AMHERST — Even as those running for contested district seats on the Town Council express support for expanding the unarmed community responders and ensuring roads and sidewalks are safe and in good condition, they expressed different views about whether elected officials are doing enough to support the public schools.
At a candidates forum put on by the League of Women Voters Wednesday at the high school library, in advance of the Nov. 4 election, 13 candidates running for eight seats in Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 were invited to offer responses to a series of questions, though two incumbents facing challenges, Cathy Schoen in District 1 and Pamela Rooney in District 4, were not available to participate.
Education funding
A major point of contention for candidates was the approach the Town Council should take to ensure the public schools get the budgets they need, varying from support for increasing the tax base through construction of more mixed-use buildings to pushing for the University of Massachusetts to provide enhanced payments in lieu of taxes.
In District 2, challenger Jason Dorney, who works professionally as a project manager, said increasing the tax base and municipal revenues would ensure schools can be adequately funded.
“We need to do something to bring more taxpayers into town because the bulk of our budget is from taxes, and hopefully build more housing for all different kinds of people, including families to get more children into our schools,” Dorney said.
Amber Cano-Martin, also a challenger in District 2 and who has done organizing work on behalf of personal care attendants, said cuts to school budgets were only prevented by community action, allowing world languages, music and special education programs to remain intact, yet still $1 million in cuts were made.
“We have to start from the premise that that’s not acceptable, that we want a fully funded school district and that our School Committee and educators know what the schools need, so we need to respect the budgets that they pass,” Cano-Martin said.
As president of the Town Council since its inception in 2018, Lynn Griesemer, the third candidate in District 2, said she worked to get the other three regional towns to pay their fair share this year, and that officials can’t give up on making appeals to the state.
“I’m always trying to look for a way to fund our schools,” said Griesemer, the retired executive director of the UMass Donahue Institute. “In doing so, what I have done for the last seven years, is regularly testify about the school formula, about the PILOT programs, about charter schools.”
Jennifer Taub, a District 4 incumbent who began her professional career as a community organizer for neighborhood housing services, said that a more robust K-12 population is needed in schools, but the new apartment complexes and mixed-use buildings opened in recent years aren’t accomplishing that.
“I don’t see a path forward for Amherst in meeting our school budget needs without increased payments in lieu of taxes from the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College, so I think that needs to be a priority in the next Town Council,” Taub said.
Dillon Maxfield, a challenger in District 4 who works professionally as a planner in Easthampton, said the town needs to improve the tax base to fund schools, and residential development is doing that.
“I believe we have the housing available for families, that they would like to live there, but it’s unattainable and unaffordable for folks to come into town, which is making it difficult,” Maxfield said.
Incumbent District 3 Councilor Heather Hala Lord, involved in nonprofits and fundraising, said the way the nation funds schools is racist and classist and laments that automotive, child care and home economics classes at the high school are gone. She suggested approaching well-to-do alumni for funding.
“I just want us to start thinking outside the box to think of different ways to fund the schools, because our children are the most important, in my opinion,” Lord said.
Incumbent District 3 Councilor George Ryan, who spent 40 years teaching higher education, said Amherst has to balance the needs of the whole town and a priority should be growing the tax base and changing Chapter 70 education funding and charter school funding, suggesting a revolving fund to help with special education.
“I’m seeing the challenges and I’m struggling to see ways to go forward,” Ryan said.
District 3 challenger Patrick Drumm, a project manager, struck a tone optimism in shifting budgets toward schools and Amherst will benefit from families looking to escape from red state policies and the national political environment.
“I believe we need to put more funding into the schools,” Drumm said.
District 1 Councilor Ndifreke Ette, who has taught political science at college and is employed by UMass , said education in Amherst is not adequately funded “but in this town, there are a lot of things that are also not adequately funded” and the role of the council is to balance needs.
He said the institutions of higher education will not be saviors.
“Part of the role of the council is to find a way to have a dialogue with those schools, but also think beyond just getting PILOT,” Ette said, pointing to possible spinoff businesses that could bolster the tax base.
Jill Brevik, a nonprofit leader and community organizer running in District 1, described parents being let down by the Town Council on school funding and no hard work being done between election cycles, which motivated her campaign.
“What really struck me is that, in my opinion, it was not treated with the level of urgency required,” Brevik said.
Longtime community activist Vince O’Connor, also running in District 1, said Amherst can’t join Northampton in underfunding schools, specifically special education.
“I think we have to do something different than building more housing,” O’Connor said. “We need to get the university to pay taxes on its new dorm across from Whitmore, and do other creative things.”
Roads safe, accessible
Council candidates had broad agreement that more needs to happen to improve the roads and sidewalks across town, and to find appropriate traffic-calming measures.
Taub said since she’s been on the council, school zones and lower speed limits have been enacted.
“I think we should look to forming a consortium of other smaller towns so we can bid together and more competitively for road paving services,” Taub said.
Maxfield said Amherst should redo roads geared to bicycle and pedestrians and make Amherst a more walkable town. “A matter of trying to see where we can actually grow the tax base and how can we allocate the resources to address the roads,” Maxfield said.
