 Welcome. Given that we have a majority of the Amherstown Council present, I will officially call the special town meeting, council meeting of December, you got that one, December 12th, 2019 to order at 6.10 p.m. We'd like to welcome you all. It's a nice turnout given that we had to reschedule this event and we're glad that many of you were able to join us. Although slightly delayed, this is the first state of the town event marking the first year anniversary of the Amherstown Council. We were sworn in on December 2nd, just one year ago. Our elementary and secondary school students boast many achievements, academics, sports, and music. Tonight we are pleased to have vocalist Arden Lloyd, Alex Harvey Arnold, Antonio Polino, and Angus Cox from the Amherst Regional High School. Their selection that they're going to now play is That's All by Alan Brandt and Bob Hamps. Ames. Thank you for your outstanding performance. This has also been a historic and very special year for athletes at the high school. The Amherst Regional High School football team, the Hurricanes, or Keynes as they say, are the 2019 Western math state champions and state semifinalists. Please come forward to be formally recognized. So the young man coming towards the speaker is Coach Eric Ehorn. He's a fourth year coach at the high school. He is joined by two of his players, J.B. Mill. Raise your hand. And Jack Nagy. Nagy. Their historic season included 11 wins and one unfortunate loss. Just real quickly, I wanted to thank the town of Amherst on behalf of the football team. It meant the world to this team to have the support from the school district, the town leadership, the state representatives, and the police department when we win our Western math championship for them to give us an escort into town. It was just, it adds to the moment. And, you know, Amherst isn't always known for its sports. But, you know, and the young men, they used to notice that. But I think that has completely changed. I think they're so proud to be playing for Amherst and representing this town. We just thank you all for your support. So to continue on with a little bit of our pomp and ceremony, we are at this time going to do some swearing in of new and promoted firefighters and police officers. So first of all, we want to welcome Bruce Arbor, who is the fire chaplain to the podium for his invocation. He will be joined then by Shavina Martin, our recently appointed town clerk, who will then conduct the ceremonial swearing in of our new and promoted firefighters and police officers. She will be joined by Fire Chief Tim Nelson and those being sworn in as new members of the force or being promoted. This will be followed by Police Chief Scott Livingstone and four members being promoted. Before you come up, I'd like to make sure we recognize all of you here who are to support your fellow firefighters and police people. You noticed all the vehicles out there? So with that, let us unite our hearts in the spirit of prayer. This evening, Lord, we are gracious and blessed to be here to celebrate the accomplishments, appointments, and advances of our fire and police. As they are sworn in in this day and as we just celebrate the dedication and sacrifice that each make for the sake of this community and for the Commonwealth, we ask your blessing upon them that they continue to serve you in safety, serving this community, and that your peace fill their homes and that their families be comforted with that peace as they await their return. Bless this evening in your holy name, we ask. Amen. Chief Nelson. Good evening. This is a great, great night. The four folks that you're going to see sworn in pretty much have their work cut out for them. They've got big, big shoes, shoes to fill through retirements and changing careers. They're probably going to fill in what we've lost about close to 100 years of experience and it's their job to fill those shoes. And I'm sure that they're all up to the task and they'll do well by the town. I mean, they are the right people in the right place at the right time. So I'm extremely proud of all of them too. You want me to call them up? First, we'll be Captain Chris Goodhine. Do you, Captain Chris Goodhine, solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. I will. And next will be Firefighter Dennis Pelletier. Pelletier solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. Firefighter Angela Danger. Danger solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. And Firefighter Matt Chipman. Matt Chipman solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. I will. Chief Livingstone, please come forward. Good evening. I just want to first of all congratulate Captain Gabe Ting, Lieutenant Brian Johnson, Lieutenant Brian Daley, Sergeant Jamie Reardon, and Sergeant Greg Wise, who couldn't be here tonight. His daughter's got her first basketball game tonight. He wanted to be there. But, you know, for a very, very, I want to thank them and their families for a job well done, very deserved promotion, and to thank all the hard work that you guys do each and every day. So thank you. I would just also like to thank the town manager and the entire council for inviting us tonight. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our agency and what we do. So thank you very much. And being the season of giving to remember us at budget time. So Captain Gabriel Ting solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. I do. Brian T. Johnson solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. I do. Do you, Lieutenant Brian C. Daley, solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. I do. Congratulations. Sergeant Jamie Peer Reardon, excuse me Reardon, solemnly swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the constitutions and laws thereof. I do. Congratulations. So the town charter requires that the council president and the town manager on an annual basis address the town and the other elected officials. And that's why we're here tonight. So I'm Lynn Griezmer. I'm president of the town council. And it is my honor and privilege to serve as the first president of the Emmerstown council. I wish to thank my colleagues and assure them that I am still of sound body and mind, although among my family and friends the idea that I retired is a standing joke. Actually the opportunity to serve as the first president of the new legislative body is both a rare opportunity and also a challenge. Every day I find myself digging deeper into my 50 years of education, professional experience and life's lessons learned. It's a good feeling and I am grateful. Let me start my remarks by stating something you probably already concluded. The first town council of the city known as the town of Emmerst is an outstanding group of 13 very talented, dedicated and independently minded people. Perhaps more important, we deeply respect each other and focus on how our individual talents can contribute to an effective team. Being that spirit is a real treat. Tonight we are well represented and as you to stand and remain as I state your name and indicate who you represent. Our three at large counselors are Elissa Brewer, Mandy Jo Hanneke who is also vice president of the council and Andy Steinberg. In district five are Darcy Dumont and Shalini Ball-Mill. Shalini is not able to be here although she may come dashing in. She was speaking at a conference in Boston today. District four is represented by Evan Ross and Steve Schreiber. District three is represented by Darcy Pam and George Ryan. Pat DeAngelis joins me in representing district two and Sarah Schwartz and Kathy Shane neither of whom could be here because of the change in date represent district one. And while each brings a valuable perspective, each also strives to represent the voices of those who are not apparent in the body of the council. Please recognize your first Amherst town council. Here at our one year mark of our new government, it's appropriate to recognize the members of the charter commission, a couple of whom were brave enough to come out tonight. Is you that we say thank you most of the time? The charter is a thoughtful document reflecting the values and expectations of the residents of the town. It includes a prescription for the type of responsive government that we all want and counters have embraced that challenge in ways even experienced elect officials could not predict. Of course, in the course of putting theory into practice, we've discovered some things that don't work so well, but we're keeping notes. Thank you for all of the thoughts each of you put into crafting our town charter, fighting hard for the issues you felt were important and moving forward with residents as they voted after 80 years to change our form of government to the council manager form we now know. I'm very happy to report that as of December 2nd, the council has fulfilled all of the first year and annual requirements of the charter. We have a checklist. We have held the required recurring public forums. In fact, we've done two on the budget, getting ahead for next year. We've done one on capital projects and the master plan and the schools have held their public forum. We have convened other forums as required when we intend to spend money off cycle, for example, purchasing station road bridge and this upgrade for the Centennial Water Treatment Plan. We have conducted numerous hearings, for example, on the regional school budget, and the town's FY20 budget. Each councilor has held no fewer than three district meetings. And some counselors have held them as often as every other month. The at large counselors are often part of the district meetings as speakers and resource people. The number of office hours, neighborhood association meetings, and public events are too numerous to count. But a few examples are worth noting. Our town is well served when eight counselors stand on the steps of town hall in recognition of the diversity of our town to read the proclamation for Tibet Day or to Puerto Rico