 Segment, we are going to hear from candidates for district seats in districts 1, 2, and 3. They are starting here on my left from District 1, Kathy Shane, Nicola Usher, Sarah Swartz, Sharon Povinelli, from District 2, Lynn Griezmer, Patricia DeAngeles, maybe DeAngeles, I'm not sure. Peter Vickery, DeAngeles. Peter Vickery, and Victor is not here. Victor Nunez Ortiz is the fourth candidate from District 2. Where is he just arriving? No. And from District 3, we have Dorothy Pam, George Ryan, John Page, and Stephen Brown. The first question is, the shift to council management form of local government is a big change for Amherst. What is one of your biggest concerns about the role of town council in this change, and what will you do to address that concern? Each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond. We're going to start with District 1, and we're going to start with Sharon, please. We're on the verge of year-round legislative governance in Amherst. The town council provides policy leadership and sets the goals and priorities for the town manager. This change gives us greater leverage as we work with UMass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College toward equitable solutions for our communities. If I have a concern as we approach this transition, it's that this new start will be perceived as too fast for some and too slow for others. Increased community engagement is central to our success. Town council must provide access to timely information, encourage viable, meaningful participation from its residents, listen to what it hears and acts and act in accordance. The Charter is designed to support this through district meetings, the Participatory Budget Commission, the Residence Advisory Committee, and the Community Participation Officer. These are the starting places to engage citizens in governance, but we need to delve deeper and more closely examine the concrete barriers to participation. We should look to where community volunteers have been successfully engaged and replicate those models. I'm excited about this transition and will make myself available to my district and the town at large for your questions, thoughts, and concerns as we approach and work through the challenges that face our town. Thank you. Sarah? One of my biggest concerns about the role of town council is the potential for this form of government to concentrate power, lose diversity of opinions, and the distinct possibility of town council members becoming isolated from their constituents. In order to protect against this, I will make it a priority for town council to immediately clarify and develop the responsibilities for the newly created position of Community Participation Officer. Hiring this candidate should be one of our primary goals. I will make it a priority from day one that town council form a strong working relationship with the Community Participation Officer in order two, one, set up monthly town hall style meetings with district reps and their constituents. Two, ensure consistent, clear, inclusive outreach to all people of Amherst. Three, keep town council members directly connected with and accountable to the people of Amherst. I believe that the Community Participation Officer should also work shoulder to shoulder with established neighborhood associations who already have a structure for community outreach, dispensing information, and bringing district members together. In order for the district reps to remain personally accessible to their constituents, I would also encourage them to establish regular monthly office hours in a public space where people can easily approach them to ask questions, share ideas, and voice concerns. It would be similar to our town manager's event, Kappa Joe with Paul. Thank you. Nicola. In addition to tackling pending and ongoing policy and legislative decisions and establishing rules of operation, I believe the council needs to focus on community engagement and education as we transition to this new form of government. Community members, particularly those who cannot and will not attend council meetings, will need to be informed on how the council functions, the scope of the council's responsibilities, their power, what they can and cannot do, and how concerns may be brought to them. I'd like to explore the possibility of having a council corner in the Amherst Bulletin to provide updates and answers to frequently asked questions. I'd also work with the town manager and his staff to ensure a vibrant yet very digestible web presence for the council. Lastly, I would advocate for the community participation officer to be a standalone position, not tacked on to an existing role. We need someone who is 100% focused on engaging the community. Since I have 35 seconds left, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the league for hosting this and for everything you're doing to educate voters during this unprecedented election. Thank you. I'm Kathy Shane. Is this close enough to the mic for people to hear me? Okay. I think the biggest challenge we have is actually twofold. Finding new ways to encourage participation and finding ways to hold council members accountable. We're moving from a government that had 240 town members to just 13 people who have the power over our budget, our zoning, our planning laws, and other key policies. To encourage participation and facilitate engagement, we shouldn't passively wait for people to come in. We should be reaching out. We've started to do this in district one. Seven of us have started to form a neighborhood association that others have mentioned, and we're hoping to have a series of issues that bring people together so we can learn from residents, not just bring information back, have a two way conversation. We've already had three meetings and we intend to keep it going monthly all through the year so the council member would come out. This is far better, we think, than just the two public forums a year. This is a way of engaging and having conversations. I also think on committees we need to do a better job of pulling people in. We need a next generation of council members. I would hate to see us all up here 10 years from now. We need to be bringing new ideas in. I think what's critical is participation and accountability and earning trust. We've begun to do this with a neighborhood association. I've talked to over 350 people who have lots of ideas. We can do a good job if we do this. Thank you. We'll move on to district two and we'll start with Peter Vickery, please. Is that better? Okay. Then I'll hold it down. Thank you, League, and thank you for attending. I think the biggest concern facing the town council will be focusing on staying in lane, providing policy leadership, and not trying to do the town manager's job, and also focusing on the issue of money. The biggest challenge for any community in Massachusetts over the next few years will be coming to terms of the fact that Massachusetts ranks 47th out of 50 in terms of fiscal health, according to the Mercator Institute. What does that mean? Well, we rank just above Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois in terms of fiscal health. Issues like OPEB and pension liability