 Good evening and welcome to Byline, a brand new public affairs show here at Amherst Media and it's sponsored by the League of Women Voters. You'll see this program every Friday evening at 8 o'clock beginning on January 4th and you'll see the same show rebroadcast on Monday evening following that 30 minutes before the council actually meets and they won't meet every week but they'll meet frequently and this particular show will be broadcast then on Friday January 4th and again on Monday January 7th and in between you can see it on Amherst Media's YouTube channel and probably on other social media venues as time goes by and people start picking up on the availability of this broadcast and the purpose of this show is simply to provide an opportunity for us to get to know much better the legislators who represent us both here in town on the newly elected and sworn in and organized town council and also our newly elected state representative Mindy Dom and our newly elected state senator Joe Comerford and we hope to in the first let's say three months or so it's really going to focus a lot on trying to get to know these individuals better because as in the case of the town council we all had to have the opportunity to vote for three at large counselors so we probably know a lot more about each of them than we do district counselors outside of the district in which we live because we each got to vote for two district counselors we probably did a pretty good job figuring out who they were but we may not know much about the district counselors in the other districts and after all they all have an equal vote and their decisions and their work will affect each and every one of us whether they represent us directly or indirectly as they serve on the council from a district and similarly with Joe and Mindy we want to get to know them better and what's going on in Beacon Hill so this public affairs show will broadcast every Friday night and the following Monday night with the same broadcast and when the town council is in session Amherst TV will cut right to their meeting upon the completion of our show not that our show will take precedence over the meeting but it just so happens our 30 minute show will proceed the town council meeting and so with that backdrop we get to welcome our first guest Lynn Griezmer and Lynn is elected at a district council level and but she also has the distinction of having been elected the first president of the Amherst town council which is a significant honor and a significant responsibility because everything the council does in this first three-year term is going to set precedent and people are going to look to those actual rules and decisions but also the informal things that go on and it will really help set the tone the direction and create the precedence for how counselors are going to think of themselves how they're going to work together and how the community is going to interact with them and then how the community is going to view the council so very important three-year period and your job is an extraordinarily important one and it's great that you're retired and can work at this job about 80 hours a week because that's probably what you're going to need is that about right Lynn I'm trying to keep it to 20 trying to keep it to 20 okay well good luck with that thank you I know you're very responsibility oriented person so you'll do whatever it takes however many hours it takes because that's in your nature and speaking of that let's begin with a little bit of background so I know and maybe other people in town know that you worked at the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts and you are also at the senior level in the UMass president's office doing some work on economic development but your real sort of publicly known role in the university is with the Donahue Institute and you were a program officer there and researcher and then you became the director somewhere along the way right and when you took over it had about a budget of about two million dollars somewhere two to three two to three and you work with communities and state government doing research and programming and training and helping them do a better job at what they do but the other distinguishing characteristic was that your budget when you retired was now at twenty million dollars so I'm going to say tenfold increase that's a pretty remarkable accomplishment especially when you think about the work that you guys were doing because you were trying to help our democracy run better what did you get from that whole experience that you're bringing to the table at the town council one of the things that actually goes even beyond early my early years in my professional life which spans almost 50 years is I really just love to do startups and organizing how people proceed with if you will big efforts and this is a big effort and so what I bring is that experience of how to look at something how to listen to different people and how to then put a structure that allows this council in this case to be able to make decisions and move forward in the interest of the town excellent so team building yeah organization structure what other skills from other life experience are you bringing to the table well I think the other piece another piece for example is I've had a long involvement with the Amherst survival center and what that has allowed me to do is truly understand a lot more about the region but specifically Amherst and understand that Amherst is not made up of only people who are if you will have lots of resources in fact Amherst is one of 50 communities in Massachusetts that have are at the lower poverty level and so there's a lot of need in Amherst and a lot of voices that are not heard hidden poverty hidden poverty and a lot of voices that are not heard and so I think one of the things that not only do we need to be listening to those people who have always been vocal in Amherst but we need to be figuring out how to reach to the many many other people who don't always feel they have a voice and yet they're affected by our decisions and by how the town will move forward excellent now we learn forever right we certainly we're always learning so in this job what new skills and growth do you hope for yourself will evolve over time as a result of you serving on the council and now serving as president of the council I think the interesting thing for me in this is you know as you mentioned I've spent a fair amount of my time with the University of Massachusetts this executive director of the UMass Donahue Institute but then also as associate vice president for economic development but when you're in the council you're actually there making decisions that will affect the economic future of Amherst and that's different than the roles I've played in the past where I've been more working with other people who were making those decisions and now it's really how do we get to those decisions how do we weigh those decisions and politically how do we sell those ideas excellent and so let's let's focus now on your role as president so what's your philosophy about leadership in this situation that you're in if you look at state legislatures and city and town councils you see all different models of leadership some are very directive some are encouraging and creating some direction but not directive some are facilitators and consensus builders what's your job as president of the council and what's your philosophy of how to lead in the situation in which you find yourself as president I think I fall in the latter two more of a facilitator more of a trying