Heritage Day, or when counselors are dispersed around the tables at the first ever Veterans Day breakfast. In recognition of those who served our country protecting the freedoms we cherish. One of the most consistent comments we hear from residents, we truly know, appreciate knowing who to call about the issues in our districts. So we are working hard to learn constituent services and advocacy is not without its challenges. And we will continue to work with the town manager to bring an ever more responsive government to the residents of the town. We formed five standing committees, one of which was required by the town charter. We formed several ad hoc committees and other committees including those required by the charter, such as ranked choice voting and participatory budgeting. We adopted interim and then permanent rules of procedure, which we keep updating. We have completed the review of all of our zoning bylaws and we will complete the review of our general bylaws within the required one year of appointing the bylaw review committee, chaired by the variable Bob Ritchie. Let me pause with this and reflect on how fortunate we are to have right here in town, leading experts on many issues critical to the success of our town. They bravely apply to be on our town committees. Share their experience in areas such as water supply and contaminants, energy and climate action, and housing to name a few. On behalf of the town council and the town of Amherst, we thank you for your past and ongoing service, your willingness to provide us with sound advice and put up with our sometimes far ranging and even naive questions. Looking for across the audience, I recognize many people who have served in town meeting on committees and special advisory boards. You make Amherst the kind of community is whatever the form of government. Another example of successful continuity in transition is the first ever appointed Board of License Commissioners. Formally, this was the job of the select board. It is chaired by former select board chair, Doug Slaughter. Not only are we fortunate to have Doug lead this talented group, but all noticed when with the significant assistance of our police department early this year, the newly appointed board was required to use its enforcement authority to initially suspend and then ultimately revoke the liquor license of a business that was in egregious violation of both the law and our community's expectations. Some other notable accomplishments of the year include establishing the Energy and Climate Action Committee on January 28th, 2019, and on November 18th, adopting the recommended ambitious goals by the unanimous vote of the council. With regard to affordable housing, we have transferred the East Street School to the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust with financial support for the Community Preservation Act money. We also voted to support the property at 132 Northampton Road. The second action allowed us to test section 8.1 of the charter and call what turned out to be a four hour open meeting of residents, at which there were no fewer than 125 people while this issue continues to engender strong feelings. It also serves to demonstrate how essential it is that we listen and learn and do everything it takes to let all voices be heard. We voted to continue to improve our roads and sidewalks, though not enough, and ongoing challenges. We installed a temporary quote bridge on Station Road. See you in 20 years. We've opened the Mill Street Bridge and began the process of bringing the Centennial Water Plant located in Pelham back online. Thus sustaining access to our third water source. Other purchases of land with CPA money help secure our watershed. Our recreation facilities continue to improve and grow. In addition to the improvements of Graf Park, a recent grant from the state to build a playground at Kendrick Park helps us meet our commitment to focus our energy on the vibrancy of our downtown. The council was prominently in attendance at the six listening sessions regarding the school's proposal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. And unanimously endorsed their vision for a 600 students new or renovated school. We are enormously grateful and want to recognize Mike Morris and Anastasia Ordinez leadership in this. Just two days ago, the MSBA approved our application. We were one of 11, and there were over 50 that didn't get there. Opening the doors for millions of state dollars to benefit generations to come in Amherst. These accomplishments are all important, but as we move forward, we are facing several significant challenges. The first is long term deferred capital investments in town facilities. Our library, our fire station, our department of public works, and our schools and others would like to add to that list. This is requiring the town council, the school committee, and the library trustees to work together as the council develops a plan to meet our community's needs now and in the decades to come. More than 150 of you attended the recent listening sessions and comments are still being solicited through December 20th. Please make sure we hear from you. Just go to www.amherstma.gov slash capital. The urgency of climate action and the implementation of the climate action plan is out there to help us achieve very ambitious goals. This includes realizing the promise of our zero energy bylaw for town buildings as we develop our capital plan. Continuing to pass responsible capital and operating budgets to respect the difficult balance between our aspirations and the circumstances of all of our residents places another challenge before us. And we have yet to adopt, which we are now required to by the charter, the master plan. We plan to make a few modifications and perhaps look at a few bylaw revisions. And finally, attempting to make their counselor's job more manageable. So it will be attractive to others in future council elections. Maybe I should have put that first. Having said a great deal about the council, let me now focus on the town manager and our outstanding town staff. The change in government represented by the charter is predominantly that of a change in the legislative body. What has allowed us to make this transition without totally disrupting our community is the extraordinary skill and dedication of our town staff. During this entire transition, you were still protected by our first responders. Police, Fire EMS, and the Department of Public Works. The streets were plowed, you received water and sewer services, you were able to vote, pay your taxes, get a dog license, or a building permit. In other words, our town staff kept the place moving forward while we have been transitioning to this new legislative body. In August, we evaluated the town manager's performance with input we received throughout the summer from residents, committees, staff, and all counselors. Paul Bachman was hired in August 2016, not knowing what form of government he would be working under if he had a job at all two and a half years later. He has been key to the transition to our new legislative body and to the overall excellence of town services. We recognized this both in his recent evaluation and in his contract extension to August 31st, 2023. As a council, we wish to recognize the town manager and the staff for their outstanding work on behalf of the residents of Amherst. Would you please rise so we can do so? In closing, please allow me to make some final observations about the charter. The community's response to the new form of government and being president of the council. The charter is a remarkable document, but no document is perfect. We are taking notes, as I mentioned before, and at some point we'll file some changes to the charter, but we are not there yet. A charter review is required every 10 years, in years ending in four. That's 2024. The community response to the new form of government includes some strong advocates and others with a waiting and seeing attitude. But the level of interest in local affairs and the commitment to build a better community together remains strong. And we are grateful for the active involvement of so many residents. It is what makes Amherst interesting. We have our regulars who attend every town council meeting. We know that you're here tonight. But we also get a full house when there is a neighborhood issue on the agenda, like a new bridge, or the proposal for 28 mixed income studio apartments in the neighborhood. We constantly have people talk to us about some agenda item or the length of the meeting because they were watching it on Amherst media. And I want to especially recognize the tireless efforts of Amherst media in broadcasting our meetings. And also with the League of Women Voters and Stan Rosenberg in producing byline bystand. Leading any organization means balancing one's democratic ideals with the need to come to closure and move decisively forward. This is certainly true of the council, where the president has few powers, but many obligations. I want to thank my colleagues for their forbearance as I have taken the first stab at defining this role. They are more than willing to let me know when they feel the president has overstepped her bounds. They are, however, always gracious about it. Often saying such things as, I am not concerned about this president. However, we are setting precedent for the future. After one year, we have barely scratched the surface, of course. But I hope that all future presidents will find the right balance, always remembering one thing. Everyone is elected. We stand as equals. Leadership means hearing everyone and weaving what you hear into potential solutions that are willing to be tested and amended along the way. And if you cannot do this, your colleagues can pick a replacement at any meeting. Please join me in recognizing the boundless energy and deep commitment that the council has brought to this important transition for our town. It is now my pleasure to