 Good evening and welcome back to Byline. It's September, school is open, the students are back on the college campuses and we're back here in the studio creating some new programming. This is our public affairs show co-sponsored by the Amherst media and our local chapter of the League of Women Voters and we've been over the last eight months helping our friends and neighbors understand what you, our new town counselors, are doing to stand up our new town government. And so our guest tonight is the president of the town council, Lynn Griezmer, and we decided we were going to use the first half of the show to tell you sort of in quick succession what happened over the last and first eight months of our new town government and then what you can look forward to is what we'll be focused on in the second half because we still have another four months or so to go through and in order to complete our first year of our new government. So Lynn, welcome and let's start at the very beginning which is a very good place to start. Are you going to sing that? I'm not going to sing the rest of it. I'll let the listeners sing it in their minds. Good. Well, we've had a very successful start. We started out with what you would call a lot of process making sure that we had the right organization to start with which included our major five committees, finance committee which is dictated by the charter, the other one dictated by the charter is the audit committee and it is not as active in that it doesn't have to meet as often but it's very important. The three others that we created to help facilitate our work of the council are the organization and I'll get it out. It's really hard to get the names of these committees. I just want to go by their... Do the acronym? Acronyms, G-O-L, Governance, Organization and Legislation, OCO, Outreach, Communication and Appointments and CRC, Community Resources Committee. And so those total five committees are committees of the council. There is one, the finance committee that by statute, again by the charter, allows resident members if we so choose and we did and we have now appointed three resident members and they've been actively jumped right in. Two of them come with experience for finance committee, another is a new person to work in town government, if you will. And then in addition to that we had to do a lot of other kinds of things mostly charged by the... created by the charter. One of them is by law review and we're still in the process of that. We've already adopted the changes for the zoning bylaws but we still have the general bylaws to do and we need to do that before December 1st. The next one is Joint Capital Planning Committee and that is one that includes the library and the schools as well as the town council and that has both the small capital projects and obviously has consultative and important input into the large capital projects because libraries and school constitute some of that. And that's a carryover from our former town form of government. As is finance committee accept under this finance committee the charter said you could and you did appoint citizen resident members to that committee to participate in addition to the electives. Right and remember the last finance committee was a committee of town count of the town meeting. So it was all residents. Nobody was on this from the select board just all residents. So the budget coordinating group, the participatory budgeting group commission and then finally and this is a very important one rules of procedure and the charter again dictated that we need to have all of that in place permanent rules. We can change them but a set of permanent rules of procedure and we had to have all that in place by June 3rd and we did. But the participatory budget committee that was dictated by the charter to study the idea of involving the citizenry in making some of the allocations yes in an annual budget from a set aside done presumably by the town council and so that was a study effort at this point because that's not up and running. It's a study effort they need to then come back with a recommendation to the council. And so we didn't use that process in this past budget cycle because we were already into it. Yes and there's also the one that's studying ranked choice voting. That ranked choice voting is another one and that's running into some interesting issues in that the state legislature is actually looking at ranked choice voting. So rather than have 351 different cities and towns having 351 different approaches to ranked choice voting there is now a question as to whether or not there might be a state effort on this and if there is then that will actually take a piece of that out of the hands of the town itself. What that would do is create an enabling statute presumably right which would say any city or town may choose to do this right and if you choose to do it these are the parameters so that there's consistency across the commonwealth. Exactly and then whatever we adopt would have to be in line with those requirements. And to the best of your knowledge are they just looking at it from the municipal perspective or also for the state legislature and statewide election. We've mostly been focused on just the municipal. You have but is the state folk don't know that. I do know there's a lot of statewide efforts and there have been a lot of meetings statewide many of which involve people from out. But at minimum they're looking at the question of how to make this pretty consistent across the state if a community decides to do it. Correct. And so it makes sense to wait and see what they come up with rather than do a totally separate effort. It's going to be a juggling act back and forth because obviously we had to form that committee within our first year because of the charter because of the charter and they're actively now working. So it's a very good committee as you might imagine when you appoint committees in Amherst you can get some serious talent. You certainly can. And so forth and so and then in addition to that we've had some ad-hoc committees and one of them is the