No Decisions by Town Council on Reparations Committee and Long-term Fiscal Sustainability Task Force

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council, April 28, 2025

By Maura Keene

This was a hybrid meeting and was recorded.

Present
Lynn Griesemer (President, District 2), Andy Steinberg, Mandi Jo Hanneke, Ellisha Walker (at large), Cathy Schoen and Freke Ette (District 1), George Ryan and Hala Lord (District 3), Jennifer Taub and Pam Rooney (District 4), Bob Hegner and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5). Absent: Pat DeAngelis (District 2)

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager) and Athena O’Keeffe (Clerk of Council)

No Agreement Reached on Charge for Amherst Black Reparations Committee
When the Governance, Organization, and Legislation Committee (GOL) of the Town Council presented the proposed charge for a successor committee to the African Heritage Reparations Assembly (AHRA) to advise on the use of the reparations stabilization fund to alleviate some of the harmful effects of slavery on Amherst’s Black community, Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke objected to having five unelected residents recommend spending of town funds. At the October 7 council meeting she used her right to postpone a decision on the proposed Amherst Black Reparations Committee (ABRC) until October 21. In the time between the meetings, she rewrote the charge in consultation with AHRA member Debora Bridges and former councilor Anika Lopes. However, AHRA members Michele Miller and Amilcar Shabazz disagreed with some of Hanneke’s version, and the proposal was referred back to GOL.

The new GOL charge did not fare any better. GOL Chair Ana Devlin Gauthier stated that the committee took into account the many councilor comments received on the original proposal to arrive at the present document, which specifies that the ABRC will consist of seven voting members, some of whom shall have experience in affordable housing, climate action, recreation, youth empowerment, human rights, or prior membership on the AHRA. Members will serve two-year terms, as recommended by Councilor Hala Lord in October. Lord thought, from her experience on the AHRA, that a three-year term would be too demanding for many people.

Hanneke again had objections. She asked why the term of service was reduced from three to two years. She questioned the emphasis on the six listed areas of expertise with no mention of experience in economic development or entrepreneurship. She felt that climate action did not relate to the priorities in the AHRA final report and that past service on the AHRA would become irrelevant in the future.

She also did not see the point of requiring the committee to make an annual report to the council if all they were doing was recommending spending from the reparations stabilization fund, because nothing in the charge refers to the committee working on reparations projects to report on.

George Ryan took issue with the statement In the proposed charge that “ABRC’s mission is to implement reparations in Amherst, as supported by international human rights standards, for harms caused by support of slavery and post-reconstruction discrimination by the town, residents, businesses, and other Amherst-associated entities.” He said, “I find that language a little bit difficult. I don’t know what international human rights standards actually means here, but my real concern is about the beginning where it says its mission is to implement reparations. To my understanding, though, this whole process is that its mission is to provide support and advice to the Town Council and the Town Manager.”

Devlin Gauthier defended some of the decisions made by GOL in creating the draft charge. She said that the committee did not want to overburden members of other town committees, such as the housing trust or recreation committee, by having them serve on the ABRC as well, so GOL just requested some experience in those areas. She was amenable to adding economic development as another priority and removing prior AHRA membership when the charge is reviewed in the future. GOL envisioned the ABRC would recommend priority areas that would benefit the Black community, but not necessarily involve expenditure of funds and wanted to make the charge broad enough to allow for other ideas. She added that the reference to international human rights standards was to ground the concept in something bigger than just Amherst.

Andy Steinberg agreed that every program recommended by the committee needs to be evaluated annually to determine if it has been successful. The committee would then decide whether to continue funding it. However, he felt that due to the number of concerns voiced by the councilors, it would be more efficient to refer the charge back to GOL rather than have the whole council try to modify it. 

The council voted 12–0 to send the ABRC charge back to GOL. Devlin Gauthier requested that suggestions for changes to the charge be sent to her.

Long-term Fiscal Planning Needed, But No Agreement on Framework
The council considered two proposals regarding long-term fiscal planning, especially regarding the regional school district. Although they agreed that they did not want to continue to deal with budget shortfalls on a yearly basis, but rather have a plan to anticipate them, councilors could not agree on the best way to formulate a long-term plan.

Councilors Lynn Griesemer and Cathy Schoen submitted a memo for a Four Towns Fiscal Sustainability Task Force with members from all four towns in the region and the regional school system. The task force would “fully understand each town’s current revenue base, develop a most likely scenario of revenues for the next 5 and 10 years, and develop one or more alternative scenarios, and what would be required to achieve that alternative.” Results would be presented in October of 2025.

Alternatively, Devlin Gauthier and Regional School Committee Chair Sarabess Kenney developed a similar proposal for a long-term planning task force “to look in earnest at a five- to ten-year soft outlook for our needs and budgets, bearing in mind that shifts will happen.” This proposed task force would have only five members, as opposed to the 18 in Griesemer and Schoen’s proposal, but would similarly deal with predicted trends in demographics and needs assessments.

Hanneke questioned the need for a separate task force when, she said, most of the issues could be addressed at the Four Towns meetings. The problem with those meetings, she said, is that the data is not supplied ahead of the meetings, so participants do not have a chance to study them. She also felt that the Finance Directors of the four towns could coordinate with each other in planning for the regional schools in future years.

Councilor Freke Ette thought that more could be accomplished at the Four Towns meeting if there were a facilitator. Steinberg agreed that it was important to start a conversation with the partner communities in the region, and Ryan added that funding the regional schools is not a problem Amherst can solve on its own. It needs the other towns, and he felt that there seems to be genuine interest from the other towns to begin these conversations. Ideally, the work would be done over the summer to be ready for budget season in the fall.

Hanneke still maintained that most of the discussion should take place at the Four Towns meeting. She asserted that the other three towns can help decide on the assessment method, but they cannot tell Amherst how to develop its budget and whether to give equal increases to each department or a larger increase to the schools.

Bob Hegner noted that the Finance Committee and the Budget Coordinating Group do not have the authority to tell the Regional School Committee what their expenses will be in the next 10 years. Hanneke also doubted that the task force could predict what demographics will look like in 10 years and what services will be needed, but Devlin Gauthier stated that the task force would get consultation from entities designed to collect data, such as the Donahue Institute.

The council agreed to discuss both proposals and merge them into one to discuss at a future meeting. Schoen said that the Finance Committee is meeting twice weekly in May to discuss the FY 2026 budget, so won’t be able to discuss the long-term task force until June. Devlin Gauthier said she would involve Kenney in the process.

May Is Jewish American Heritage Month
As part of the consent agenda, the council passed a proclamation naming May as Jewish American heritage month. President George W. Bush established the month of May as Jewish American heritage month in 2006 after resolutions passed unanimously in both houses of Congress. The Amherst proclamation cites some of the contributions that Jews have made to the town and notes the increasing incidents of religious hate crimes since 2023, two-thirds of which were anti-Jewish incidents.

Unlike in previous years, no public celebration is planned this year.

The meeting adjourned at 9:18 p.m. The council meets again on Monday, May 5.