introduce Paul Bachlemann, who came to us with a lot of civic experience already. Prior to joining us, he was with the Mass Municipal Association as the director of administration and finance. The statewide association works for all cities and towns in Massachusetts. He also served as the town administrator in the town of Manchester by the sea, for 13 years. Nice location, Paul. Paul has also worked for the City of Cambridge Historical Commission and was elected six times to be a member of the Somerville School Committee. Paul returned to Amherst, his home from being a graduate of Hampshire College, and has his master's degree in city planning from MIT. Paul, it's your turn to fulfill the requirements of the charter. Thank you, then. We share a lot, but not the height of the microphone, apparently. So one year ago, 13 of your neighbors and fellow residents took the oath of office to bring to life the first town council of the town of Amherst. While the town charter provided some broad outlines, the specifics of governing for forging this new government were left to these elected officials. One town councilor referred to it as building a plane while trying to fly it. And it is, and we haven't crashed yet. Developing the fundamental rules of governing were the obvious first priority. But the wheels of government, as Lynn said, didn't stop. There was a business the town had to attend to, like analyzing the budget, authorizing borrowing, making land transactions, approving appointments to town boards, just to name a few. Looking back, it's truly remarkable how much progress the town council has made in one year. The success, in large part, is due to the incredible energy and leadership provided by town council president Lynn Griezmer. Lynn has been a thoughtful listener and provided the leadership of a body like this needs. Thank you, personally, Lynn. So, onto the line I'm supposed to deliver. I am pleased to report that the state of the town is strong. And I can probably sit down now. This is reflected most clearly in our finances. Our FY19 fiscal year ended in the positive column, with the town taking in more funds than we projected and spending less than budgeted. This helped to build our reserves, which is important as we look at significant challenges ahead. For FY20, I delivered a budget on time and balanced and it was approved unanimously by the town council. Our finances are solid as we have made the hard choices to manage the taxpayers money wisely. This is evidenced by how we address the significant health insurance deficit from last year. Not without paying to employees and employers, but we are in a better place today to manage our health insurance risks going forward. As Lynn may have mentioned in the video for the capital projects, listening sessions, there's a 22 minute video online that you can watch and it sort of gives a background on all four listening, on all four capital projects. It sort of outlines what our ability is to take on additional debt. The strength of the town isn't financial, though. It's only financial. It's about the people. The people, many in this room who dedicate their free time to serving on boards and committees, the collective wisdom of the over 250 people who serve on nearly 50 committees. In the past year, I have interviewed scores of applicants and made nearly 100 appointments, all of whom were considered and approved by the town council. It's also about the people who work for the town. Our strength is in our employees who provide professional service to the community every day. We saw an example of that earlier this evening with the swearing in of the new and newly promoted police officers and firefighters. These men and women are the visible manifestation of our public service. They are the ones who wear uniforms to work and get lots of recognition. Tonight, however, I also want to recognize the third arm of public safety, the DPW workers who were out there during the last storm clearing snow overnight. And they were out there today fixing a water main break on Pellum Road. I want to recognize the staff at the library, schools, town hall, and numerous other departments. You all come to work every day to serve the people of Amherst. I'm grateful to every one of you for your dedication and professionalism, and I'm proud to serve alongside you. The town is fortunate to have department heads who are among the best in the state. Many serve in leadership roles in statewide organizations or speak at state and national conferences. I encourage and expect our department leaders to also be leaders in the state. We strive to provide a government that you can be proud of. Speaking to a high-up official in a nearby community in which we are often compared, this person told me that they joke that they ought to have t-shirts that say WWAD. What would Amherst do? That is the bar we set for ourselves, to be the community others look to when they want to know how to do things the right way. When I took this job a little more than three years ago, I was drawn by Amherst's reputation for its commitment to open, high-quality government. I knew that our department has were among the best in the state for my role at the Mass Municipal Association. I soon learned, once I got here, however, that the level of skill and knowledge permeated the organization, that those who are in second command and are frontline employees were equally stellar. They stay in Amherst because they love their work, because people respect their judgment, and because they are challenged by the opportunities they take on here. I am pleased to report that I was able to recruit three excellent department heads to fill the diverse needs of the town. You already met Savina Martin, our new town clerk. We also have a new director of senior services, Mary Beth Ogilovitz, and new director of human resources, Evelyn Rivera Riffenberg. These three women continue the tradition of highly qualified and creative professional department heads for the town. We are fortunate to have them. One of the innovations of the town charter was the establishment of a community participation officer, or in our case, a community participation team. Instead of creating a new position for this role, I asked three members of our existing staff to work with the team to help us better engage with the public. The results, in less than one year, have been astounding. So, we are out in the community making connections. We are on social media where many people obtain their information, and we are supporting the town counselors in their efforts to reach the public. I'm so proud of Jennifer Moyston, Angela Mills, and Brianna Sunrid for their willingness to dive into this exciting new venture. So, our entire team is doing amazing things. It may not be the first thing that comes to your mind, but our DPW is doing groundbreaking work in the sciences. I know you don't think of the DPW that way, but in conjunction with the university, they're figuring out new ways to utilize wastewater that's been processed so the university can cool their large buildings and irrigate the university's grounds. Not only will this save millions of gallons of precious fresh water that would have otherwise been used for this purpose, but it will help keep water within our watershed and not be released into the Connecticut River. We are thrilled to be the home of two new living buildings at Hampshire College and Hitchcock Center, and also the design building at the university, which is the most technologically advanced mass timber building in the United States. Our fire department, health building, and DPW were all there from the beginning to work with the design and construction teams for these innovative buildings. They were educating themselves to make sure they understood exactly what is in these buildings, and the best way to respond to a fire or emergency. Our police department has received national recognition for its creative solutions of engaging with students and utilizing landscaping and addressing large gatherings of students called community policing through environmental design. This approach matches nicely with the sector-based policing philosophy this department employs. It's an ongoing effort, but again, we have great people out there working on this. Our conservation and development staff secured federal funding to help rebuild Graf Park and were strategic in seeking CDBG funding to build a multi-use walkway from the large concentration of rental housing on East Hadley Road to Graf Park. We're also working on grants and initiatives to address municipal vulnerability in the face of climate change and to increase access to healthy and affordable sources of fresh food and vegetables. And the town's commitment to affordable housing is paying off in North Amherst, where 26 units of affordable housing became available in the new North Square Apartments, and the town has issued an RFP to reuse the old East Street School for even more affordable housing. The town council spoke volumes when in one of its first substantive actions it created the Energy and Climate Action Committee. This was a clear indicator that sustainability, reducing our carbon footprint, had to be a very high priority for the town. While the town has consistently been in the forefront of these efforts, we will be weaving a culture of sustainability into all of our decisions. Going forward, you will see a sustained commitment to improving our roads and sidewalks. This multi-year effort is clearly a priority for the town. We will also see renewed attention to the downtown area, the historic and commercial center of our community. We will bring proposals to the town council that will leverage private investments and state grants to make significant change to the downtown area such as a new playground in Kentrick Park. Our finances are strong, we have the right team in place, and we're going to need both to tackle the challenges ahead. First and foremost is the challenge of funding our capital investments