initial one was we have this very complicated regional budgeting system for our schools and so one of our members was on the four towns meeting for the school budget for the regional school budget which is the if you will 7 to 12 grades. And then the energy and climate action was started out as an ad hoc committee and now it's become a committee that the council created and in a very unusual way includes two counselors but also includes a lot more residents on that one. So that's going to be resident driven. Yes. But the actions or the actions that they want to recommend and propose will come before the town council. Right they certainly will. And one of the things we're very very clear about is they need to be extremely well vetted with the public because it's really the public that needs to buy in to whatever we're going to do about climate action. We already do a lot in Amherst but we can all do a lot more so. And there's another committee that you did which is very important which is similar right to some town councilors and community members and that's the CRC. No actually CRC is an all town council. All town councilors. And it does and in fact one of the other ad hoc committees that we're actually created just at the last meeting and will appoint at this meeting is a combination of councillors and citizens right other citizens non-councillors and that's the one to look at the percentage for the half percent for art bylaw. This is a bylaw that was passed by town meeting but then it ran into trouble at the state level because of the way a piece of the bylaw was configured it financially is not feasible to do with the way it was proposed. So the whole bylaw is not in effect at this point. So we're now creating an ad hoc committee that will actually propose a new bylaw to replace that one. A new version of that right sticking with the basic idea which is. Well there's two of them one is the half percent on all the major capital buildings and then there's also the other piece and this is where it ran into some difficulty. It was a half percent every time you do some kind of capital project over a certain amount of money but then that money would be put someplace else and then that money would be used for projects throughout the town. It leads to a very complicated set of financial maneuvers. But the basic principle here is we want art incorporated into public buildings and this applies only to public buildings not to private development. That's correct. Okay and so it's it's about taking those two policies integrating them and ending up with hopefully a good workable version for our for our community and not a lot of communities have done percent for arts programs and so this is you don't have a lot to go on elsewhere but it's a very important policy that's actually been implemented in many states for state public construction. It has. It has. We had it in Massachusetts at one time and it went away during one of the recessions and there's been a effort for the last six or eight years or so now to bring it back. That's a good piece A history to know. Yep good piece. So that's that's terrific. Any other committees? The other one is our town council goals and so starting with our retreat last February or so we began to establish a set of goals for ourselves as a town council both immediate ongoing as well as one plus years beyond and so and those have really guided and very much relate to each of our committees and then relate to us being able to say what have we accomplished and we have a retreat coming up on the 21st of this month and we'll be revisiting those goals and those goals then also play into the establishment of the town manager's goals for the coming year. So those will need to be integrated right fantastic. So the quick summary of all of that and that was a bit dense but I'm glad you did it because we have to learn the new structure of our government right and what's happening but basically you were focused on in this section you were focused on creating the institutional structures that are necessary the procedures and processes so that the public would understand the limits and charges and mission and right capacity of all of these institutional elements that form the the nuts and bolts of how the work is going to get done and then there were the rules and the processes of procedure right and you got all that done in the first eight months but that's not all you did no thank heavens it's not all you did because government isn't about right and running for office isn't just about sitting and trying to make organizational charts it's about improving people's lives so let's switch gears so what did you get done with all of that structure okay well first of all we do have the energy and climate action committee we transferred the east street school which is a town owned property to the Amherst municipal housing trust for the purposes of affordable housing we approved funding and opened the new temporary bridge on station road so that that road is now fully open and actually it's a very well-designed temporary bridge it was frustrating when it was closed but yeah i love that it's open again because i go through that part of town as do many other people very very nicely kind of picking up on some past work we were able to finally cut the ribbon on the opening of the mill street bridge near puffers pond and that also the parking has been redesigned around that and so that road is also open two bridges in one year and then just the short term rental option adding the three percent to air bnbs and things like that we also did our own council appointments a planning board and a zoning board of appeals and then a number of council approvals of town manager appointments two of the most important i think and very different and again because of the charter two of those one is the whole issue of the board of licensed commissioners and they became extremely public as we went through the very unfortunate situation we had with one of the newer residents the restaurants with portland right but they they stood there they i mean they stood up they did it they