are a challenge for the Commonwealth as a whole. For a community like ours, that means we cannot look to the state to bail us out in the future. Now, we have our own OPEB and pension liability issues, of course, and I think we're dealing with them well. But the biggest concern that I have for the council is becoming unduly distracted with processology and failing to focus on providing economic vitality so that we can maintain our social services, preserve our open space, and preserve our excellent schools. If the council can provide policy leadership to do that, my main concern will be that we can make sure that we can make sure that we are not being diswaged. Thank you. Thank you. Patricia? Can you hear me? Yeah. I'm very excited that many of us are sharing similar ideas because it makes me feel like we're already moving in a direction that we can share and collaborate from. This 13-member council is going to be working with us. It is going to have point the finance committee, the planning board, and the zoning board of appeals. It's going to direct development in our town, prioritize our capital projects, and in essence, define Amherst. I have some potential concerns about that. The main one is insularity. It can become very easy for us to turn away from the source of our power, which is the people. So we really need to, as my colleagues have said, draw in the people who are going to be impacted by our projects and development. We need really diverse perspectives and expertise and experiences on the boards and committees so that we can make the best decisions we can, not by just 13 people, but by many people. I will, in order to address some of these issues, participate in the use of the charter-required public meetings. But I really do want to form citizen groups, and in fact, I have started doing that, that will focus on particular issues. Oh my gosh. Please. All right. You need to wind up. Okay. Anyway, give me. Thank you. Let's go on to Lynn, please. Thank you. I think it's important that we not be shy about using the tools that we've been given with the new charter. As many of you have mentioned them, let me go on to some others. We need to explore and try things out and be willing to learn. Let me give you a few examples. One potential advantage of the new system is the continuity of discussion. If more information is needed to move an issue forward, assignments can be made and follow-up scheduled within the next few weeks, not six months later. I will challenge us to pay attention to a schedule of agenda items that allows continuity, but also keeps us moving toward closure on key decisions while maintaining effective communication with the community. Another advantage is the opportunity for real give and take that will benefit citizens only if we are respectful, forceful, and deeply committed to the quality of debate. Our audience will be the community. I will contribute to a group process that focuses on clarity, listening, and meaningful articulation of the choices we face. Another important change is that the executive responsibility for the town is now solely in the hands of the town manager. The council is a legislative body and must not try to do the manager's job. However, we will need to develop clear protocols and understandings about how we exercise our supervision of the town manager and look for early opportunities to build on that. Thank you. We'll move on to districts three and we'll start with Stephen Brown. Testing. Great. So from the start, town meeting had a finance committee to analyze the town budget and specific spending proposals. That committee is about to disappear. Its last meeting is going to be next week, November 1st. The council therefore needs to create its own finance subcommittee. At the moment there are no clear plans for how to do that or who will sit on the committee. But we have no time to lose. We currently have a projected budget deficit for next year of $1,052,004. That's not entirely unexpected. It's not unprecedented. But it is worrisome. We are going to need to deal with it promptly because the budget process is underway now as I speak. My concern is that we won't have council members familiar with how deficits can be dealt with responsibly. For example, an easy way to deal with that million dollars would be to use our reserves to cover it. The finance committee has always steadfastly resisted using reserves for operating budget deficits. And as a result, we have healthy reserves that we can use for truly dire situations or important capital projects. The harder way is to control costs and look for new revenues. Having served on the finance committee for three years, I'd like to lead the creation of the new finance committee, the finance subcommittee. And I'd like to establish high standards for its conduct in terms of the accuracy of its analyses and the clarity of its reports to both the council and you guys. Thank you, John. My greatest concern is regarding transparency and accountability. Democracy works when constituents are engaged, asking questions and holding their representatives responsible. My campaign over the past several months has been about listening and learning, and come November 6th, if elected, that will not change. I will continue to knock on doors to inform, to hear perspectives on issues, and to elicit feedback. Let me provide an example of what I envision. When I was at Amherst Regional, I served on the Student Advisory Board to the school committee. Once a month, members of the school committee came to us students to inform us about upcoming agenda items, hear our thoughts, and answer our questions and concerns. While we did not have direct voting power, our voices were heard and our questions were answered. That will be the role of a counselor and of our district meetings. Additionally, I bring a background with me in constituent services and organizing. This summer, I had the privilege of serving in Congressman Jim McGovern's Northampton office. My job was to field phone calls, letters, and emails of people with questions, a need, or a concern, and to help them solve it. Likewise, over the past several years, I have served as the Communications Director for the UMass Democrats, whose sister preliminary election have worked collaboratively with other groups on campus to register hundreds of students to vote on November 6th. I will bring the same level of constituent-based services to my role as a counselor. I pledge to be transparent and accessible. Thank you. George? One of my biggest concerns is how the council will manage to keep its eye on the big picture and not become completely absorbed in the day-to-day business of town affairs. Members of the select board have spoken about this challenge. It's really a challenge of leadership and a challenge of vision. Part of the council's function, as I see it, is to provide that leadership and that vision. I would like to think the council can come together and agree on a set of basic long-range goals. First of all, to broaden and diversify the tax base, to bring the town badly needed revenues, to concentrate growth in the downtown and village centers, to preserve and protect open space in the vital character of our