in the four major facilities. The town initiated these four listening sessions during the past week and you can go online as Lynn said at amherstma.gov slash capital to see all the information we've assembled including the 22-minute video. As Lynn also mentioned we received a very positive news yesterday from the Massachusetts School of Building Authority. It has admitted the town into the first step of their building program that if we are successful will provide a substantial contribution to the cost of a new building. This is a long process five to seven years and will include extensive community involvement but every journey starts with the first step and yesterday's vote by the MSBA was our first step. To tackle these challenges we will continue to seek alternative sources of funds from a number of new sources like marijuana fees and short-term rental that's code for Airbnb. From new economic development in designated areas of town like recent developments on University Drive and the East Amherst Village Center and importantly from our nonprofit institutional partners who contribute so much to the fabric of our town and who at the same time benefit from our high-quality schools, enhanced public safety and public infrastructure investments. We are all in this together. Amherst has a bewildering number of faces. We are the quintessential college town with a bookstore stationary shop and in flanking the historic town common. At the same time within our bounds is a thriving city unto itself at the University with high-rise buildings, biological research facilities and an economic engine that employs thousands of people daily. We are an agricultural community with thousands of acres preserved permanently for this purpose and acres of conservation land that provides easy access to open space in every neighborhood and we are the commercial center for many from around the region seeking culture and entertainment. Let me end with this. Perhaps two of my favorite days of the year illustrate this best. First is the day when worlds collide. Right next door to the weekly farmers market with its artisan cheeses and organic fruits and vegetables is the town fair with its fried dough and whirlway rides and excited school kids of nearly every color racing around and directly adjacent to that is the Amherst College reunion with aging men and white slacks and blue blazers discussing the weighty issues of the day. These three worlds are only a few yards apart but they're all part of our community and all are a glory to witness together. The second day or actually two days is the fourth and fifth of July. In July fourth we have the games and food trucks and the community band that LSSC organizes culminating in the patriotic fireworks. A sweet celebration like in many other towns in America. The very next day we have the powerful reading of Frederick Douglass's What to the Slave is the Fourth of July which packs as much power tension and relevance as it did when it was written. This is not an exercise in political correctness. It is honoring the complexity of history including its gross injustices. Our democracy our country and our community truly is a work in progress and requires sustained engagement. Yes we can celebrate our independence but it is far from a perfect union. We have work to do. What is the state of the town? It is strong. It is sound and we continue to aim for a more perfect union. Thank you. So Lynn put her trust in the Vice President of the Council to do some introductions and that's not always wise Lynn. Because you forgot to recognize yourself when you were giving your state of the town and the town council could not be what it is today in our first year without the work that you Lynn have done as president. So I wanted to make sure at the state of the town that Lynn was recognized for all of the outstanding work she has done. And now she'll never let me introduce someone again. We are pleased to welcome as part of this event tonight the Amherst School Committee along with our Amherst School Superintendent both local and regional schools Mike Morris and the Jones Library Trustees along with our Library Director Sharon Sherry who are those two are over there there to provide a summary of their annual reports to the town council. This is also the summary is not a requirement of the charter but annual reports from the school committee, the library trustees, the Amherst Housing Authority, the Oliver Smith Will Elector and the Board of Licensed Commissioners are required under the charter and they all submitted them on time and they can all be found in our council packet for December 6th meeting. But two of the committees the school committee and the library trustees will be summarizing those reports tonight and I will be introducing both speakers and then they will come up to speak. The first one is our school committee chair Anastasia Ordonez. During her time as chair of the school committee Anastasia Ordonez has championed the needs of our children and of our educators as well as searched for answers to our deteriorating elementary school buildings. As a Latina woman who has raised who was raised by a single Spanish speaking mother Chair Ordonez has met challenges head on and very often brought a new lens to the discussions of budgeting and funding to our educators. In her professional life Ms. Ordonez works as a communications consultant for nonprofit organizations and has an extensive background in public relations and public education campaigns. Ms. Ordonez has a bachelor's degree in English literature and political science and a master's degree in women's studies all from Rutgers University. Glad you moved up from Jersey. She is an Amherst resident and her children attend our schools but before I move on to introducing our library trustee president I also want to say thank you. This is her fulfilling one of her last requirements as school committee chair because she will not be continuing on she chose not to run for reelection. So I want us to recognize all of the work she has done for the town over the years as chair. After we hear from her we will hear from the library trustees general library trustees president Austin Sarat. You can call him chair Sarat, professor Sarat, coach Sarat. He has many titles. Mr. Sarat has lived in the town of Amherst and influenced students on the Amherst college campus for close to 45 years yet his influence has reached further than the small liberal arts college campus on which his classes regularly fill up. He chose to raise his family here and coached Little League Baseball in Amherst. In so many ways professor Sarat has put his acumen to work for our town. As the this is where it gets to all those titles the William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science the associate provost and associate dean of the faculty the chair of law jurisprudence and social thought department at Amherst college. He has done a lot. He will address us this evening not from those positions but from the position as president of the Jones library system board of trustees. He has degrees from Yale law school the University of Wisconsin and Providence College but we are proud to have him represent us and our libraries this evening. So sit back enjoy his rhetoric and see why his classes regularly fill up. Next time you're going to have to send your own instead of trust in us to write it. We now welcome school committee chair Anna Staser Adonis and library trustees president Austin Sarat to the podium. Councilor Haneke for that introduction I am amazed that you found all that biographical information but thank you all for being here tonight. As mentioned I am the chair of the Amherst school committee and I'd like to thank the town council and town manager for the invitation to present the state of Amherst schools tonight and to all of the of you in attendance. I want to also acknowledge our superintendent Dr. Michael Morris and our other four school committee members Eric Nakajima, Allison McDonald, Carrie Spitzer and Peter Demling. It is an honor and a privilege to serve you all. Who we are in 2019 Amherst public schools host a diverse and engaged student body that lead in our communities through political and civic advocacy, gardening programs, community enrichment, performing arts, academic focus, cultural events and in many other ways. We're proud of our Amherst elementary school students, educators, staff and volunteers and here's just a few images of them at work and at play in school. A few facts about our elementary schools. Amherst has three public schools that are roughly the same in student population and demographics. Our three schools are our Wildwood Fort River and Crocker Farm and there are approximately 1,146 students in grades preschool through grade six. There are also about 90 students who currently choice in from other surrounding school districts. Our elementary school budget for fiscal year 2020 is 23,838,854. We enjoy a strong statewide reputation for our public schools, a legacy that our community values and prioritizes. A few highlights of the current state of our academics include the district consistently meets state progress and accountability goals through persistent gaps among remain among high need students and other groups. We rank significantly above state average in student attendance. Our schools exceed districts goals to lower student discipline rates with an emphasis on social emotional well-being. We have consistently low participation rates in MCAS testing. This test is not required below grade 10 and we've seen a decline in recent years of our students choosing to attend local charter schools, 84 total down 3.4 percent. Our community is changing making us more ethnically, racially and culturally diverse. This is a wonderful thing that is celebrated in our schools. To give you a sense of these changes I've highlighted demographic shifts in the following slides. These are our high need students over the past three years. A high