AMHERST — The town’s attorneys are advising the Select Board not to call a special Town Meeting to create new campaign finance laws before the election for Amherst’s first Town Council.
Even though former Charter Commission member Meg Gage is collecting signatures for a petition that seeks to set new rules for campaign finance, KP Law’s Joel Bard and Lauren Goldberg have provided an opinion that the change of charter adopted March 27 takes precedence over the state law that collecting 200 signatures from residents automatically triggers a special Town Meeting.
The opinion states that Gage’s petition is not a significant policy matter and likely doesn’t rise to the threshold, in the charter’s transition provisions, of being “essential and necessary” to current operations of town government and “not admitting of delay.”
“The charter provision limiting the ability of Town Meeting to meet and act, except on matters ‘not admitting of delay,’ as determined by the Select Board, will take precedence over the language in the town government act or the general laws mandating that the Select Board call for a special Town Meeting upon receipt of a petition,” Bard and Goldberg wrote.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the opinion is only advisory.
“Ultimately it’s up to the Select Board to make that decision,” Bockelman said.
Gage said she is continuing to work on the petition and believes there is a chance the Select Board will look favorably on its contents.
“My goal is to submit signatures so that we can have a Town Meeting in September,” Gage said.
Gage has called establishing “routine” campaign finance rules that give all residents, no matter their financial means, an opportunity to run for office, essential prior to the first election for Town Council.
The first rule would limit donations from individuals to candidates or a candidate’s committee to $250 in a calendar year, while the second would prohibit a candidate or candidate’s committee from accepting any contribution from a political action committee if that contribution exceeds $5,000 in a calendar year.
Several attorneys with expertise in money and politics are providing advice to Gage. She said the hope is for them to speak before the Select Board once the petition is submitted and have a conversation about campaign finance.
Meantime, another opinion from KP Law states that residents interested in being elected to the Town Council will not be able to seek both councilor-at-large and district positions. Several who have taken out nomination forms have gotten them for both.
Bockelman said these potential candidates will have to choose which office to seek, as a candidate’s name can’t appear twice on the ballot for what are identical positions.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