town, to address the issue of affordable housing at all economic levels. So this is a town that at least everyone has a chance to live in, to continue to adopt and follow environmentally appropriate policies and procedures, and finally to continue to maintain the generally positive dialogue we've had in the last few years with the university and the local colleges and to address issues of mutual concern, some of which I hope I'll talk about later this evening. Thank you. Thank you. And Dorothy. Hello, can you hear me? Okay. Well, I'm deeply concerned with that, with the town meeting no longer existing, that the wishes of a full range of people will not have a fair hearing on the New Town Council. Some candidates and their supporters are enshrining the virtue of efficiency, but democracy is not always the most efficient form of government. It takes time for an informed populace to come to decisions that serve the residents best. It is not enough to try to have meetings made public in a timely fashion. It must be required to do so. How else can residents and taxpayers have a chance to find out the facts and provide input before decisions are cast in stone and presented as a fata complet? Transparency in itself is not enough. Trump is transparent. We know what he's going to do, but there seems to be no way to influence his decisions or to moderate his bad ones. I stand for timely meetings, open hearings, discussion, debate, district meetings, diverse representative and re-energized committees, democracy, as a way of keeping the town council responsive to the will of the people. The council will decide a wide range of policies and actions. Many will come as recommendations from the town staff and from the committees. I will study them. I will seek expert advice, but I will not be a rubber stamp. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next question is, there has been a lot of discussion of development in central downtown Amherst. For this question, we're asking you to consider areas that are not contiguous to downtown. Specifically, what options do you see for commercial development and affordable housing in your own district? And what concerns do you have about these options? We're going to start with district two and we'll start with Lynn, please. So great. In my usual style, as many of you know, I would normally answer this question with a power point projected behind me. So I offer you my map and my glass. The commercial development of district two is really limited to four areas. The professional research park currently occupied by the Amherst Winery and Amherst Medical Center, the village center business parcel on the northeast corner of Gatehouse Road in route nine, the corner of route nine in southeast street that is split between district two and four and the modest parcel zoned village center business at the corner of main street and northeast street. Each of these may present opportunities to relieve the tax burden on homeowners, but some of them may not work. For example, can the research park be re-zoned for something greater for commercial development? Can the zone at intersection of route nine and Gatehouse Road, including a long old farmhouse road across the road, support commercial and mixed income housing? Can the intersection of southeast street be viewed as one village center, even though it crosses two districts, and developed with an eye toward greater efficiency and best use? And the wild card in district two is the Fort River school site. If no longer used for school purposes, what will we do with it? Can we look at it in relationship to the nearby village centers and might we use it for apartments, condominiums, and mixed housing? Thank you. Patricia, thanks. I have several goals for commercial development and affordable housing in district two and in all of Amherst. One, I really would prioritize mixed use, mixed income, and sustainable development. I would not have any development plans that didn't include the very people who are going to be impacted by that development not being on the boards. We need them there with us. I also need us to recognize that development is more than buildings. It includes access and transportation. It includes the impact on the community and the character of Amherst. I'm going to take one of Lynn's ideas and work with it a little bit here. If we look at College Street or Route 9 and Southeast Street, we see robust small businesses in one-story structures. With creative design and financing, we could turn those structures into mixed use, mixed income, with residences, with very low environmental impact. We can do that by retaining the current businesses on the first floor and building the residences above and building sustainably so that those buildings are net-zero ready. Other concerns I have is that we do not displace with our development small business owners and that we give sufficient consideration to traffic town services and neighborhood residents and business. Thank you. Pam, we need to stop. Thank you. Peter. Thank you. Wise words from both fellow candidates there. When I think about affordable housing in District 2, I think about moving from Village Park down toward Belchtown Road, Alpine Commons and Rowling Green and as I've been walking around those neighborhoods, I've been reminded of the campaigns I cut my teeth on when I was 16, 17 years old and neighborhoods that were public housing neighborhoods and how we still in Amherst, as we did in South Wales when I was growing up, have a problem of concentrated affordable housing and the de-concentration of poverty is one of the biggest challenges we face in the United States as a whole and in Amherst in particular. So what I'd like to see more of is more dispersed affordable housing, particularly in my neighborhood in North Amherst around Cushman, a great place for two family homes and that requires some change in the zoning so big. Walkable neighborhoods with nearby stores where people can shop in walking distance of public transportation as well. So we can do that. My fear is that when we keep amending our affordable housing by-law to increase an affordable housing mandate, we discourage the building of more homes and the price of homes is a function of scarcity. Developers do not have to build houses in Amherst. There's no golden iron law of history requiring them to do so. So when we discourage the building of homes, we push to price up. I think the best thing we can do for affordable housing other than developing the East Street School site is to stop playing around with that affordable housing by-law. Thank you. Thank you. Dorothy, what are you thinking about District 3? Well, District 3 is contiguous to downtown Amherst. A large portion is now included in a new historical district. Mostly it's private houses built in the 19th and 20th century. Many of the people that I know have students or graduate students living with them for mutual benefit. We are also on the other side next to the university, which is the main financial and commercial institution as well as the intellectual hub of the town. So we have commercial development all around us. There is really little room or longing for any kind of large building