acted fast they did their job and they did it properly they did it with transparency and full public disclosure of what was going on and they served the town well by making sure and it also was fair for the other restaurants and other businesses in town absolutely you can't have some follow the rules and the others skirt them right and we're very lucky and there is an example of where people who've been active in the past governments have also stepped forward in this new government arrangement Doug Slaughter chairs that commission so and brings lots of experience from having done this through the select board we hope to have Doug on in a few weeks so good good uh the other one is the resident advisor committee and two names that are very familiar to the public Jim Pistrang and Connie Kruger are members of that and they're they're the committee that helps the town manager uh look at potential appointments to other committees and so then in addition to that there's been a bunch of committees that appointments just didn't happen with and so we're pretty much caught up but it's still working on making sure those and also there was a considerable amount of work done during this eight month period in terms of upgrading the process and the application and promoting it yeah with our community outreach officers and trying to get more people to participate to apply so that we had a more diverse truly representative set of applicants and appointments so we're seeing an increase in applications uh we're so judging whether or not we're really seeing an increase in diversity and what are the barriers to participation and then there will be another complete look at the appointment process um it's we ran into some very serious concerns about how public it should be or shouldn't be and whether that discourages or encourages people to apply so that's one of the things that the OCA committee is looking at this fall and another big accomplishment of course every year a legislature has to do a budget absolutely and you guys did a budget we did a budget on time no override no override not a lot of new investment because there wasn't a lot there but some some good prioritization of where the dollars should go well and approval of the community preservation act projects including the one on the studio apartments on route nine and then um so that you know those are just some of the kinds of things we we've dealt with issues like public way and the fact that we're water commissioners and a variety of sewer commissioners things that people don't always necessarily think of when they think of the council and uh to go back just one second on uh the cpa and route nine and all of that um there was another development through this process because it was a controversial project and my recollection is the town council took a look at the process and said you know we probably could have done this better in town and so let's take a look at how we handle these types of proposals and you folks came up with a new process to try to consistent with the charters dictate of transparency and civic engagement right make sure that a process of that sort uh was as open and more open than the last and etc do you want to say anything more on that well we did a little backtracking on that particular one and that was a four hour forum that citizens participation of uh some presentations by uh people involved with the proposal for the project some presentations involved presented by people who are opposed to the project and then just general public comment but it was a four hour uh open session and i think very healthy it doesn't resolve everything it doesn't make everybody happy but we felt as a council we really needed to step back and make sure the voices of the community were heard on this one before we did the vote uh we did go ahead and vote on that uh we're still waiting for the valley cdc to submit their application and at that point there's another process for public input as well as if they're approved then another process for public input so it was review and revise review and revise and not only on the substantive uh elements of the proposal but also in the process absolutely great and so now in the remaining time yeah we're going to have to go into our um uh our quick uh there's oh god there was a show with uh lightning the lightning round yeah we're going into the lightning round okay so what's coming up uh well we're launching into our uh manner in which we're going to create a public discussion about the four big capital projects and we're doing that uh we've actually had a terrific meeting just last night we have a model that can be used to really bring out that discussion talk about what people feel we can afford what we need to do overrides what how much of a building can we really afford and look at the four building four building projects in one big picture and it's a scary picture so they're not going to be done in isolation right library schools fire and dpw right correct okay so stay tuned there's going to be a lot of opportunity for discussion absolutely you folks are going to do uh forums and neighborhood meetings and a whole range of things to give people the opportunity to provide input about the nature of the projects we very much like the way the school did the msba process and so we see ourselves doing a series of meetings in our districts and so forth as well as bigger or larger meetings okay that's a big change from town meeting because although there were 240 or so members who could communicate with their constituencies um they didn't organize public meetings and things of that nature so this is one of the other things that comes as a result of the new charter required district meetings right and then a different attitude on the council about making sure that there are ample opportunities and you're going to mimic a good process that produced a a uh a supportable result right when we were dealing with the schools exactly exactly okay what else the we as you know we're in the process of purchasing hickory ridge we hope to complete that sometime early this fall uh we will be