 This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you. Good evening and welcome back to Byline. This is our public affairs show right here at Amherst Media and we thank the League of Women Voters for their continuing assistance in our program development and helping us identify subjects and interesting people and things to talk about. And tonight we have a very interesting thing to talk about. We are looking at the reorganization of the committees of our town council as it's entering its second year. We're about two months in and our listeners may remember that we developed a whole bunch of new committees coming out of the charter and out of the work of the council and George Ryan here is a town councilor and chair of the committee that's called GALL which is Governance, Organization and Legislation. And George we're going to talk tonight a little bit about what changes have been made with regard to the committees. These are the standing committees of the town council and why those changes got made. And you know it's only a year old and you had to put a lot of things together very quickly in the first year and you got a lot of it right in terms of the committees and the organizational structure and all of that but you had to review and revise and we're going to be talking about that now. So there were five. Now there are going to be four. So let's start at the beginning. The GALL committee is going to continue. Yes. Our task is as you said is every year to sort of look over the committee structure and see if there's any changes improvements we can make as part of our charge as a committee. So Governance falls under Governance and at the end of the first year in November actually we started looking at it and we got input from councillors and we had obviously our own discussions and we felt that there's some changes that we could make that might improve the efficiency of the council would make it easier for them to see where things should be referred and hopefully would actually cut down one at least one. We were hoping to go there are five there were there still are five committees were hoping to cut it down to four so we wanted to also maybe lessen some of the demand on councillors time. So with those motives in mind we looked at the structure as it was at the time and an easy one was to move audit into finance. So like any town or city we have a finance committee and we also had an independent audit committee with three members. So that was an easy one that happened fairly quickly audit was moved to finance. But the real challenge we felt and I think we had a number of councillors agree with us not just on our committee was what the committee called committee resources CRC which many councillors felt really was the grab bag committee everything of any substance. And that was the last committee established. That's correct right and even at the time I know President Grissomer felt this way and I think there are others that you know the the remit that was just too big but that's how we decided to do it. And after the first year the feeling was definitely that committee needed some help. We needed to take some of its burden off and put it into another committee. And many towns and cities have a kind of you know town services committee sort of a where the rubber meets the road committee and that's what we felt we needed. So we turned to the task of seeing if we could construct a new committee and still end up with less committees so that was our job. So what we've done is taken the task of CRC and divided into two. CRC's function committee resources committee its basic task is longer range larger issues planning zoning those sorts of things economic development in a broad sense longer range issues. And master plan is a key component of that. And we want to leave that with them and take away from them the kinds of things that are more day to day basically the provision of town services that from by town departments. And so that's we've created a separate committee called town services and outreach. We'll talk about that in a moment that aspect of it. But the town services part of it is basically a committee devoted to the provision of services by town departments and so all kinds of day to day issues parking transportation anything like that would fall and I actually have a list here I could read it to you of the kinds of things that would fall now under this committee's remit and take a huge burden off CRC. So that was one major change was that basically and the other had to do with appointments. We had we had a committee and still do for the moment called outreach communications and appointments and that was from the start called OCA and OCA found that and I serve on OCA as well. We found that our time was almost completely taken up with appointments and that's something we've been working on and it's been a challenge and we feel we're getting there. But we really didn't have much time for outreach or communication and so what when the dust finally settled we have determined that appointments we suggest to the council that appointments be shared out by all or amongst the other committees rather just have a single appointments committee and so having made that suggestion it then left outreach and communication and we felt that by itself was not sufficient for a committee and secondly we weren't convinced that that's really a task that the council was really set up for so we took the town services committee added the O and gave them the issue of outreach trying to continue the efforts that the councilors have made to be transparent in communication with their constituents and so that's how TSO became TSO. So OCA is still going to stay in existence for a few more months as we fine tune the appointments process so at least initially our goal of creating four committees has not quite been reached yet but hopefully well actually hopefully we have determined that at June 30 OCA will cease and its appointments function will now be shared by out by different committees so for instance the committee resources committee would take on the appointments which the council does make to planning board and zoning board that would be there. So they're going to do they'll be responsible for the appointments and areas that are relevant to their subject. Yeah that is exactly the idea. And so let's recap and make sure I got this right now. We need a blackboard. You know everybody thinks the biggest thing is the budget so the finance committee continues. Exactly. We're going to still have a finance committee. The governance outreach and legislation committee will still be in existence and it will stay with the same charge. Yes. CRC the community resources committee was too big so we chopped off a little bit here and a little bit there and they're still going to exist but they're going to have a narrower jurisdiction. They're focused between there. Yeah. They're long range. And they'll still be at the 10,000 square 10,000 foot level. That's right. 