in District 3. Do we want a new multi-story apartment building in the midst of our urban forest? I really don't think so. Our wooded area, trees, plants, and wildlife help fight climate change and work to moderate air quality. But we do have the edge of our district is University Drive. There still is some room for additional commercial development there, and I see it going on. I think there's private apartment house construction going on, and I would say in agreement with many people here that I believe all apartment houses should have a mix of people at income level apartments, not to have them segregated off in a separate place, but to have some low income and middle income apartments as well, so that young families and young people can afford to live here mixed in with more established people for an inclusive, lively, and safe neighborhood. But in terms of commercial, additional commercial development on University Drive, I believe that plans have been made, and certainly one new building has been built, for a number, I'm not sure how many, of marijuana, medical and recreational accomplishments. Okay, thank you. George. There's going to be a bit of overlap here, but it's all right. University Drive is a place, in fact, where development is taking place in my district, and I think it's an appropriate place. There is a mixed development where you're going to have retail and housing. It's right opposite the, not quite but close to the opposite the post office on University Drive. So that's one place in my district where I think that we can see and should see some, and are seeing some development. And it's important because we really do badly need to expand our tax base and create revenues. So we continue to do the things that we want to do in this town, protect and preserve open spaces. One of them, protect and preserve what makes this town special, but you can't do that if you don't have revenues. So I, for one, am not upset by what's happening on University Drive. Dorothy mentioned the marijuana establishments. This will bring revenues to the town. Now, the select board has handled it well. It's actually a model for other towns in the state. But it does raise some issues. I've already spoken to a number of neighbors who are concerned about what effect that may have on the quality of life. So I think that's something that I, as a council member, and I hope the council as well, will keep an eye on. It brings a benefit. The revenue is needed, but it's also, we're breaking new ground here. And it's something I think that concerns a number of us. Certainly in District 3, where on University Drive, there are plans for one, maybe more than one, of these establishments. Okay. Thank you. John? All right. District 3 is nestled between the downtown and the university, straddling those two worlds. As my colleagues have talked about, University Drive is one place that lends itself both to commercial development and affordable housing. Currently, one development is going up. Several commercial spaces line the street already, and soon there are some marijuana dispensaries slated to open. With senior dorms, with student dorms and senior living facilities flanking either side of this development, it is a walkable community. Equal important to mention regarding development is the possibility of a public-private partnership on University land along Massachusetts Avenue. More housing on campus would lessen the pressure on the housing market immediately adjacent to the university and allow us to preserve our neighborhoods from encroachment. Additionally, these multi-use buildings would be a source of economic activity in the form of retail or research and innovation centers. These developments would contribute to our tax base and enable us to better fund the programs that we love and the capital projects be badly need to address in our town. Thank you. Steven. Thanks. Right, so there is a lot of overlap. District 3 is the most densely populated district in the town, mostly because it includes all of UMass. So we do have limited space. The last actual space on University Drive for new development is being developed right now. So we do have limited space for that. We have had some infill, residential infill development. It's been quite tasteful, but there are very few lots left for that. And we, you know, one of the strengths of this district are the splendid neighborhoods. So I would really resist rezoning any of those for increasing density. I think we have enough already and we really do need to preserve these neighborhoods as they are, which are home for families, older adults and students. John mentioned, and I think it's relevant to the affordable housing question, the private partnership, private public partnership idea at UMass to create about a thousand new beds of student housing on what are now parking lots off of Mass Ave. That's potentially a very good move because, again, as you have more students on campus housed, that puts the pressure, takes the pressure off of, off-campus housing, which may be able to allow us to stabilize some of the rents. UMass is aware of the impacts of that potential development, but if I was a council member, I would be on that hard to make sure that residents' concerns were heard. Thank you. And Kathy, will you start us off for district one? North Hamrest has been my home, our family's home for over 35 years. People locate there because it's a very special place. We have a diverse community with farmlands, incredibly interesting, small neighborhoods, innovative co-housing, and right now, we're in the middle of a major development. So one of the things we're waiting to see is what new commercial space will be occupied, how will it be occupied, and how we accommodate more families and more people in a town, in an area of town that has roads and intersections that were built for horses and buggies, not for cars. So we need to be thinking, I think, the challenge in development is to have a vision of the whole community. We should be planning our roads and bikeways and sidewalks before, not five years or 10 years after a new development opens up. That said, I think we have a rich set of opportunities if we look up Sunderland Road, which already has commercial development of thinking in more innovative ways. Can we look to engineering and some joint ventures that bring in light industry, a mixed-use approach on what is already a mixed-use road on Ms. One Area. And the other thing that I've been thinking about for a while, because I have a background in health care, is why don't we have co-housing, cluster housing that are for seniors or older families? In Sweden and Denmark, they co-locate preschools within those clusters for intergenerational interactions. And it's a very exciting community environment, especially that's walkable. Thank you. Nikola? I think we are witnessing a development success story unfold with North Square and the Mill District in North Amherst, low and mixed income housing, a range of services utilized by a wide variety of people. Whenever I met Jake's on a weekend and it's packed with diners of all ages, many of whom will stop into Atkins or have their kids play in the construction sandlot, I