Ryan said he supports safe routes to schools and is looking to create a Transportation and Parking Commission modeled after one in Northampton that can respond to issues of pedestrians.
“This whole notion of making it a walkable, bicyclable community, particularly connecting schools to neighborhoods, is something I want to work on if I go back to the council for two more years,” Ryan said.
Lord said Chapter 90 money from the state is insufficient for roads and questions whether UMass or other funding sources might be available.
“Equity is such an issue, and if our mobility impaired, disabled differently abled people, can’t walk safely… what are we doing this for?” Lord said. “It is a real crisis situation.”
Drumm appreciates lower speed limits but also the need for more enforcement, as well as providing assistance removing snow and ice in the winter.
“Helping our senior and disabled residents in town clear sidewalks, especially the fire hydrants, would be fantastic,” Drumm said.
Brevik said roads are a symptom of a deeper issue in town, as consultants, studies and committees are used, and she would prefer to find creative solutions, such as excise taxes from college students whose vehicles are parked in town.
“It’s not too much to ask that our kids can bike safely to our neighbors’ houses,” Brevik said.
O’Connor said the town needs a committee that can take a look at all the proposals from town staff, hold public hearings and get real public input “to make recommendations to the town council that are better informed than what we get.”
Ette said enforcement could be done better, and officials could be more receptive, through the town website, for people to raise issues.
“I think something else we could do is renew the focus to have denser development. What that would do is reduce the number of cars on the streets,” Ette said.
Griesemer said roads are a complex problem, and thinks some way to collaborate with other towns so paving companies would be incentivized to increase demand. “One of the most embarrassing things about the council at this point is the condition of our roads, our sidewalks, and lack of bicycle paths,” she said.
Cano-Martin said she would like to see more speed bumps used in neighborhoods and bike lanes put on arterial roads and sidewalks for East Pleasant Street and Pelham Road.
“Is there a way that Routes 9 and 116 can be maintained by the state again, rather than the town, and then we can get some more money back,” Cano-Martin said.
Dorney agreed that Pelham Road is not safe for bicyclists.
“I would advocate for more bike lanes, more traffic calming measures, things like speed humps or speed tables, some better thought-out traffic calming measures than the roundabouts on Heatherstone,” Dorney said.
Racial justice
There was widespread support from candidates for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service departments.
O’Connor, who referenced his 1960s involvement in the march on Selma and being part of a student chapter of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said initiatives supported by the council have not been completed by town management.
“There seems to be a lack of enthusiasm in the City Hall to implement what the council decided should be done,” O’Connor said.
Reparations for African heritage residents are moving forward, though, and DEI and CRESS are working, Ette said.
“Something that could help with racial integration in this town is if we can have different kinds of buildings and housing so that different people from economic groups and racial groups can come to this town,” Ette said.
Brevik said racial and social justice is woven into her campaign for Amherst, and she would like to see more invested in CRESS.
“I believe that addressing systemic issues at the national and international level, and state level, is critical, because we don’t live in a bubble, because we’ll feel the impact,” Brevik said.
Similarly, Cano-Martin said racial justice has to be a thread through everything done by Town Council and “applying a racial justice lens thoroughly and consistently to all town projects, programs and policies, I think the DEI department is a great resource for that.”
Having CRESS be around the clock is important, Cano-Martin said.
Getting the reparations fund ready is also vital, Dorney said, and he called on Amherst College to make a contribution due to benefiting from those harms.
“Just because it’s underutilized doesn’t mean that it’s not necessary and we should continue to fund and support CRESS, ” Dorney said.
Griesemer said a Resident Oversight Board for police is nearing completion, but projects like the CRESS and the DEI department will always be a work in progress.
“The town has done some things, but never enough, absolutely not,” Griesemer said.
Maxfield said CRESS needs support in light of national issues, such as unmarked cars and masked individuals kidnapping residents off the streets.
“A big concern I have right now in the moment is what are we going to do about ICE,” Maxfield said.
Taub said she has seen progress in the DEI department and its Becoming a Beloved Community project, and fully funding schools in the best social equity that can be brought to the community, along with a full-time CRESS department.
“To be effective and to fulfill its mission, it really does need to be a 24-hour operation,” Taub said.
Ryan cited his experience with Habitat for Humanity as ways to bring social justice to town, along with reparations, and he looks forward to recommendations that can lead to actions by using this money.
Possibly modifying the charge of CRESS is another idea.
“I think the public health model is something we should consider. It’s very successful in Northampton and I think it might address some of the concerns people are raising,” Ryan said.
“In my opinion the Town Council made two missteps that caused racial harm since I’ve been on it,” Lord said.
She cited the freezing two CRESS positions and losing a third to a grant, and not funding Black-owned business through American Rescue Plan Act money, which she said has meant losing two Black-owned restaurants downtown.
Drumm said he would like to see money begin being divvyed out from reparations and doing more multilingual outreach, as well as getting more people involved in town government.