need student is defined in the state of Massachusetts as either low income prior to school year 2015, economically disadvantaged starting in school year 2015, or ELL or former ELL or student with disabilities. These are the numbers for the past three years of our economically disadvantaged students. According to the state of Massachusetts an economically disadvantaged student is calculated based on the student's participation in one or more of the following state administered programs. The supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP, the transitional assistance for families with dependent children, TAF DC, the Department of Children and Families DCF foster care program and MassHealth Medicaid. The number of English language learners has stayed relatively flat in the past few years and our students identified with disabilities have trended upwards over the past few years and are currently at 21%. The next few slides identify the racial and ethnic makeup of our school's students. There are many accomplishments in the district that help maintain an excellent reputation for elementary schools across the state. Here are a few highlights of this past year's accomplishments that we wanted to bring to the councils and the town's attention. Our dual language program, 37 kindergarten students, nearly 50% have Spanish language background. This is a new program that we brought into the district this past year. Strategic improvement plan, each school developing building-wide program to focus on social emotional well-being, improved communication and engagement with parents and caregivers and project-based instruction. The MSBA application, which has already been mentioned and we were celebrating, folks might have heard the good news that just yesterday the MSBA voted unanimously to accept Amherst into its core program pipeline. We're grateful for this opportunity and grateful for all the educators, parents and concerned community members who attended the nine listening sessions held earlier this year to build a consensus plan for a proposed K-5 or K-6 building to replace Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools. And finally the sixth grade advisory group, exploring various aspects of whether sixth grade should move to the Amherst Regional Middle School. A recommendation is expected from this group in early 2020. But there are also significant challenges that will require the complete attention of the school committee, superintendent and community to address. Significant facilities investments will be needed in the next few years, regardless of our MSBA timeline due to failing operational systems. Added support to close academic gaps so that all students can meet expectations and succeed. And we continue to want and need more engagement from parents, caregivers and community and our schools and district are focused on making this happen. There's a lot more that I could talk about with respect to our schools. They make us proud every single day but this program does have a time limit so I'll leave it at that. This concludes the state of our school's report to the town. A formal written report has been submitted or will be submitted soon to accompany this presentation. If you have any questions you can always reach out to this Amherst School Committee via email or to the superintendent and those email addresses are up but thank you very much for this opportunity. Council, my town manager for the opportunity to talk about Amherst Crown Jewel, its library system. Before I do that I want to say what a great pleasure it was to coach in the Amherst Little League and I'd like to talk to coach Zomac afterwards about the playing time of my son who's now 23 but still carries a little bit of a grudge. Amherst libraries, the Jones, the Munson and the North Amherst Library, they're magic places. They're places where children first encounter the wonders of books and the magic doesn't stop when childhood ends as any adult reader knows when that reader finds an unexpected treasure browsing the adult reading collection. Our libraries are places where hospitality comes alive, when our great staff learns to greet patrons not just as people they serve but as people they come to know. Our libraries are transformational spaces where English language learners come to master the nuances of this mysterious language and where places where immigrants and new residents to our town come to study to become citizens. Our libraries are essential places where vulnerable and disadvantaged people every day are help navigating, help with navigating the challenges of everyday life. They're places where they're homeless, find refuge and the lonely find companionship. They're places where book lovers find nurturance and a time when some question the value of books. Our libraries offer hope, the hope that comes alive in books which record the moments when what was once understood to be impossible is conquered by human imagination. Our libraries honor our varied paths and point us towards a shared future and along with our public schools our libraries are a town's most democratic places where the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the longtime resident and the newcomer interact and are served as equals. They are places where facts matter, I'll say that again, they are places where facts matter, where civility reigns and where the doors are open to everyone. Amherst has much to be proud of in the work that is done every day at the Jones, the Munson and the North Amherst Library. I'm grateful for the work that is done by the trustees of the Jones with whom I'm privileged to serve. I'm grateful for the work of the staff and I particularly want to recognize our very dedicated, very talented and very skilled director Sharon Sherry. You owe me big time for that. I also want to recognize people who serve the library without office or without compensation, our wonderful volunteers and the people for whom the Jones really is a labor of love. There is no wiser or wittier resident of Amherst than Louis Manger, who attends every board meeting and gives us a gracious, well-informed and sometimes pointed lesson on the things that we do wrong. 2019 has been a year of great accomplishment for our three great libraries, but there's much that needs to be done to sustain them and to make our libraries work for all of Amherst residents. Amherst is much to be proud as a progressive town. This is the year when Amherst will decide whether to put its money where its values are. Let me offer a few facts about our libraries. Every year 270,000 patrons use our libraries. Every year more than 400,000 items are loaned from our libraries. Almost 7,000 people attend youth programs, 26,000 reference questions are answered, and over 2,500 people attend our English as a second language classes. The services our libraries provide include homebound delivery of books for those who are unable to make it to the library, meeting rooms where countless civic groups come together, computer access, and even access to an in-house social worker. Our patrons checked out a full range of things from our libraries including some of my favorites, banjos and ukuleles, which have been checked out over 200 times. Our town needs to become even more musical than that. Library programs include bilingual story towns, time on the same page, community reads, and five different summer reading programs. What all Amherst residents know is that our libraries are more than a museum of books. They are essential service organizations, social service organizations, which knit our community together. Some continue to believe that these services ought to be provided in different places. Why have teens in the library? Why have English as second language in the library? Why have an art gallery in the library? Well, the library of today is, as I said, more than a museum of books. It is essential as a crossroads for our community. Our library contributes to the cultural vibrancy of our town. The Jones is a destination for young families, for people who take advantage of our rich program, and for visitors to our town. The Jones is essential to the economic well-being of our town. The Munson and the North Amherst libraries are indispensable to their communities. We estimate that the value of the books, services, and materials which libraries provided last year was $9 million. The town's contribution to our budget was about $1.9 million. My math isn't very good, but that seems to me to suggest that the town got about $4 for every dollar it invested. You're a tough audience. Yet the cost is more. The costs of running our libraries are rising faster than our town appropriations can rise. And they are outstripping even our energetic fundraising abilities. Hard choices are made every day about what we can do to serve the needs of the town. Amidst the daily work that our libraries do, we have expended this year considerable effort in looking out over the horizon. We carry out a comprehensive long-range planning process for our two branches. In this process, we reached out to our residents and our users to find out what they wanted and what they needed. We've established a sustainability committee to make our buildings and our programs sustainable over time and to set a model for the town of Amherst. And we're in the process of creating an accessibility committee to help us think about the ways we can better serve users with physical and other kinds of challenges. We've entered into a new partnership with the friends to carry out our fundraising efforts. Many of you in past years would get letters from the library and letters from the friends and sometimes couldn't decide where to send your contributions. This new fundraising structure will eliminate confusion and we hope produce stronger fundraising results. Perhaps the most important of our efforts to look out over the horizon was the work that is being done to plan for the renovation and expansion of the Jones. In July of next year we expect