AMHERST — The Charter Commission is again recommending an independently elected mayor with a 13-member council, abandoning a widely criticized proposal it made earlier this month that would have featured a mayor alongside 60 councilors.
At its meeting Monday, the commission voted 5-4 to pursue the smaller council and mayor form of government to replace the current government structure, which includes a 240-member Town Meeting, five-member Select Board and professional town manager.
Commission Chairman Andy Churchill, who sided with the majority, said the 60-member council, which would likely have been the largest in the country, was not popular with residents who commented on it, even though it appealed to some who want to keep Town Meeting as Amherst’s legislature.
“Several Town Meeting supporters did make a good-faith effort to move to the middle, but it didn’t seem like there were a lot of people who wanted to follow them there,” Churchill said.
The idea of the latest iteration is to both maintain Amherst’s decades of professional management while adding more accountability, Churchill said. In addition to the mayor, the plan calls for a town administrator who would hire and supervise department heads, among other duties.
“The idea is it’s an administrator who serves at the pleasure of the mayor, who (the administrator) manages day-to-day operations of the municipal staff,” Churchill said.
The elected mayor would be the main spokesperson for the town, propose a budget and undertake planning work, and have veto power over council actions. It’s not yet determined, though, if the mayor would serve on the School Committee and act as its chairperson.
The latest concept is similar to the charter change proposed by the commission formed in 2001, which was narrowly rejected by voters in 2003. The same proposal was turned down by a wider margin in 2005. But it differs from that proposal in offering more clearly defined roles for the mayor and administrator, Churchill said.
The commission’s vote reflected a continued split on the board, with member Irv Rhodes as the swing vote. Meg Gage, Julia Rueschemeyer, Diana Stein and Gerry Weiss had earlier joined Rhodes in the majority favoring a 60-member council. In this vote, Rhodes supported the smaller council along with Churchill, Tom Fricke, Nick Grabbe and Mandi Jo Hanneke.
Jerry Guidera, a spokesman for Amherst for All, the group that spearheaded the petition drive to form the commission, said he is not concerned that a divide exists on the commission and there is no need for broader consensus, despite the efforts of members Gage and Grabbe to reach a compromise.
“From the view of Amherst For All, it’s more important that we get a strong proposal than a consensus plan,” Guidera said.
He said the 60-member council idea was “fake change, Town Meeting light” and that residents deserve an opportunity to vote up or down a genuine change to government.
Guidera said he anticipates that the divisions will continue to play out leading up to an expected vote on the charter proposal next March.
“We’re going to see ugliness going forward, there’s no way around it,” Guidera said.
Town Meeting member Janet McGowan said she still doesn’t understand the problems the commission’s proposal is trying to solve, observing that there has been significant development in Amherst, and that the town has strong finances. A council, she added, is not likely to be more socieconomically, racially and ethnically diverse.
“Opponents keep claiming it’s not representative of the people of Amherst and that somehow having fewer, paid people making decisions will represent them better,” McGowan said.
Churchill said the commission is considering other actions in response to concerns about how representative a council is, including reducing precincts from 10 to five, a measure that Grabbe noted would allow to merge the heavily college student populated precincts. It would also have the benefit of having each ward represented by two people.
Meanwhile, the commission heard from Human Resources Director Deborah Radway that a professional manager is appreciated by staff, and there is concern about whether a mayor’s whims could dictate whether a manager remains on the job.
Grabbe said he spoke to former Finance Director Sandy Pooler, who came to Amherst after being ousted from his longtime post as chief budget officer and chief administrative officer in Newton when a new mayor was elected. At this point, the administrator could be terminated by a new mayor.
The commission is still working toward having a draft proposal by July 10, so that it can be printed and distributed to residents, and will have two five-hour meetings May 6 and 13 to catch up with its work.
It will also launch a third round of listening sessions, scheduled for May 16 from 1 to 3 p.m., June 6 from 10 a.m. to noon and June 13 from 6 to 8 p.m., all at the Woodbury Room in the Jones Library, 43 Amity St.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com