This and that

Lunch with Larry:  I had lunch with the Town Manager yesterday.  He wanted to know what I want to accomplish on the Select Board.  I told him that I want the Select Board to be determining priorities and setting policy together, as a group, at the Select Board meetings.  I told him that the perception is that Town policy is being made outside of the public view, either by him – which isn’t his job – or by individual Select Board members directing him – which we don’t individually have the authority to do.  In the “Handbook for Massachusetts Selectmen” that I received after the election, it talks about Open Meeting Law and says “The law is based on the premise that that the public is entitled to see the process of government, and not simply its result.”  Amen to that.

Town-Gown:  Friday evening I get to attend a reception at the UMass Chancellor’s house.  Looking forward to that – my first official “town - gown” function.  Last time I was at “Hillside” was several Chancellors ago, when Chancellor David Scott’s wife, Kathleen, was on the Survival Center Board of Directors, and would occasionally host us there for meetings and meals. 

I know you:  Monday night my husband addressed the Select Board, representing the Planning Board.  I wondered if that might be awkward at all, but it wasn’t.  I had already watched him do that last fall, when I was just an attendee at the meetings, and my sitting in a different seat this time didn’t make any difference.  I think we will both be speaking to one of the zoning articles at Town Meeting, which seems a little weird also.  Maybe my father – a new Town Meeting member – should chime in as well.  It’s all part of the nefarious plot for my family to take over Amherst.  (Evil laugh:  Bwah-ha-ha-ha ha!)

All the gory details:  My Meeting Summaries are still too long – I haven’t fully broken the “recap” mold yet.  I’m having a hard time making them shorter but still including the information I consider to be most pertinent.  I may need to try a completely different format – less prose, more bullet points, perhaps. 

What luck! The Select Board received a most fortunate e-mail this week – I’m surprised it hasn’t made the papers yet.  It seems that a fellow died and left his daughter $17.5 million, but in their culture the women can’t inherit property, so she needs a foreign partner to receive the funds on her behalf and help to jointly invest them in lucrative business opportunities.  All we need to do is contact her bank and give them the Town’s bank account information so that the funds can be transferred.  I trust that Finance Director John Musante is taking care of this.  That pesky structural deficit should disappear in no time. 

Caffeine and local government:  I’m really enjoying Monday mornings at Black Sheep.  I have had great conversations with people about economic development, ambulance service, bike racks, sidewalks, street lights, litter, pot holes and more.  I’m there non-holiday Mondays, 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  Come by and let’s talk about what’s on your mind.