to receive a grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library commissioners to provide substantial funding for long overdue renovation and expansion of the Jones Library. The town will have six months to decide whether or not it wants to match the state grant and to move forward. How many of you have been in the Jones Library? So you could keep your hands up that would be very affirming for me. If you've been in the Jones Library you know that as proud as we are of that library, that library needs a lot of work. The original 1928 portion of the library is not ADA compliant. There are real safety issues in the library because of its physical configuration. The HM Roof of the 1993 edition has leaked since it was installed and if you've been in the library on a rainy day or a kind of warm day after the snow in April or March you know that our library is decorated with buckets to capture the water that leaks in. We need new HVAC equipment. The only adult public restrooms are located in the lower level and the building is not wired properly for the 21st century and even if we were able to meet all those challenges by renovating in the existing footprint we need more space than we have. We need to have better space and more space to serve the needs of children. Right now the children's room is not large enough to house its entire collection. We need more space to become fully ADA compliant. We need more space to serve teens and young adults. We need more space to serve the growing population of English language learners who seek our help. And we need more space to help us preserve Amherst history. Right now our Special Collections Department lacks sufficient stored space to acquire new manuscripts. And we need more space so that book lovers have comfortable places to read. We need more space to meet the technology needs of Amherst low-income and homeless population. Ask to comment on the town's annual report. I thought a little bit of history might be helpful. So let me report on the 1910 annual report. Make yourself comfortable. So this is from the town town libraries annual report in 1910 and this was a golden finding by our wonderful Special Collections librarian. This is a quote from a librarian in that report. Nothing can be more discouraging to a librarian. Wishing to make the library a real service to the community than the necessity of a constant struggle with absolutely unfit conditions. Change is never easy especially in a town as progressive as ours. Change is never easy when what is sought to be changed is so loved by so many. The library of today is more than a storehouse of books. The physical facility of the Jones was renovated in 1967 and in 1993 it was also expanded. I urge you to go back and revisit the town debates of those times. What you will find is that both times the changes were met with resistance but both times the town recognized that the changing needs of the town meant that the Jones would have to change. Today no one wants to expand the Jones library. However we need to expand the Jones library to fulfill the vision of those who established this gem and to maintain it as our communities crossroads. For Amherst libraries this is a time of challenge of renewal and of possibility. If we prize the magic that happens the hospitality that is offered the transformations that are made possible the nurture and refuge that is provided and the democratic possibility that is realized every day in our libraries we need to meet the challenges. The famous astronomer Carl Sagan got it right when he said the health of our civilization the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries. For Amherst the next year we'll go a long way to determining whether we will pass that test. Thank you and more playing time for my son. Those coaching duties live with you forever forever so we are very pleased to welcome our state senator Joe Comaford and our state representative Mindy Dom to provide us with a legislative perspective on the year. Their joint presentation is an example of their commitment to work together on behalf of the residents of their districts and although they probably need no introduction I'm going to give one anyway. Joe Comaford's reputation while far reaching embraces the human services from homelessness prison reform to crisis intervention. More recently she was the executive director for the national priorities project a national budget and tax priorities research organization and prior to her election to the great and general court of Massachusetts gotta love the title. Joe had been the campaign director for move on dot org. Mindy Dom has dedicated her life to addressing the needs of underserved communities supporting vulnerable individuals and advocating for fairness and equity from 2013 until her election to the House of Representatives in Massachusetts she was the executive director of the Amherst Survival Center which is why she probably needs no introduction in this town. She connected residents of Amherst and surrounding towns to food, clothing, healthcare, wellness, community and a variety of other assistance. Mindy has led statewide programs in Massachusetts to educate staff of drug and alcohol treatment programs jails and homeless shelters on issues of HIV and AIDS hepatitis and overdose prevention and last but not least she was also a former member of the Amherst town meeting. So please join me in welcoming our state senator and state representative. Good evening everybody this is exciting to be part of the very first state of the town. There we go okay it's a report from Beacon Hill to Amherst. A note before we begin if you have questions or concerns on anything that we speak about or that you see please get in touch with us afterwards. We're recognizing that there's a time limit but that may mean that you may want to have continued conversation. Oh by the way I'm Mindy Dom, I'm the state representative of the Thorn Hampshire. Senator would you like to introduce yourself? I'm Joe and I'm your senator in the Hampshire Franklin Worcester district. Thank you. And Joe represents 19 towns. 24. Amherst plus 23. And I represent two and a half so there's there you go. So here's a little bit of context before we both took office. We heard a lot and we experienced a real loss of a lot of senior and veteran legislators and a lot of concerns from constituents around the loss of skills experience knowledge and the turnover of the entire delegation. I had heard a lot about the loss of both Solomon Goldstein Rose and Ellen Story. And I had heard considerable amounts and shared the belief that we were losing a great deal with Stans unmatched sorry sorry Alice Stans unmatched legislative expertise. And many of you know that the prior delegation included three men and one woman which was actually historic that Ellen was there for about 24 years and then later four men and then we got elected. Would you like me to take on this? And so in January things changed. There were all new legislators for the entire region. The delegation now includes three women and one man but we all brought a lot of experience in the community in nonprofits advocacy and human services. So as as Mindy is saying I think well in in the lead up one of the things that was the hallmark of the outgoing delegation is that they work together in strategic and very creative ways and we believe the same. Mindy and I along with Rep's Carrie and Blay and others know that we are stronger when we're together as a legislative duo or trio or quartet. And we're also much much much stronger when we're in partnership with you with this beautiful town council with community government with constituents. And those are the two I think this two of them are the sort of special sauce that we have embraced in these first 11 months. So here's a little bit about how we see our shared responsibilities. We believe that we are your advocates. We're your advocates in partnership with your own advocacy. We're your advocates to advocate together inside the building for issues that are of mutual concern. We support your engagement. That's part of what we're supposed to do every day that we go to Beacon Hill or stay in the district. Again we're only as strong as all of you combined which is fairly mighty when you think about Amherst's power. So we want to leverage all of your advocacy. We are supposed to and do introduce and cosponsor legislation. We are supposed to and do go to hearings and you'll see some pictures of us together at hearings individually at hearings both raising your voices through us and actually reading your testimony at hearings and then again bringing our belief that our constituents support or oppose depending on the bill a particular piece of legislation. We join legislative caucuses and we're going to talk a little bit more about what they are later. We are supposed to engage robustly with the budget process. We just passed a supplemental budget just last night it was a little bit painstaking but we pass also annually a budget and that's supposed to both deliver meaningful line items like our school budget money which we I know all fought for in terms of the new Student Opportunity Act but also should be in the form of earmarks which we deliver that are specifically beneficial to Amherst. We should bring Beacon Hill out to western mass and we'll talk a little bit more about how we're doing that in just a moment and we should be fully accessible to you completely transparent and we should prioritize constituent services. Our job is to bend state government to work in the best interests of our constituents and we do that in numbers of ways not the least of which is just real problem solving for and on behalf of and with real people. So here's just a quick rundown we don't have to read all of the committee assignments but I was at all senators go in and are appointed as chairs to committees there's just fewer of us so there's no there's no really special secret there so I'm the the senate chair of the