think this is community. We can look to the Mill District for inspiration as we contemplate potential future commercial development and affordable housing projects in District One. There may be a development that we appreciate in theory, but when it is occurring in our own backyards, we may be apprehensive about how it may impact our families, our home values, our commutes. I am excited to see the Mill District evolve and think we are lucky that community feedback on what type of businesses belong there is regularly sought and considered. We have very little developable land in North Amherst. I do see potential for possible expansion or improvement at the riverside shops location. With what is currently slated and with any future projects, a big concern is whether we have the infrastructure to support the growth. We desperately need a solution to the North Amherst intersection and we need to address we need to address pedestrian safety concerns with sidewalks, bike lanes, and crosswalks. The council should support efforts to pressure the state to reduce the speed limit on Montague Road and make sure that improving our streets and sidewalks are a budget priority out of time. Yeah. Thank you. Sarah, sorry. I believe the district won leading the way in dynamic development. We have moved our traditional village center to a place that provided for the construction of conventional and affordable housing as well as retail space. We are ranked number one in Amherst for providing affordable units. We have branded our village center giving it the name of the Mill District and providing it with an identity as well as a warm community feel. There are very few places in North Amherst available to build because so much of our land is protected or already developed. While there are some potential sites for new development it would also be beneficial to repurposed land and property that we already have. One such option may be to investigate the purchase of up to 18 to 22 condos that currently exist in North Amherst. These are, there are two locations where two and three bedroom condos exist on the bus line. I have personally seen the mutual benefits of locating student and family housing together. Other spaces that could be open for repurposing are the lot behind the North Amherst library, the foremost Amherst towing and the North Amherst school building. Priorities for these areas could be high quality retirement community, gas station or a community center. My major concerns about these ideas are one, the chance for significant infill, two, current infrastructure not being able to support this growth without significantly changing or impacting existing neighborhoods. Three, the chance of irreparably damaging farmland by not ensuring sufficient safety measures before allowing abutting development. Thank you and Sharon. You guys are going to hear a lot of the same stuff but I'll say it a little differently. The Mill District currently under construction on Coal's Lane is providing market rate and affordable housing as well as commercial space. This builds on the already well-traffic location of Atkins North and the Trolley Barn building. Additionally, the proposed redirection of Sunderland Road into Montague Road creates an opportunity to revision and revitalize the North Amherst Library Riverside Shops area. My first concern relates to the potential increase of traffic from the Mill District project. It is an appropriate place for density but we want our village centers to be pedestrian and bicycle friendly as well. My other concern with this and any other housing development projects is the question of affordability is what we're calling affordable housing truly affordable. If we want all kinds of people to be able to live and work in Amherst and if we want to encourage students to stay after graduating then having an adequate stock of affordable housing determines who's truly able to make Amherst their home. I believe we as a town council should play a crucial role in setting a standard of affordability for new housing construction and development in Amherst. Even with these concerns this kind of housing development has a potential to shift students away from neighborhood rentals. This gives more choices to potential first time home buyers. It has the added benefit of stabilizing our neighborhoods. The commerce created also encourages North Amherst residents to have walkable choices for dining entertainment and family activities which leads to a greater sense of community through shared use of space and a decreased reliance on cars. Thank you very much. For the last question we are asking you to select one of your top priority goals for the new town council that is over the next three years not just right away. What is that goal and how will you translate that goal into explicit town council actions? We'll start with district three and George I'd like to start with you please. One of my top priorities would be to address the divide between town and gown. In district three 70% of the registered voters are students or student aged. Over 50% of the population of our town are students. I would work very hard in support of initiatives that have already been put in place by the select board and by the chancellor's office to help bridge the gap to divide between town and gown. Focus on issues that both actually share the lack of affordable housing the rise of student what the behavior of students in residential neighborhoods something I've heard a lot about over the last few months and the conversion of single and multifamily homes into student rentals. I would promise that I would hold one of my public meetings at or on the university campus in hopes of bringing these groups together I would also pledge that every Labor Day when the students come back I would walk the neighborhood and speak with the students introduce myself and welcome them to Amherst but also remind them that they live in a neighborhood and they have the responsibilities of being neighbors. At a time when the general population is aging I also would like to think we could encourage sororities and fraternities to become active in reaching out to the neighbors. Thank you George. Dorothy. Can you hear me now? Yes okay. Clean energy energy conservation sustainability in Pioneer Valley and New England leading the way in self-sufficiency in energy and food working to mitigate the effects of climate change are one of my major desires. I think that means we would have to change some zoning laws have programs of incentives and active grant seeking and a broad array of new or greatly renovated public buildings that Amherst is envisioning they must be built not with unnecessary bells and whistles but as energy efficient energy creating buildings which will over the long run save energy and result in major cost savings which will keep taxes from rising. Don't build it fancy build it green but to be beautiful is not the same thing as to be expensive or fancy. I'm also very interested in building on Amherst's rich reputation in the arts. My idea of a vibrant downtown is not one with large five-story buildings crowded together taking up the sidewalk blocking the light and casting a looming shadow but it's