and what's the purpose of that land of recreation preservation of the fort river area and so forth just it's beautiful any of it to be constructed upon or all for recreation and conservation two of the pieces toward the very back are the hope is that we will lease those out for solar and get money back because the solar is there and then the front of the property where the clubhouse is is really the only commercial property there'll be a whole planning process around what we really think needs to happen so that building's going to stand and be for the moment for the moment it may everything from potential swing space while we do construction to any number of other possibilities and but maybe over time it might even be torn down or that piece of the property could even be sold comes off the tax rolls it if you use it for commercial that part will stay on the tax rolls if it's used for commercial that part goes on the tax rolls right now based on what we already get for hickory ridge even the two parcels for the solar will equal that amount of money got it so we're not losing anything by having the town take it over so there's a business plan associated with the vision there's a vision a beginning of a vision of which there will be a business plan on it all right okay I think the taxpayers will like that a lot right all right so we also have to develop new budget guidelines for this year we have to review our master plan which is another one of those public forums and then on December 2nd uh paul bachelman and I uh by charter have to provide a state of the town address which we will do at the beginning of the council meeting on that date which happens to be the anniversary of our being sworn in wow okay so literally one year one year to the date yes fantastic and um what can you say about uh economic development in town as you folks are standing up the uh community resource committee right which that's pretty much there is going to be in their jurisdiction it it does it very much is in their jurisdiction but it's very much in their jurisdiction working working with the planning board uh working with and hearing things like from the parking committee that just unveiled their report recent just last week so there's a variety of different things that feed into that including the work that the town does and the hope for work that we would do in encouraging more economic development jointly with the university and would like to see things like that happen so that we might create small businesses that become larger businesses in the general area it's this is an area that you know is near and dear to my heart uh we need to diversify our tax base and we need to do that by doing by bringing in more businesses that are friendly to the Amherst culture if you will great so other things that are running around your mind at this point yeah we just completed the town manager's evaluation yeah and we will vote on Monday on his compensation package and offering him an extension of his contract to august 31st 2023 very good and how long has he been on staff he's been he's just completed three years three years yeah and uh he completed three years and um so he did two under the old system and was having to work on the transition absolutely that's pretty that's pretty intense and he took the job knowing the transition might occur and uh has been terrific in guiding us through that transition great what else anything else lots of things um you know we've been offered some land for the DPW to be cited on land that Amherst college it has graciously offered us we've tried to learn from previous efforts the studio apartments being one of them by having people literally knocking on people's doors people uh meeting with people down on the Kiwanis park and then having two district meetings in district two it's not without controversy nobody wants the kind of trucks and so forth that go with the DPW right next door to their house no matter where you go in town but at some point we have to do it someplace because that building is older than you and I ever even thought about it's over 100 years old wow yeah that's great well sounds like you folks are busy busy busy and um uh you had in your mind what you thought would be your required weekly schedule and amount of time how's what you're actually doing stacking up with what you had imagined I estimate personally for me as president I spend somewhere between 25 and 30 hours a week so that's a really significant part-time job it is but it's hopefully will change after one year because it becomes more routine both for me and for the council uh our council is a terrific council they all pull their own weight and really step to the plate so everybody's doing their jobs everybody's doing their jobs earning more than their $5,000 a year and uh the final thing that I wanted to ask is how have you been finding your district meetings are people showing up are they engaging are they bringing up the kinds of issues you would have thought they vary by district if you will for example uh district one has been actively meeting but has another association in district one yeah district three has been much more and district five have been much more innovative in terms of the kinds of things they've brought in for the district meetings in terms of resources town staff etc um district two our meeting has what our very first meeting was just open kind of what do people want to talk about what pat and I learned is they wanted to talk about parking and then the other two district meetings we had were specifically focused on the parking in the district or parking in town parking downtown downtown they don't live in the district so they don't live downtown so they want to know when they leave the district how can they park well right and also uh can they get on the bus so they don't have to worry about downtown parking downtown because a lot of people want more public transportation absolutely and on that note thank you so much for joining us and for the good work that you and the council are doing thank you for joining us and uh we'll see you again soon thank you