1980 to become Executive Director of Western Massachusetts Legal Services. In that role as Director of the Civil Legal Aid Program for the area, I was both the Chief Legal Counsel and the Director of a non-profit organization. So I had legal management and financial experience that has been very helpful to me on the Select Board. In addition, I've been a member of town meeting before I was on the Select Board and a member of the Finance Committee and Chair of the Finance Committee for three years. I gained additional experience serving on the Select Board. Three examples, the Select Board hires supervisors, directs, and the town manager. And during that time, I was involved in supervising two town managers and two interim town managers and played a major role in hiring our current town manager. I also assumed major responsibilities for some projects on behalf of the Select Board. For example, I worked with other communities to achieve an agreement to establish the bike share program. I worked with mothers out front to establish a zero-energy bylaw that was recently enacted. And I worked with Amherst first with the town and trying to negotiate a contract with Comcast that provides funding for community television programs such as you're watching right now and then negotiating with Amherst media for the contract to be the provider of those services. And I've represented Amherst in collaborations with other communities such as the agreement with three other towns for a funding mechanism to continue funding for quality high school and middle school. If I'm elected to serve on town council, I will be able to contribute that experience. The committee, the town council is going to have some important tasks ahead. Four in particular, one is continuity. As a member of the Select Board, we work very hard to establish continuity and get an orderly transition, a responsibility that will transfer to the council itself. Second, the council will establish procedures that are going to guide it in the years ahead, not just the first three-year term, but for many years to come, including the establishment of forums required by the charter to provide a mechanism to inform citizens and consider your views. And we want to make sure that there's a diverse participation in those forums that all citizens participate. Third is to continue the sound financial management and general management of the services we provide. And fourth is to oversee the review of the master plan, which is mandated by the new charter. There are at least two major problems that are confronting Amherst ahead. One is to make sure that we have tax revenue to continue the essential community services that the town provides. We need to do that in a way that does not unduly burden homeowners and home renters by limiting any growth in property taxes on homes. So we need to make sure that there's commercial growth in village centers and in downtown that will allow us to generate additional revenues to continue those services and be fair to homeowners. In order to do that, we need to make sure that it is the right development. We also have some major infrastructure needs with two elementary schools, the library, fire station, and the public works facility. There needs to be careful planning and sound management for that. So I ask for your vote and look forward to being able to provide experience to the new council. Thank you again, www.AndyForAmherst.org.