a place concerned with beauty and with a wider variety of entertainment theater and music in live performance spaces such as the soon to be vacated fire department building there was a committee that is working on that that I went to that meeting two years ago and I hope that that can resume. We have the artists we have the audience but we need to bring the arts downtown and we can add a few more fine restaurants to make it a place where I would like to spend my evening. My last thought is of a new art gallery which would have the art of students from all of the colleges and the university yet another way for the town down to me. We need to stop Dorothy and we'll go on to Stephen. Thank you. So one of my top priorities is to push forward two interrelated projects that have been languishing to the detriment of our public safety workers for decades. Our public works department is housed in a former trolley barn built in 1915. The 2016 study recommending replacement of that facility noted cracked masonry, roof leaks, rot, minimal insulation and most critically inadequate ventilation in the vehicle repair bays. The central fire station was built in 1929 this building has been the subject of studies in 1981 2006 and 2016 and they all have the same bottom line. The building's HVAC system is ancient, ventilation is poor, the bays are so small that emergency vehicles have only inches of clearance to get in and out. But more importantly the central location of the fire station means that response times to South Amherst are longer than federal recommendations. So I think it's high time we gave our firefighters EMTs and DPW workers facilities that allow them to do their jobs better more efficiently and at less risk to their personal health. I believe we can do this. The studies have been done. We can afford these within our current capital borrowing and bonding capacity. We just need the political will to get it done. Thank you. And John. Well obviously I share many priorities I already mentioned by the other candidates here namely devising a strategic plan to address our capital projects. But lest I repeat I'll talk about the area which I have the most experience which is collaborating with our institutional partners. I served as the secretary of university policy and external affairs for the UMass student government. My duties included being a liaison to the town and representing the university in meetings the five college consortium. Education is the economic driver of our town and a strong part of our identity and value system in Amherst. The fate of our town our institutional partners are intimately linked. Strengthening these relationships helps us achieve mutually beneficial goals. The concrete actions I would take as we embark on this journey of the first town council are twofold. First in addition to our at least two district meetings as George said I would like to hold at least one on campus. Most of our district three encompasses the campus. The second is establishing an annual breakfast with all town counselors and campus leaders including students to discuss what initiatives we're working on and how we can collaborate. The select board and chancellor's office have worked hard on this currently but I would want to cement it as a tradition for the first town council. Thank you. Thank you. Nicola could you start out for district one. One of my priority goals is engaging community members who have not traditionally been widely represented in local government. One idea I have is to partner with the the school district on a civic education excuse me civic education project in our elementary schools that will engage the diverse community of families with young children that we have in Amherst. K through six students can learn all about our new council form of government and hold their own school wide elections to seek 13 counselors across grade spans. So sixth graders would have to speak to the needs of little kids and vice versa. They would use rank choice voting and the unit would culminate in a mock council meeting where the elected students would deliberate on unsimplified versions of actual council agenda items. This could take place just prior to a regularly scheduled council meeting and would bring many families to town hall that perhaps hadn't been there before. And of course leading up to this many kids would be having conversations at home about the election and everything they're learning about our local government. Thank you. Thank you. Kathy. In addition to advancing on the initiatives we already have on climate control that Dorothy mentioned I think one of my other top priorities is how we can build consensus and move forward on some of the difficult choices we face in Amherst that have to do with money. As many of you know we have a backlog of urgent needs our elementary schools fire station DPW and more not even counting roads adds up to well more than 100 million dollars. And we've been looking at these one at a time rather than looking at the choices that we have in front of us scrutinizing and asking if there are alternative approaches that would cost less. My training as an economist and I tend to think long term and ask questions and ask for alternatives but what I would want to do is not just have my priorities set that list first would be schools on my list but bring those choices out to the town and talk about the implications of what we start with first second third and fourth talk about how we can phase it and finance it without blowing up our tax budget. I think we need to do this for the town otherwise we'll never make progress on these urgent needs. Thank you. Thank you. Sharon. One of my top priority goals is economic growth by increasing our tax base we can take pressure off the residential tax rate and begin to slow its growth. As an example let's look at the downtown. While canvassing a resident suggested to me that the continued development of downtown would push out long standing stores like Hastings but from the perspective of a long time downtown business owner and worker I actually think it's the lack of people living shopping and eating downtown that's causing businesses to close. We also see businesses either reclocate over the bridge or never try and open in Amherst in the first place why is that? One reason is the lack of parking. We need people going out for dinner seeing a movie and getting drinks and dessert after. We need this to continue as we add arts and cultural events enhance our music and culinary scene while also welcoming the influx of visitors throughout the year. A parking garage would allow for both high attendance events and day to day use of the town. Second we need to encourage businesses to locate downtown Adequate parking for their employees and customers is a start. That makes us attractive but can we streamline our procedures? For example could we implement a permit process that puts building, fire and health inspectors in the same room at the same time? If it takes three months to open a business in Northampton and seven months here that's four months of revenue lost. Economic growth provides jobs leads to tax-based growth and increase of the residential tax rate. Thank you. Patricia would you start us? I'm sorry Sarah. One of my priority goals is to work for thoughtful and responsible spending that meets the needs of all while ensuring that taxes remain stable. I would do this by 1. Widen the tax base by bringing in and encouraging more light industry and technology based businesses. 