10,000 foot level so they're looking at the big picture but now we're going to have a new committee that's going to be looking at the smaller picture. The ground level. The ground level, the town services we receive, how are they working, how are people getting what they need and that's all going to, and that's the newest, that's the new creation this year and that's what's going to go forward. So when the dust settles we will have gone from five committees to four committees. That's correct. All the work that needs to be done will still be done. Yes. And we're giving committees of jurisdiction a bigger say on the appointments in the areas that they control and that's part of how we skinny down the committee process and our capable staff at town halls going to be continuing to do a lot of work in outreach and in communications. So that function will not, those functions will not go away. They will definitely not go away. That's going to be where they belong which is it's really more about staff level as opposed to policy making because that's what the town council is, is supposed to be really about the policy. So we've been through a year, well we're really 14 months at this point and we've basically, you guys got it pretty well the first time round. Thank you. And now you made a few changes. We're making some changes. And so like are we going to see this again this time next year? I hope not. It's hard to predict but I certainly hope not. I think that every year it is the part of the responsibility of GOL to look at the landscape and see how things are going. But I would be personally very surprised if we had another major change. One small area where it might happen or might tweak is the area of outreach. If we feel after a year again or a little less than a year actually, TSO finds it's not really doing much in outreach simply because it has lots of other things it's doing and outreach is being taken care of so well by the community participation officers. Counselors are holding regular district meetings. I have a newsletter. People meet with, they have office hours. So we've actually been doing a very good job I think. And so it's not clear that we really need a committee that's focused on that. On that function. But so at the end of the year it may turn out that we'll agree and TSO will become PS. So looking in your crystal ball there might be a little bit of change next year but it won't be as much as this year. That's my sense. And again the revolutionary year was last year because you had to stand up a new government based on the Charter's provisions and they referenced certain committee functions and other things you guys came to the conclusion we needed to do something in this area of that and so you formed it. So organizational development experts use a phrase which is form follows function. So you basically have demonstrated in our town government how you've brought that idea to life which is the way you organized is based on the functions that needed to be done and you found that you got a lot of things in the right place last year but now you had to do a little bit of twisting and turning. But those aren't the only things that are required by the Charter. So for example on the finance committee there was the opportunity but not a mandate that individual residents of the community could be added to the finance committee who were not town councilors because all of the committees we've been talking about so far are all councilors. These are not multi-member committees. These are town council committees and so they're councilors but there's an exception in the finance committee. Remind us about that. So we have put three non-voting but resident members on the finance committee. So while they do not vote their contribution has been really crucial and it was an experiment and from all impression that I've gotten speaking to the chair and hearing from the committee members themselves and the non-voting members as well it's been a very successful change. So we have then a finance committee with three non-voting resident members and that's going to continue. That's not going to change. And their terms are actually two years. So they're set. That committee is set and it's been appointed. The other committees we've been talking about, GOL, TSO, they are still to be filled. The task of the president over the next few days she will let us know I think on Monday March 9th and the March 16th will go into effect. All the committees then will be filled. Right now only finance is filled with its three president members. And you mentioned the town council president. Yeah. And the reason that's critical is because the charter says... Yeah. It gives her the authority to make these appointments and I think it makes sense just practically speaking to have 13 of us every year trying to decide who serves on what committee seems to me a recipe for madness. So she has that power and she's very good about it. She reaches out to all the members and canvases them and we give our preferences and an order and so on. And then she tries to put it together in a way that shares out the burden and also gets the best people in the right place and hopefully in places they'd like to be. So I've enjoyed being on GOL. I've enjoyed being