AMHERST — A new elementary school to welcome students and teachers for the 2026-2027 school year, a renovated and expanded Jones Library that will reopen next year and maintaining core services across Amherst.
These are among the accomplishments At Large Councilor Andrew Steinberg has been part of since being elected to the inaugural Town Council that took office in December 2018, replacing representative Town Meeting as Amherst’s legislative body.
While continuing to confront challenges that include a limited tax base and a strained housing supply, Steinberg, after nearly three decades of service to Amherst, following 25 years as executive director of Western Massachusetts Legal Services, now Community Legal Aid, is stepping away as the fourth iteration of the Town Council takes office.
Being involved in the transition from Town Meeting-Select Board-manager to the council-manager form of government, Steinberg says residents have a bigger voice in town affairs.
“I’ve been pleased with it,” Steinberg said. “It wasn’t until being on the council that the volume of emails and citizen contacts, the interest in and engagement with the government, seemed to be so much greater. I really appreciate that kind of contact.”
And, he said, the advantage to a year-round government is having councilors who can study issues in-depth, take seriously all input and better engage with their constituents before decisions are made.
“I think we have a much more knowledgeable group that takes time for any issue to develop, and are not rushed to vote,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg said there is also no question the Amherst council is also a bit more powerful than those in area communities with mayors, like Northampton, Easthampton and Greenfield.
The new year will be the first time since 2013 that Steinberg will not be serving in a townwide elected position, after winning a seat on the Select Board in 2014, getting reelected in 2017 and then earning three consecutive terms as an at-large councilor, in 2018, 2021 and 2023. Prior to that, Steinberg was on the appointed Finance Committee for more than eight years.
Steinberg chose not to run out of concerns of the rigors of a campaign. “One of the nice things about running in an election is you can do a lot of canvassing and can be engaged with the community and hear from voters,” Steinberg said.
His time as executive director of Western Massachusetts Legal Services, starting in 1980, saw support for low-income and elderly clients, and he was instrumental in persuading legal services programs across the state to support a permanent migrant workers program. This position gave him expertise in trying to achieve the most with the funds available.
Steinberg first got involved in local government by becoming an elected Town Meeting member in 1996. At a 2002 session, he pushed for Amherst to have zoning to get more housing built, especially workforce housing.
By 2005, he asked then Town Moderator Harrison Gregg about getting on the Finance Committee. “I found that to be an easy way to get involved in every aspect of town government,” Steinberg said. “What the Finance Committee does is say what are the priorities, and how do we divide up the funds.”
That meant having some understanding of the public schools and libraries, as well as advocating for enhancing the tax base, something he could do more effectively on the Select Board. “I thought it was a really good board we had,” Steinberg said.
The next year, Town Manager John Musante, who had been finance director and worked with the Finance Committee, died, leaving officials in a bind. Steinberg recalls going through the difficulty of keeping the town running with interim town managers, until Paul Bockelman was hired.
“That was maybe the best decision we made when I was on the Select Board,” Steinberg said.
New government
In working closely with Town Meeting each spring and fall, Steinberg said he became discouraged with its functioning and, with a charter review underway by 2016, a Town Meeting decision that fall made this clear. Following a narrow, but successful Proposition 2½ debt exclusion for a twin elementary school at Wildwood School site, Town Meeting members rejected the $33 million borrowing authorization.
“When you had an override pass to fund the elementary school, and then to not authorize the bonds, that put a light on whether Town Meeting was the best form of government,” Steinberg said. “What you have is a government that doesn’t listen to the people.”
With the new government in place, Steinberg joined Alisa Brewer as the Select Board members to run, both winning at-large seats. “I think it was important when we switched forms of government that we had some form of continuity,” he said.
Bockelman said Steinberg sees service at the core of his responsibilities, has “a mind like a steel trap” and cares about people, observing that he was critical to developing the net zero energy bylaw, implementation of the charter and negotiations on the cable television contract.
“As a key member of town government, Andy deserves credit for the strength of the town’s finances with his attention to detail, focus on solid fiscal policies, and willingness to make hard decisions,” Bockelman said.
“On a personal note, I have learned so much from Andy — as much about being a good person as about good fiscal policy,” Bockelman said. “I have treasured having the opportunity to work with Andy during my entire tenure with the town.”
Steinberg earned praise from his colleagues at his final meeting on Dec. 15, with District 5 Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier calling him a steady presence through multiple forms of government. She described Steinberg as having a “long and steady dedication to local government, one that is grounded in care for the town, respect for process and a belief that good decisions require both historical context and current perspective.”
Finance Director Sean Mangano told Steinberg at his farewell Finance Committee meeting that no one has been a bigger stabilizing force for the town, from establishing financial guidelines, to handling capital projects and conducting regionalization studies for the four towns that make up the school district.
“I can’t think of anybody who’s been more impactful than you,” Mangano said.
Reach beyond Amherst
Steinberg also took his knowledge to the state level, serving as a member of the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s Fiscal Policy Committee starting in 2022, becoming a main voice for priorities for western Massachusetts.
“Andy’s depth of knowledge on municipal finance is remarkable and much appreciated,” said Jackie Lavender Bird, membership director at the MMA and former staff liaison to that committee. “He stays on top of the latest policy issues on Beacon Hill and how they could impact cities and towns.”
Steinberg joined other committee members in providing the input for the MMA’s “Perfect Storm” report and his recommendations are included in the MMA’s recent “Navigating the Storm” report. He also regularly attended its legislative breakfasts each spring and fall.
Bird added that Steinberg has been a strong advocate for key municipal budget priorities, including unrestricted municipal aid, Chapter 70 education aid, the special education circuit breaker, and increasing reimbursements to school districts for the costs of charter schools. His advocacy extended to payments in lieu of taxes payments for state-owned land, Bird said.
Steinberg said to finally get the new elementary school to completion and the library project on its way were important, along with positive changes to zoning that encourage affordable housing and mixed-use developments. But the housing crisis continues to be a major problem. “It’s different in Amherst because students are competing with families and young professionals,” Steinberg said.
Looking ahead
Maximizing the level of services within the budget constraints, which include a high tax rate and tax-exempt land, is tough, he said, because residents want to protect the character of the town and not have it become overcommercialized.
“Economic development is a challenge that will continue to face in Amherst,” Steinberg said.
Still, government continues to function and public safety, education, senior services, recreation and public health remain well supported in Amherst.
“I think we’ve done a good job and I credit the town manager for hiring good people,” Steinberg said.
But Steinberg also offers some caution about the political atmosphere in town. The defeat of the first elementary school project meant a jump in cost from $67 million to nearly $100 million, and delays in the $46.1 million Jones Library project have led to the loss of a significant federal grant.
“There are real cost consequences to not accepting decisions,” Steinberg said. “There seems to be a desire to never call an end, to keep the opposition going. That becomes very divisive and very costly to the community.”
His advice is for councilors to understand that annual budgets will continue to be an issue and that the Legislature hasn’t funded its portion of local budgets to the degree it has in the past.
And a problem for any new council is making difficult choices in a fiscally challenging time, with people coming from different backgrounds and perspectives. The need to reach consensus and working together as a 13-member unit is critical.
“I’m hopeful that will happen again,” Steinberg said.