2. Working with the colleges to help students involved in research and technology to open their own businesses in Amherst. 3. Making a strong effort to negotiate better payment in lieu of taxes agreements with the three colleges. 4. Being extremely cautious about proposing any proposition two and a half overrides until the tax base has been widened. Two world renowned businesses here in North Amherst are excellent examples of light industry that provide tremendous benefits to Amherst. Amherst machine and prosensing are highly successful businesses that bring in significant tax revenue require little services and employ residents who live and spend who live here and spend their money in town. A powerful challenge we see is that the majority of our first responders in critical service personnel cannot live here because they can't afford the residential property taxes. Long time residents are struggling to pay current taxes spending additional monies before broadening the tax base is putting the car before the horse. I do not want to see Amherst become an exclusive community that runs a survival center and provides affordable housing simply as an act of no bless oblige. Thank you. No Patricia. Housing security is a priority goal for me and I believe it should be a priority goal for the council. I believe therefore that we need to expand the Amherst community land trust. We need to make zoning changes that increase affordable housing requirements and we need to support inclusionary developments like the Green River Commons in Greenfield that is market rate and affordable housing homes that are built together seven of them and that are net zero ready they are sustainable. We also need to continue or refine thoughtful development of our 40 our districts. I believe that the council needs to explicitly refine zoning around inclusionary development. I believe that we have to update the master plan and create clear definitions we hold ourselves and developers to. I believe that we have to locate new funding sources for long term housing solutions particularly for the people who are most vulnerable and we need to work with town residents and this becomes critical to develop an understanding of the positive impact of diversity in our neighborhoods. We are here as a community. We're here for every person and every person should have the opportunity to fully blossom in Amherst and housing security is one way to do that. Thank you Lynn. My top priority is to frame the context in which individual decisions are made. Many of our biggest challenges are interconnected from high residential property taxes to outdated facilities to effective services roads and sidewalks in all parts of town. Town counselors will need to speak forthrightly about our competing needs and balancing them in light of our values. We will need to come back to that framework and continually test it with the community. The better we are at that the more likely our individual decisions will be supported. The same principles apply to facing our infrastructure and facilities challenges. Working with all the stakeholders to create the overall context we can build confidence in a long term coordinated capital improvement strategy including the implementation of the zero energy bylaw. And citizens need to see that we have attended to the details maximized our efficiencies and financial leverage and produced a plan with an absolute highest value for the dollar. Without that I believe we'll be spinning our wheels and watch our existing buildings roads and sidewalks become costlier and costlier to maintain. Thank you Peter. If I must as a unique selling proposition it's education. We have excellent schools and one of the things that attracts employees to this area when employees are trying to recruit them is our schools. And I think we can also attract more students from Holyoke and Springfield. I say that because we have a duty to do more than just talk a good game when it comes to equity and inclusion. There are families lining up to send their kids to the Amist Regional High School in particular and there's a seriously underfunded Springfield METCO program. We could do more to attract school choice kids from those areas. And that redounds to our benefit it helps us maintain our excellent public schools. And another thing we can do with regard to broadcasting our excellence in education is to keep repeating to students that you are welcome. We are glad you're here. This is your home from home. We hope that one day it will be your home period. We hope you stick around. This is a wonderful place wonderful place to live and to raise a family and to work. And I hope that one of the ways we can attract people to stick around in this town is to encourage the growth of small business and encourage the businesses that we have and one way to do that is I agree with Sharon a new parking garage privately financed not publicly but also to stop doing some of the things whereby we shoot ourselves in the foot like increasing parking meter hours in town. First order of business scrap that. Thank you. Now each candidate will have 45 seconds for a closing statement. The yellow light will go on at 15 seconds and we'll just go left to right so I don't make any mistakes. So we'll start with Kathy. This way left to right. This way left that way. This is my right but this is okay. I get it. North Amherst has been my home my family's home for over 35 years. I'm retired after 40 years working as an economist often with the same kinds of complex issues you've heard everyone mentioned tonight. One of the skills I learned other than the analytic skills was how to listen well and think about what are the creative solutions that would bring people together. I'm committed to spending the amount of time necessary to go deeply on each of these issues but also to reach out. During my time with voters as I've been canvassing we have such a rich community of engineers architects city planners entrepreneurs that's where some of our ideas are going to come from. If elected I would continue to try to reach out and listen but also spend the time to delve into the complex issues that face us. Thank you. This is a pivotal time and it's going to take compromise and collaboration to build a future Amherst we can be proud of. I want to be part of effectively bridging the gaps and addressing the most pressing problems facing our town. I will genuinely listen to your perspectives and I'm prepared to represent them even when they are different from my own. My commitment is to the community members of district one and to thoughtful critical decision making that considers multiple perspectives. I am process and procedure oriented. The council will need to immediately establish the practical administrative and logistical details necessary to support a shared vision. We won't get busy parents of young children active in local government