on OCA. And basically the one area where I think I'm the least suited is finance and so far the president has chosen not to put me in that place. But if she did, I would do it. Can you balance your checkbook? Sort of, yes. And can you add and subtract? Yes, I can. Then you could be on finance. That's what I've been told. And so perhaps maybe in the third year I might stick my foot into those waters. And ask for an appointment and see if the president agrees. That's right. Very good. Now, again, without going into detail, but there are things called multi-member committees which basically are things like the planning board and... Well, planning board and ZBA are appointed by the council. And that's something right now that is the responsibility of OCA, which soon is going to go out of existence. But for the next few months it will stay in existence and its only task will be to perfect, if you wish, the appointments process. That turned out to be a little bit more complicated than we thought. Open meeting law got involved. There was a bit of division, I think, between those of us who felt that, especially with planning board and zoning, where you do have some people applying who have professional reputations, then maybe this shouldn't be out in the public. It should be, you know, people should know who the appointees, who the people are. But interviews in public, and that was an issue. Eventually it was resolved on the side of transparency. And I think that's fine. But it took a while. And so that's still being perfected. And so once the zoning board appointments, there are at least three, I think, that we still have to do. And we felt that it was not appropriate or really fair to just throw that to CRC, just like that. So while it does create a little burden on a few of us to be serving now, perhaps on three committees instead of two, that'll be for a short time. But that'll phase out. Yeah, that will phase out. And so now I'm realizing I used the wrong terminology here. Right. Because zoning and planning are all residents. Yes. No-town councils sit on it. That is correct. And they're, right. Okay. And so multi-member committees. Yeah, multi-member bodies, right. Are multi-member bodies. Those are groups that are formed, which can contain both counselors. Well, actually, right. The one body that does have counselors on it that also has residents, that is a multi-member body, is a newly formed Energy Climate Action Committee, ECAC. Great. And so we're working on that. Where counselors do appear on bodies, they're really with the participatory budgeting and PVPC, the planning, budget planning committee, where they're really working with like library trustees and so forth. There really aren't other than ECAC committees where you have residents and counselors in the same body. And so these bodies are appointed, almost all of them exclusively by the town manager, but there still is a role for the council in a sense of vetting them. So they're brought to us. We offer the town managers present, and we'll ask them questions. And then we recommend to the council that it should approve these. But the large number of these bodies are appointed by the town manager. But we do have a role of sort of general oversight. And the town manager has been very good about establishing a process. He has a resident advisory committee, three citizens, three residents who help him recruit and evaluate candidates for all these various bodies. And of course we have, we've said the CPO, the community presentation officers. But Paul's been very good about creating a process and filing it and refining it as we've had some criticisms and contributions to it. And we feel that particular function is pretty much set. And that will actually go. That oversight function of town manager appointments will go to TSO. We'll go to the town services committee. So that's part of the idea of sharing out appointments. One of the counselors who voted against the change, we actually had four counselors vote against it. The vote was nine to four. One of them felt that we should have appointments only committee. We should keep OCA as appointments only. And clearly the majority of the counselors did not agree. They liked the idea of sharing it out. So that was a nine to four vote? A nine to four vote. And so it was unanimous. But that was one objection that was presented, was that we should keep appointments at all one committee. I think there was some concern about TSO and that its charge was too broad. They wanted it narrowed. And so that was another concern. So trading one broad committee for another broad committee was their worry. Apparently. I didn't agree. A very robust debate. Yes, there was. Yes. But in the end it was a super majority. Yes, it was. In favor of the new structure. And so it sounds like, as we're in the first quarter of our second year of government, that the appointments process is kind of settling in. Again, there's going to be a change in terms of where in the council these are going to be vetted. But the system of identifying candidates, interviewing them, sorting through getting recommendations, that's working pretty well. Yes, it is. And the town continues to want to focus on trying to diversify the base of applicants. That is a long-range goal. It's a difficult one, but it's one we're very conscious of. Yes. In many different respects, where you are in town, where you are in the economy, what your personal profile is, all of those things are very much on people's minds. Yes, they are. The system is basically settling in and we have this one new major change, which is how it gets handled at the council level. But if everything goes well over the course of this year, that will settle in as well. That's a hope. And if it works well, then our recruitment and review and ultimate decision-making process will pretty well be settled in within the first two years of what we're going to try. Okay, so let's switch gears here for a couple of minutes. A library and a construction, and we have four big capital projects. Capital projects, yes. Some people are talking about a fifth parking garage and there