to find consensus and build on that as we start tackling in these next several months some of the bigger issues that the town is facing what you'll see is that I'll be listening to the various council members and what they are saying and what they feel and then I'll be trying to wave or weave my way through that with something that I think hits the major issues that most of them are interested in you know we have some things coming up in our agenda in the next month or so where I've already been in that role we're actually in this case trying to listen to both what is the town already done what are the experts on our town staff know and what do people in the community who are experts in various areas also know and then how do you mesh that together in a way that forms the kind of structure that will allow Amherst to embrace and move forward what do you look for from the other counselors in terms of how they work together and what role can you as president of the council and your vice president in your absence what can you do to contribute to the dynamic that you think is the ideal dynamic for how the council should be working together well first of all it's it's a terrific body there are just on that council in addition to myself 12 extremely talented and very very interested people prior to us being sworn in and apps actually during a lot of the campaigning as well I met with various with every one of the counselors I tested out what their interests are I have pages and pages of my notes from those times and looking for opportunities for where each of the counselors can themselves take a leadership role on an issue on a couple different issues and I think we'll see that happening we're already seeing it we see people taking advantage of various meetings around town of committees and so forth and council people will show up because they're in the process of being educated and so in addition to the education it's also then helping each counselor find their place where they can provide leadership they can be the expert person for the council and maybe with another counselor as well so I'm hoping that's the way the council moves forward and I think we have the right body to do that so you see all of the counselors actually as elected leaders absolutely and your job is to help them be the leaders they were elected to be by helping them by by by helping bring to the table their specialties and their and their skill sets in their capacity and their interests and their interests are you also a referee oh yes talk about that well I think referees often have to you know again do a lot of listening and find the middle ground and you know there's we've already had situations in our council meetings where it was apparent that we could not come to a consensus in a way that we could move a certain committee forward as a standing committee and so we're taking it back off the table we'll discuss it at a future retreat and at that point we may or may not go forward with that committee but it's referring between people for example say we don't have any need for that committee and other people who not only say I want that committee but I want to be on that committee so that style that you're describing sounds like you hope it's ready for prime time right you get it on the agenda you go to the meeting you find out that it isn't quite ready for prime time and there's no harm and no embarrassment and should not be taken so to set it aside temporarily go back and do some more work and then bring it back to the table so you don't have to get it exactly right the first time but by the time you finally vote and make the decision that everybody lives with you hope that it will be the right the right course right and kind of dynamic you want to try to set up right and of course because we are a public body we because because we are the legislative body we have to do everything in open meeting right and you know it's as you know from your many many years in politics if you don't like watching process then this is not the place for you to be big so they're not patient enough to listen to everybody until they've had their say but also if you're not willing to say I'm not gonna repeat it but I agree with what Sally just exactly so that you can get all the ideas on the table think them through and make a decision right that's great you've only had one controversial really controversial vote so far on the council and that was the vice president yes if I got that right the others were pretty routine and most of them were unanimous or close to unanimous and so pretty I think on the issue of whether we would move from 7 o'clock to 6 30 we had a 9 to 4 about a 9 to 4 about the only one where there might have been more of a sense of a split okay sometimes the easiest things end up being the hardest things don't they but in the case of the of the vote on the on vice president you you voted to break the tie so this opens up another area which is you know in some legislative bodies the presiding officer doesn't vote except to break a tie in others they can vote anytime they want but they usually only vote to break the tie and in others like the Massachusetts House of Representatives the first light that goes red or green is the speaker of the house so there are different styles and different modes how do you see as president of the council and understanding that it may set a tradition and a pattern going forward what's your view about when the president in the Amherst town council votes or doesn't well the Charter is very clear the president can vote at any point and on all votes so we don't I don't have the prescription if you will of only breaking voting to break a tie I and in fact as we now have recorded votes for all of our votes and part of the attachments to the minutes will be actually each of the votes and who voted which way you will generally see that I will vote however on that particular instance I was hoping that the council the rest of the counselors could come to their decision seeing that they were not going to I cast my vote for the person I felt was most suitable for the job at the time and the decision to vote most of the time is because I represent my district they need to know where I stand and while we all represent either a district or we're town-wide we're all part of Amherst and Amherst needs to know where we stand on issues so I have no problem with recorded votes great it's very transparent it's consistent with the direction of the Charter and the direction of the community when they voted for the Charter so kudos to you that you see it that way now let's let's go to a structural question here you've got to name some committees there are four or five standing committees we've actually approved the three standing committees and they are in fact finance which is a huge responsibility as are the other two the second one is really around it and it's not dictated in the Charter the way finance is but it's really around communication outreach and appointments and I would see that as the committee that really embraces community engagement works with counselors on how we do our district meetings works with the town on how we do our town-wide forums making sure that we have the kinds of materials and the kind of support we need maybe we all want to talk about it the same thing at some point during our required district meetings although many people counselors are already planning more than two a year and then the issue of appointments are issues because many of the appointments are now made by the town manager as the executive branch if you will either appointments