By Alex Cox || coxalexj@gmail.com

A report on the meeting of the Amherst Town Council on Monday, February 10.

Open Meeting Law Complaint

The Town Council heard and responded to an Open Meeting Law Complaint at its Monday meeting. 

The complaint, brought by Town employee Ahmed Esfahani on January 29, alleged that the Town Clerk violated the Open Meeting Law by failing to post meeting minutes in a “timely manner.” The complainant did not cite specific meeting minutes that were unposted, but claimed that “despite repeated attempts to submit drafts for review, the minutes meetings [sic] dating back to 2023 have not been posted within the 30-day period.”

Mr. Esfahani further alleged that “numerous City [sic] Council meeting minutes remain unposted, in violation of the statutory requirement. Under the Open Meeting Law, the failure to post meeting minutes in a timely fashion constitutes a direct violation of the public’s right to access government proceedings and actions.”

The Town Council considered the complaint in consultation with legal counsel from KP Law during an executive session. Immediately following the executive session, Town Council voted to authorize the Council President to write a response with advice from the Town Attorney (11-0, 2 absent). Under State law, this response must be published within 14 business days of the receipt of the complaint. 

Attorney Lauren Goldberg publicly delivered the legal determination of counsel prior to this vote. “We don’t see that there has been any violation [of Open Meeting Law],” said Goldberg. Goldberg stated that Open Meeting Law does not require minutes to be posted, and further added that the “Council Clerk cannot violate Open Meeting Law” because she is not subject to it. 

“Town Council and Town Staff seek to comply strictly with Open Meeting Law requirements,” said Goldberg. Although meeting minutes are not legally required to be posted under the law, Town Council has a history of practice of doing so. To that end, the Clerk of the Council is working with the Town Council to ensure that missing meeting minutes are voluntarily posted as promptly as is reasonable.

Appropriation for Road and Sidewalk Improvements

The Town Council appropriated an additional $500,000 for road and sidewalk improvements on Monday (11-1, 1 absent). This appropriation follows a failed earlier motion to allocate $1 million of the Town’s free cash to roads and sidewalks. 

In a memo to the Council, Town Finance staff stated that “Although less than requested in October, this additional appropriation will allow the Town to make progress while also addressing inflationary pressures in the marketplace. This request will provide funding for work that could be initiated in 2025.” 

The financial order came to the Council with the recommendation of the Finance Committee. In the Committee’s February 6 Report to the Town Council, they stated that “Although all Committee members were in favor of augmenting funds for roads and sidewalks, one member remained concerned about such transfers outside the scheduled capital plan. The alternative would be to allocate a share of free cash to the FY26 capital budget. The Committee discussion focused on timing. A transfer now would make the $500,000 available in FY25 for contracting.  Waiting would mean that the funds would not be available until the next cycle.”

Of the councilors in attendance, all but Mandi Jo Hanneke (at-large) supported the motion. Councilor Hanneke is a member of the Town Council Finance Committee. 

Town Manager Goals

The Town Council passed an amended version of its Town Manager Goals later in their Monday meeting (12-0, 1 absent). The goals, which provide guidance to the Town Manager and form the basis of the Manager’s Annual Evaluation, were recently reorganized and reworked by the Governance, Organization, and Legislation Committee (GOL) under the leadership of Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5, 2024 GOL chair) and refined over a series of Council meetings. 

Councilor George Ryan (District 3) expressed gratitude to Devlin Gauthier and all of GOL, citing the huge improvements in actionability and organization of the goals. “This is a step forward,” said Ryan. “It’s been a long and difficult process, but it is a step forward.”

The final version of the Goals, including the frontmatter and the amendments made during the Monday meeting, have not been posted as of the time of publication. Once published, the link to the document will be appended to this article as a comment. 

Other Business

During the remainder of their meeting, Town Council referred a motion to change the process by which community members apply to serve on town committees to GOL. Additionally, the Council referred a proposed financial order for $2.8 million dollars to improve the Bangs Community Center to the Finance Committee and approved the Amherst Farmer’s Market’s use of the Town Common for the 2025 season (12-0, 1 absent).

During the verbal Town Manager report at the end of the meeting, Paul Bockelman shared that the Town was quoted an increase in insurance prices of over 19.5% – a rate that exceeds the 12% increase that the Town had anticipated for Fiscal Year 2026. However, several departments have already begun to consider changes that might lessen this increase by over 4%. Bockelman also publicly thanked Amherst College for their recent contribution to the schools and Town services during his remarks. 

During liaison reports, Councilor Cathy Schoen (District 1, chair of the Elementary School Building Committee) shared that excavation is continuing for the foundation of the new Fort River Elementary School and that steel structure may be erected as early as March. 

Also during liaison reports, Councilor Hanneke stated that the Budget Coordinating Group (BCG) recently heard that several members of the School Committees are “likely” to approve a budget that fails to comply with Town Financial Guidelines. Due to this and other financial pressures, BCG may discuss a Proposition 2 1/2 tax override for the upcoming Fiscal Year at a future meeting. BCG is not a decision-making body, but serves to communicate information between various stakeholders in the Town’s budgeting process.

The next Town Council meeting will be February 24 in Town Hall at 6:30 pm. Town Council meetings are also accessible via Zoom, livestream, and Amherst Media broadcast. Meeting details, agendas, and access are posted on the Town Council webpage. If you’re interested in knowing more about upcoming Council meetings, you can subscribe to text and email updates from the Town. If you want the Current’s coverage of the next Town Council meeting delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe using the field below. 

Alex Cox (he/him) is a current graduate student at UMass- Amherst studying Regional Planning (MRP) and Public Policy and Administration (MPPA). He currently serves on the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust Fund and as the Graduate Director of the Student Union Art Gallery. He has been a member of the Amherst Current editorial board since 2024.