simply by suggesting childcare be provided at meetings. We do it by electing candidates with little kids candidates like me that will always look at things through the lens of how this will include or impact young families. Thank you. Sarah. To be honest I never expected to run for town council. I'm a wife mother and business owner with a full life and responsibilities of my own. I was asked to run because of my life and work experiences and the fact that I share common values with my neighbors. I have lived in Amherst for 28 years and it is my home. I care deeply about my town and the people that live here. We all deserve a government that is transparent and accountable to you the people of Amherst. I am not just simply asking for your vote. I am asking for your trust and for the ability to carry your voice to the town government. Thank you. Thank you. Sharon. Amherst is and always has been a community of growth be it growth of the mind or of the soil. As a group we have differing ideas and place different emphasis on what we lose versus what we gain as we grow our community and are changed by this growth. We have lacked in the past but what we now have in the charter is a governing structure that meets regularly and will develop over time a process that enables, encourages and includes these multifaceted sides to mesh and mark a way forward together. Thank you League of Women Voters for hosting this event and for those here tonight and watching at home. As you formulate your choices I encourage you to vote for individuals who have a vision for the future the leadership skills to get us there and the willingness to work with others. Thank you. Lynn. Thanks to the League and Amherst Media for this opportunity and to all of you for listening. I have no illusions about the challenges the first group of counselors will face. The divisions to be healed and long-standing issues to be tackled and even what you've heard tonight are differing priorities but I love a challenge and a successful transition for our town is a challenge. The issues we face are not easy and will require careful discussion creative thinking and principal to compromise. This is how I've approached things my whole life and I hope to bring that attitude and experience to the new council. I've lived here for over 30 years and it would be a tremendous honor to represent you and representative for district too. I'm excited about continuing the conversations the campaign has started. Thank you and please vote on November 6th. Thank you. Patrick. Hi. I've lived with my wife Carol and our son in Amherst for the past 25 years. I'm a retired teacher and a former financial manager for not-for-profits agencies like Children's Aid and Family Service. My ongoing work right now is in solidarity with undocumented immigrants and working on environmental and racial justice this work continues to challenge me. I have learned through all of the work I've done that who we are what we do and how we work through our differences defines us. I will look at problems balancing the needs of our citizens our resources and the consequences of those decisions. I am an independent candidate beholden to no special interest group. I am a candidate who knows I am beholden to you. Please vote on November 6th. You need to stop? We shall. Peter. Thank you, Liegen. Thank you, audience, for coming and for watching at home. My wife, Meg, and I have lived here since 1999. It's where we chose to raise our three children and we've been very happy with the excellent public schools and I hope they stay that way under the leadership of the New Town Council working with the town manager. I'm a little different from most candidates. I am a lawyer and I have a master's in public policy but not a day goes by when I don't find out that there's something I don't know and I think the four most important words in politics are I do not know and the other two are I disagree. I'm one of those candidates who is prepared to be in a minority of one and that's a little different in Amherst. I speak my mind that's not always an advantage. Some people say I don't play well, work well with others. The next person who says that I'm going to punch them in the face. Okay. Thank you. Dorothy. I've lived in Amherst for eight years. I spend time with young people taking care of my grandchildren who are now nine and ten and teaching at Holyoke Community College. I'm an independent person an independent voice. I bring my energy my creativity to whatever I do. In New York City I ran against the machine and won five elections working with on neighborhood commercial revitalization community preservation and clean air. I created and ran organizations for seniors and youth and as a teacher I have learned from students from Grenada, Mississippi to Hostos Community College in the South Bronx and now Holyoke Community College. I helped students gain their way to self-knowledge raise their aspirations and accomplish their goals. I'm good at working at closing the gap between people and accomplishing the difficult the difficult work for change that makes all the difference. I ask your support. George. As a resident of this town for 31 years I owe this town a great deal. In asking for your vote on November 6th I have some obligations to you as well. I promise that I will be accessible to you. I promise that I will be transparent about what the council does and about what I do on the council. I promise to represent all the neighborhoods in my district and I promise to do my homework to make sure that I am as informed about the issues that come before the council and see to it that you are informed as well. Thank you. Thank you. John. Having been raised in the valley my entire life taught in this middle school and graduated from Amherst Regional in 2015 and currently a senior in the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass I'm uniquely positioned to serve the people of District 3. I will be a bridge between campus and community between Amherst and the Hilltowns and between generations. I have a proven track record of working collaboratively together to get things done in times that are divisive nationally and locally I hope to bring people together and move us forward. Please consider voting for me John Page on November 6th or one of the convenient early voting locations. Thank you to the League of Women Voters for hosting us tonight and Amherst Media for filming. Thank you and Steven. And last but not least in my work as a medical writer and editor I get paid to evaluate evidence for new disease treatments and medical devices. No lives are at stake in the decisions the council is going to be making at least I hope not but the ability to evaluate evidence is still key. There are a lot of other qualities you might want in a counselor like energy and patience and empathy and ability to listen and I've got those but so do my colleagues here. It's my strength as a critical thinker coupled with my knowledge of the financial machinery of this town that make me uniquely valuable as a potential counselor. So I hope you'll let me put my knowledge and skills to work for you and the rest of the town. Thank you very much. Let's have a round of applause.