of department heads or appointments of committees and so vetting those appointments and so forth will be important for that committee and then the final committee is really around governance organization and legislation and while we have an ad hoc rules of procedure committee already functioning they've met once the meeting again on the 15th of January and we've had this terrific work that's been done by Bob Ritchie and two other people on that committee on the bylaws we still have more work to do on the bylaws we still need to pass the bylaws and so you've got several other committees like that that either will have town counselors on them or there'll be committees that the council creates and then either they will have counselors or they will be what are called multiple member bodies okay excellent and so much of the work in the next well at least three to six months and really fair amount of the first year to two is really around structure and organization and all of that putting those pieces into place actually I don't think that's true okay I think that what we've done is spend the month of December in our three meetings getting the minimal structure we need and what people will start seeing on the 7th and our subsequent meetings even though we're only required to do one a month we are scheduling to a month is you'll see a starting actually talk about the issues and sometimes those issues will need to be referred to committees standing committees sometimes they'll need to be taken back for additional information and sometimes you'll see us having to vote so for example at this next meeting on the 7th the the recommendations or the options that we might look at for the station road bridge will be coming up and that's not organizational that's doing the business of the town so what do you think that's really encouraging to hear that you're going to get down to issues rather quickly so what percentage of the time let's say in the first year do you think will be around organization and structure and function and training and education so that people really understand the role and use it to the greatest to the best extent possible etc etc how much time what percentage of your time do you think the council is going to dedicate to that 20% that's fantastic so that means there's going to be a lot of issues that can come forward and you guys can start working on either creating policy directions or creating structural mechanisms to pursue them which might be some ad hoc committees and study groups and task forces and things of that nature well that's fantastic what else is going to be on the agenda on January 7th well we're working very hard to bring forward a proposal to create a committee that for now at least the working title is energy and climate resilience so it's under the broad umbrella if you will of sustainability Amherst has as many people know been going through lots of transitions going all the way back to John Musanti's untimely death and transitions in town leadership and then the transition in the actual form of government while we have done a lot in the area of sustainability we're actually now behind many other towns and so it's going to be very important for the council to look at this issue decide how to move forward form the appropriate kind of structure to help do that and engage lots of citizen input into that it's a issue that is very very important to several of us on the council some people are more knowledgeable about the area that are on the council than others but I think you'll see at least a very good discussion on Monday the 7th if not the adoption of a charge for a committee and the creation of a committee but if we don't do it by Monday it'll be by the 28th of January when will your standing committee appointments be finalized the there is a requirement that the oh the standing committee appointments standing committee appointments those I'm hoping to finalize on Monday on Monday the 7th the 7th okay very good so those of you who are watching on Friday evening the 4th get ready a lot of big announcements and big news right because that's going to be a very important set of decisions that you have a unique responsibility to make and you can do it in any way you choose you can consult with people but it sounds like you've done a pretty exhaustive job of collecting people's knowledge interest skills desires things they would like to contribute and so you've got a pretty big knowledge base you can use even with that knowledge base I went out with a individual email to have people make their first second and third choice for standing committees and also for the other committees where we have town council representation given there are 13 members given there's 13 slots do you have to fill in and the all the standing committees each each standing committee has five so that means a few people are going to get two appointments that's right but not everyone no but they might be on a different one they might be on an ad hoc committee or or something else doing capital planning or the budget uh commit the budget review there's any number of so everybody's going to have work to do yes no question about it including me okay we we have I think maybe a minute or two so I just want to ask you marijuana yeah town meeting select board a bunch of decisions got made a direction got set where are we on marijuana here in Amherst and what do you think might be happening coming down the road well there's been three different vendors have been selected for Amherst at this point there's the option of going back out for additional application should the council decide to do that and there is a precedent been set by the review process in the past I think the other piece that's going to be very important is to look at the impact of it on our town and in that process see if whether or not we need to do some tightening for instance the select board shows not to put in place a licensing procedure but we may at some point say we feel we need to have a licensing procedure and again all of this is being done in the big umbrella of the statewide board are there any projections on the revenue side if Amherst builds out the vision that's already been put on the table for marijuana in town I have not seen those projections so I will not speak to that stay tuned it's going to become a big issue in terms of what to do with that money assuming that the money starts flowing right so thank you Lynn for joining us and I really appreciate hearing some of your thinking behind the work that you're doing and how you're going to work with your colleagues to shape a council in which each member of the council gets to fairly represent their own constituency whether they were elected at the district level or town-wide and that they're each going to be able to play a meaningful role in the work of the council a lot of work ahead and I want to congratulate you again on your election and wish you great success for all of our sakes and thank you stan for bringing your many years of political and public service to this show oh thank you very much happy to do it and thank you all very much for joining us and remember this will be broadcast twice on Friday evening at 8 p.m. and again on Monday at 6 p.m. and that will be the pattern every week we will have a show and we want to thank the Amherst League of Women Voters Amherst Media our producer Faith Gregory and Jim who's behind the camera and another person who's behind another camera I regret I don't know your name but thank you very much for your work so thank you all for joining us and we'll see you again next week