AMHERST – Veterans of two previous efforts to change Amherst’s form of town government will provide information to the Charter Commission on Thursday.
Michael Greenebaum, who served as chairman of the commission that began its work in 1994, and Bryan Harvey, chairman of the commission that met in 2001 and 2002, are expected to give insights to the current commission, which meets at 7 p.m. at the Bangs Community Center.
Harvey and Greenebaum were invited to the meeting by Margaret “Meg” Gage and Irv Rhodes, who form a working group of the nine-member commission focused on examining charter commissions in Amherst and elsewhere.
“The idea is to gather as much information as we can from all sorts of places so we benefit from the work others have done, and the lessons others have learned,” Gage said.
The 1990s commission on which Greenebaum served recommended a hybrid of a smaller Town Meeting, a mayor and an enhanced town council to replace the Select Board. That was defeated 2,559-1,769.
Harvey also was a part of a second effort that began in 2001 and resulted in a divided commission recommending changing to a mayor and nine-member council, while maintaining a professional town manager. That was narrowly defeated in 2003, 2,413-2,400, and by a wider margin in 2005, 2,950-2,697.
Gage said she and Rhodes have already reached out to people in 20 other communities that have studied their forms of government.
All Charter Commission meetings are open to the public, but Gage said this meeting will be an opportunity for people to ask questions that will guide the commission as its prepare to hire consultants to assist with the work.
Town Meeting in May appropriated $30,000 in free cash that can be used to hire consultants, as well as to perform other work associated with the commission, including community outreach.
The questions that Greenebaum and Harvey will be asked include what role is most and least useful for consultants, how the dynamics and process of the commissions led to compromise in the proposal brought in 1994 and more division in the 2003 proposal, what the most contentious issues were and how these were faced, and what could be done differently.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