joint committee on public health I was delighted to be appointed to that I wanted to do a health care committee I'm delighted to join Mindy on higher ed I'm the vice chair of higher ed and then I was appointed to a series of committees that both reflect my expertise that I brought with me to the building but also the interests of our community. And for in the house you get an opportunity to submit your preferences for committees I was delighted that I got two out of my three requests and they were higher education and revenue and I'm hoping that we'll do some work in revenue when we return in January. I also want to so in terms of advocacy I don't know if you can see some of these photos on the far left is the sort of social media graphic that we developed for when the commissioner of higher ed came out to Amherst based on our invitation to report to the town about the college closure issue and what the administration was thinking about but more importantly Joe and I wanted him to come out to hear from the town as to what was important to us in terms of college closure all of which kind of came together in legislation which we'll talk about later there's also photos here just to point out we were at a rally against the immigration policies in the country and how they kind of impact local areas with the League of Women Voters at a recent environmental discussion and testifying at UMass on an environmental matter and so our role around advocacy is really not just to partner with you when you advocate and to participate with you and to witness it but it's also to take the initiative to be advocating as well. And here's another type of advocacy we heard a great deal both of us about the need to invest in public transit and public transit is of course our bus our beautiful PVTA but it's also rail and so just this is just one case example with regard to rail we both are behind both legislation that would push east west rail both from Springfield and along the route to Corridor and we've also been watchdogging the Valley Flyer service which is the new north south service that goes down and back to New York from Greenfield now two times more every day so this is both a legislative opportunity for us right we introduce bills we get them passed through committee we go testify on them and then with regard to the Valley Flyer we've convened twice monthly calls where we bring together all of the legislative delegation and Mindy and I have done this together along with planning agencies along with our federal and state colleagues at the planning agency and the Amtrak and MassDOT sectors and we problem solve about how to make that service better how to sustain the pilot how to deepen the commitment of the Commonwealth to rail service in our Valley and this is just another slide this is actually a great student walkout where Mindy and I joined the students together and this again goes back to our belief that part of what we should be doing is leveraging our offices to make sure that the voices of constituents are both central and actually expanded through everything we can so we took news of this walkout with us to Beacon Hill and we talked about the commitment of our constituents to this kind of green new day that we all want if I can just add on that a hat tip and a thank you to Dr. Mars and the school department for supporting that walkout and talking with students beforehand about how to organize it how to make it safe and how to make sure that they could do it and that they could still be safe so in terms of legislation we file legislation we co-sponsor legislation there's a cycle to legislation some legislation gets passed into laws some is churning around in committees we wanted to talk a little bit about some legislation that's in each piece some of which we share some of which we don't so here's some legislation that's been signed into law and you'll notice the list is quite substantial and I just want to point that out because I have heard a lot from constituents about almost like the state legislature is a do-nothing body and we could be doing more but we've also done a lot so you'll see a couple of things I just want to point out the Student Opportunity Act was just passed at the end of November this is the revolutionary once in a generation refunding of the reformulizing the funding formula for schools that legislation includes very few amendments from the House and the Senate and I just want to point out that two of the amendments that are in that law are both authored by Senator Cumberford and myself one Joe has one in there exploring the impact of Proposition Two and a Half on communities ability to find the resources to pay for schools something that Amherst actually experiences very profoundly and my amendment which subjects charter schools to the same accountability that district schools have to do so can I say one more thing sure and in the bill itself when you read the bill you can see bills that Mindy and I put in and Natalie and I put in that were sucked into the major bill and those bills are rooted in communities like Amherst they're shaped by the advocacy from Amherst all throughout the process and then this didn't happen just because the legislature thought it was a nice thing to do people pushed for it and Amherst was one of the most central driving forces both on the phone with the chairs at public meetings writing comments and pushing the ideas that are in that bill right now and that's both Amherst parents educators and school committee members who are taking those opportunities to do that I think this is also sort of an invitation to continue to be in touch with us because your voice and your comments are resulting in legislation and in action I just want to point out that the asterisks on this list indicate legislation that became law over the veto of the governor so I know the governor has a lot of different kinds of reputation but I just want to point out that there are at least two bills that the House and the Senate had to override him after voting unanimously for in order for them to get into law one was lifting the cap which basically is a program that allows every child who's born into a low-income family to get the resources or at least the public assistance that their siblings are getting and on the Janus decision this is the legislature's attempt to insulate our unions and our public employees from the supreme court decision that limited collective bargaining we passed it the governor vetoed it we overwrote them so I just really want to point that out when you're thinking about governors of the future but you'll I can say things I can say things like that now because I'm an elected official when I was an executive director of a nonprofit I couldn't do it but I you'll see that the other lists are all legislation that has since been signed into law there are some pieces that have been supported by the House and they wait action by the Senate the top one is one that I just want to say a few words about the green works is a long-term bonding kind of program that would provide municipalities with funds to take part in climate resiliency and climate adaptation work and so hopefully the Senate will take that up in January and these are just these are some of the bills that have passed the Senate again these are awaiting action in the house and this is again where Mindy and I are in close contact with each other we want I we want because Mindy wants it for the House bills to make their way robustly to the Senate and the same thing right so this is again how we help magnify the whole so this is a list I'll just draw your attention to the gender ID bill I'm proud to say that was a bill I filed I picked up the Senate President's challenge I did it because of a constituent and Mindy has a bill in the House that is very much like this bill so again this is where these were the first bills we filed Mind happened to pass the Senate because it had the favor of the Senate President it took some work and we made it much better through the process than the original bill and then the Pharmaceutical Access Cost and Transparency Transparency Act that's called the PACT Act that's a very good piece of legislation I believe I'm a believer in Medicare for all but I do really want to credit this bill as really moving the needle on especially pharmaceutical costs which is the fastest growing cost for many people especially those in the mass health sector so this is a good cost control bill that will help improve the affordability accessibility of our health care yeah right and I hope you're enjoying the photos these are Mindy found a lot of these photos that we've been collecting over these 11 months and then we just want to draw your attention to there are bills that we filed on January 18th of this year that are in committee and or making their way out of committee one such bill actually was inspired by Amherst it's called the Amherst Bill that I put in and this is a net zero construction bill this has made its way out of committee and maybe actually part of the Senate bill on climate which we hope to see later in the year Mindy has had you know do you want to speak any about your okay Mindy has also had bills which have made their way through the process so we're showing you the aggregate but our you know there are 6,300 bills filed every session or at least this session so not all of them are represented in those grand totals and this slide just actually allows us to talk about our the thing that we talked about earlier which was legislative caucuses so legislative caucuses and we won't go into great detail here are ways that we can organize ourselves around ideas so Mindy and I are members of all of these caucuses and we get to help draw and drive the agenda for these caucuses we're members because we care about them and we have some expertise but actually we're really members because you care about them and flagged them for us and you know one such piece of advocacy and you got to love the librarians