are different scenarios about how we might do a parking garage. We're going to be doing a segment on that very, very soon. But you have some particular thoughts and concerns relative to the library in particular. I think it's probably many folks out there know and should know that we're going to have to make a decision on the library fairly soon, certainly by the summer. And we're going to have to make a decision within perfect knowledge. We're not going to unfortunately know where we stand with the school, with the DPW and the fire station. And so we're going to have to, the council will, this will be done in public. We will have at least one, I know the president's already arranging for at least one council meeting to be focused on the library. We're waiting for some numbers from the trustees and from the right from the library in terms of what a, we have two options in front of us it seems. One is to accept the state money and do a kind of expansion renovation. The other is to do simply a kind of renovation and that second option would be paid for only by the town. The state would not make any contribution. So the question is what will be the difference between doing simply a kind of renovation, paid for simply from town monies versus what it would cost us to take the state money and make our contribution. Right now the numbers we just don't know, but if the numbers are fairly close, that will be interesting. But bottom line is we're going to have to make this decision one way or the other within the next few months, and we're going to have to make it with the imperfect knowledge. And the reason that it's in the next few months is tied to the state grant process. And how long does the town have in which to make a decision once you're given the green light by the state? I think we really have to make a decision by the summer, one way or the other. And the decision is take the money, state money or not. And if we say take the state money, then we have to come up with matching funds, some of which would be privately raised, and some of which would be appropriated by the town. And it then competes to the extent that we're talking about town money. It competes with new school construction needs, a new DPW building, and a new fire station. And of course we haven't had a new DPW building since goodness knows where. I don't know, whenever the trolley barn was built. And it's been many years since the North Amherst fire station was built, and there's still no facility in South Amherst, which has grown dramatically and continues to grow. I think everyone agrees that there is real need for all of these projects. And my personal feeling for what it's worth, and it's just my personal feeling, is that we must do all of them. And we're going to have to space it out a bit. I mentioned earlier to you public-private partnership. Maybe that's an option for one of them. We're looking for some way to ease some of the financial burden. But I don't see how we can avoid, we need to do all of them. But as you said, we also need to figure out how we're going to pay for it. How do you pay for it? Exactly. And unfortunately the library process is such that we need to make a decision, even though we don't know how the others are going to play out. And so I think that's going to be an interesting decision by the council. And the only reason that the library decision has to come first is not because of our need, it's because of the state situation. And you mentioned that you were hearing that they're going to make some changes at the state level in terms of the grant program. The grant program is phasing out. It's not clear what will replace it. Certainly it won't be as generous, I think as it has been in the past. And if we do decide to pass on this money, it would be many years, if ever, that the state would be able to offer us money for an expansion renovation. The other thing I'll say just briefly about what the state is, what the trustees have in mind, is it actually is a restoration as well. It's not just an expansion. It's actually going to be money, and some of the money is actually earmarked and has to be used for restoring the beauty of the Jones, both interior. And the exterior will not be touched. It will be the Jones as it's always looked. So it offers, the state process offers us an opportunity also to preserve and restore a lot of the historical beauty that's in the existing Jones. Yeah, and it's interesting because the very construction project of the 1980s was funded in the very first round of the library construction program. And it's ironic that we're being pressed for a decision in what might be the last year of the existing known program. And we don't know what it'll morph into. But interesting because you think about once a government program's established, it never goes away. But here's an example, roughly 30 years later, I think it was 1987 or 88. We voted on it in the legislature. And I think the first grants went out in very early 90s. And so it's about a quarter of a century since we got that major grant. And it was one of the larger ones and maybe the largest that was given in that first round. So we've benefited handsomely from the state's commitment to public libraries. And before we went on the air, we were talking a little bit about the value of libraries in society. Especially in this town and the history of the Jones at the center of our town, for me, means a lot. Well, thank you very much for bringing us up to date on committees and getting us thinking about our public construction agenda, which is coming down upon us so quickly important needs for the community, but always the challenge of how do you pay for it? Especially when you have so many big projects that people are saying that we need all at the same time. But that's the way it is. At least we have a voice in it and we get to participate in the debate, in the discussion, and ultimately in the decisions. And with that, we thank you very much for joining us and we hope you'll join us again. And George, thank you. Keep up the good work. Just fellow counselors and give them all our best. See you again soon.