they noticed this is I'm telling you the librarians are the fiercest advocacy group we have you know they noticed that I wasn't yet a formal member now of course I care about libraries we fight for the line items every year but I hadn't joined the library caucus and boy I got on and again this is how you're very powerful in this process and so we organize ourselves around these ideas and we move agendas like a whole suite of bills or we'll fight together for a line item that's important or a new idea or we'll fight to block something that's egregious so just a few points about the FY20 budget I'm not going to go through all of this except to say that the time period that this usually happens is somewhere between April and the end of the fiscal year which is July 31st and so the house goes first the senate goes next and what that means is if you have concerns and ideas about particular line items that you want to see protected now's a good time to be talking to us about it because we'll be talking to leadership in both houses in January and February. The budget is also a place where we're able to get earmarks which is not a dirty word apparently in the state legislature and these are the earmarks that Joe and I were able to get that directly benefit Amherst so you'll see that we were able to get $25,000 for the community choice energy partnership that Amherst has with Pellum another $25,000 for climate related activities $25,000 to the Musanti Health Center and Senator Cumberford was able to get together with you. Nothing happens nothing happens in silos 250,000 to market the valley flyer which was good which will hopefully make sure that that pilot program of a train service is successful and sustainable building more support for an east-west train the more we can show that people will ride the train the more they'll ride the train going all directions but you'll see the other areas that Senator Cumberford was actually the lead author on for earmarks including the Children's Advocacy Center and the Western Mass Network to end homelessness. One of the other things that we brought on together as a team are these things called legislative listening which is the next slide so we started this last winter we're doing it again this winter we're organizing ourselves so that our constituents have an easier time reaching us and not only reaching us individually but reaching us as a team so we're doing four of these this winter so Mindy will host hers next we're this time we're trying them a little bit differently last year people could sign up and and we'd hear about a bunch of topics now we're doing them actually by topic so the last the first one we had was in Sunderland on economic development and we'll go through the months again this is because we believe that our job is to make ourselves as accessible as possible to you in an organized manner to maximize your ability to influence us we also spend a lot of time hosting groups at the state house so these are two Amherst related groups that we were able to both take in and celebrate but also then tour around the state house and help them believe in what we believe which is that this is the people's house and we bring a lot of state agencies out to Beacon Hill this is a picture from a hearing that we hosted especially with leadership from Natalie where we brought the DOER out to talk about the new smart regulations so that's we wanted to talk about this new opportunity that we should and can influence around the new solar regulations that are happening so we brought our colleagues to UMass so that they would be closer to you and we could pack a house with people who really want to make sure that their voices are heard sure it's a little bit different than this but it goes back to the legislative listening sessions the one that just took place in Sunderland I just want to kind of point out this is another way of bringing not just constituents sort of to Beacon Hill but not having to make the schlepp on the pike but at that one that we did in Sunderland it happened to be that the chairwoman for the economic development committee was going to be in the valley doing some other kind of touring and we arranged for her to come to the legislative listening session and then we developed panels of folks from throughout the region to talk to her about different aspects of economic development so it turned out to be a regional hearing on economic development with the chair of the committee with no other distractions no other regions being talked about no other parts of the commonwealth invaluable experience to be able to have that with her for constituents as well as for legislators and this next slide is actually a slide that actually represents the work that we did together with the house and senate chairs of the joint committee on education where we brought them here to Northampton and you can see Amherst representatives helping pack that room and talk about the student opportunity act again making sure the ideas from this region were central in that bill and then we see them come out we are also building on what Mindy was just saying about the act of hearing in Sunderland we're also going to host the joint committee on economic development at the University of Massachusetts just this winter sometime in February and we've actually gone one step further and we've hosted hearings so as the senate chair of the joint committee on public health I have the ability to convene oversight hearings so why do them all in Boston why not talk about the big ideas here in Western Massachusetts so we've held two formal oversight hearings in partnership with the western mass delegation one on food security and the intersection of public health one on rural health care we've also hosted a forum on water and sewer security and infrastructure Mindy and I are going to do a college affordability forum where we bring our colleagues out so this is again we shouldn't and we can't only focus east we must ask our colleagues to focus in the west and not only focus in the west but come to the west and hear directly from our constituents. In addition to that you heard from us during the campaign about leveraging the expertise in the district and bringing that to Boston and we've done that at least one time and we'll be doing it again in a couple months where we brought some of the major researchers from U Mass to come to the state house and give a briefing on battery energy storage technology and this is a really big piece of the whole Green New Deal you can't go 100% renewable unless you have battery storage but it was a way for us to show off the U Mass researchers but also bring together colleagues from a range of interests manufacturing the environment climate and have them hear about what was happening in U Mass but more importantly how Massachusetts is poised to be a leader in that industry because if we're a leader in that industry that benefits the university and that was terrific fun and very well attended and we hope we're going to do another one in March with the wind researchers around the same kind of issues trying to build up not only the research that's happening at the university which is in our district but also definitely connecting it to a Green New Deal and climate work in the state. So in terms of access and transparency there are many things that we share including a joint district office that we were able to get at the U Mass campus on a public bus route where you can meet with us there we can also meet with folks in town we have each of us has community office hours in their district Joe has about 25 of them every month I have three but there's also that's just an opportunity for people to come if they don't want to schedule a separate time but I think if there's ever a reason why someone needs privacy or individualized meetings they certainly can call and schedule that. We have the legislative listening sessions that you heard about there are monthly radio shows each of us is on WHMP at different times during the month we both are pretty active on social media that's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as a way of being accountable it's not just to sort of slap ourselves on the back it's really a way to say this is what we're doing these are the issues that are important to us she is much better than I about being timely with her posts I'm always going to be about a week probably in the distance and we have websites hers was better and but I just want it's impossible but the websites really are there for people who say I don't do Facebook I don't do Twitter I don't do Instagram but how do I find out about you that's a good place to go that's a good place to know where to contact us that's a good way to also make sure if you want a citation because someone's retiring turning a hundred years old or 90 or something may has a great accomplishment let us know and you can do that on both of our websites individually and you can sign up for our email alerts yes and our newsletter off of that off of those websites we have email alerts that we don't send that often maybe once a month but that's a way to also stay abreast we try not to overdo it and so we both have emails that are up here telephone numbers as well as websites please be in touch with us and really the most important thing is thank you for the honor of representing you and now I'm really going to embarrass Senator Cumberford because what I also want to say to my amorous neighbors is thank you for electing a terrific state senator thank you Joe and Mindy who's very very informative and particularly providing us with all the ways to reach you I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for joining us this evening and for your ongoing support of the Amherst town council and your patients we can be reached collectively at town council at AmherstMA.gov or you can go on the town website look up our mug shots and get our individual emails as well again thank you this meeting is officially adjourned