Council Allocates $10 Million of Free Cash

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council, March 9, 2026

This meeting was held in a hybrid format in the Town Room at Town Hall. It was recorded.

Present
Mandi Jo Hanneke (President, at large), Jill Brevik and Cathy Schoen (District 1), Amber Cano-Martin and Lynn Griesemer (District 2), Hala Lord and George Ryan (District 3), Pam Rooney and Jennifer Taub (District 4), Ana Devlin Gauthier and Sam MacLeod (District 5), and Andy Churchill and Ellisha Walker (at large).

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

Council Approves Allocation of $10 Million of Free Cash from FY25
The Council held a public forum on the Finance Committee’s recommendations regarding the use of the $10 million in certified free cash from FY25. The only public comments were from Vincent O’Connor, who wanted more of the money to go to the schools and to road and sidewalk repair, and Tyler DeShong, who said that the $2.7 million for road repair was not enough. 

As recommended by the Finance Committee at its February 24 meeting, the allocation of the unspent funds was as follows:

The Town Manager’s original proposal was to spend $4.3 million on roads and sidewalks, but the Finance Committee voted unanimously to reduce that amount to $2.7 million in order to finance the replacement of the badly leaking Middle School auditorium roof when the rest of the Middle School roof is replaced this summer.

The decision to pay for the auditorium roof seemed to have broad councilor approval at the February 23 meeting when it was referred to the Finance Committee but, at this meeting, Council President Mandi Jo Hanneke unexpectedly introduced a motion to postpone the votes on the funds for the roof and the roads for two weeks. She reasoned that, by the next council meeting, the bids for the roof would be in, and the funds could be approved before the contract needed to be signed on April 1. That way, if the estimate for the auditorium roof was less than expected, the difference could be added to the roads budget. 

George Ryan said that he was not happy with Amherst being asked to pay for the auditorium roof at the last minute, because the request did not follow the usual process. However, he acknowledged that the roof urgently needed to be replaced. He only hoped that the Regional School Committee would be more attentive and submit requests in a more timely manner in the future. Finance Committee Chair Cathy Schoen stated that the Finance Committee has prepared a set of questions for the school committee regarding its long- and short-term budgetary planning, to be discussed during the FY27 budget hearings. 

Finance Director Sean Mangano said delaying the allocation was unlikely to affect the bidding on the project, but thought some contractors might be more reluctant to submit a bid if all the funding was not secure. He also noted that the final cost of the roof won’t be known until the project is completed.

Bockelman stated that he needed to advocate for the roads. He said, “I can attest to you, and you’re going to hear this over the next months, over the condition of our roads. Failing to invest in our roads now with these funds is going to put us farther behind, and we need to put that money into our roads.”

The councilors did not agree with him. Jill Brevik urged the council not to take money from another emergency situation and to look for additional sources of money to make up the shortfall in road repair. Jennifer Taub cautioned against investing more money into temporary repairs of the auditorium roof. She added that the majority of drivers on our roads are affiliated with UMass and don’t register their cars in Amherst, so don’t pay for our roads through excise taxes. She argued that the university and colleges should contribute to road maintenance. 

Schoen noted that bids for the new elementary school came in under budget, and the amount budgeted for the auditorium roof has a healthy contingency fund that will come back to Amherst if it is not used. Also, she said that if the construction bids were lower than the budgeted amount, the excess could go back into the capital budget to be reallocated to the roads in the Joint Capital Planning Committee process. 

Amber Cano-Martin added, “I just hope that going forward we can prioritize things in a way that makes sense, and that we’re not pitting things against each other. We did commit a large sum of money to the library and I’m really frustrated, because there’s no changing that. We can’t shuffle around and say, ‘Wait, we mean the roads are a priority, or no, we meant the DPW.’“ She added that she supports more money for the roads wholeheartedly, but saw the immediate need for the replacement of the auditorium roof.

Only Hanneke voted to postpone the vote for the auditorium roof funds. The allocation passed 12-1, with Hanneke voting no.

DPW Workers Begin Contract Negotiations with Town Manager 
During public comment, DPW Union president Andrew Brace reported that union representatives met with the Town Manager for the first time since the previous contract expired in July. The DPW workers and supporters held a well-attended rally to call attention to the situation prior to the special Town Council meeting on March 2.  

Brace said, “We clearly communicated with the Town Manager what we were expecting in order to settle the contract. We conveyed that what we are asking for is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go far enough in addressing many long-standing inadequacies.”

Lifelong Amherst resident Michael Brown agreed, saying, “This is not who we are. We don’t exploit people that work in this town, and it feels like we’re exploiting them. That doesn’t sit well with me as a resident. It shouldn’t sit well with you as the people elected to represent us. These men and women work in this town. They come in at all hours to protect us, to make our town safe, to keep the town looking beautiful, and we are fifth to last in the state in how we compensate them? You heard last week, we’re not retaining people. We’re training them and then sending them off to other towns. How is that okay?”

In another comment, Pat Ononibaku decried the fact that the Black Business Association of the Amherst Area has yet to receive any aid from the town, especially since its members were excluded from the town’s ARPA money meant to compensate businesses for pandemic-related losses.

No Clear Decisions on Potential Charter Changes
The council is nearing the 90-day limit to decide whether to accept some or all of the  changes to the Home Rule Charter recommended by the 2024 Charter Review Committee. To organize a discussion for a first reading of the changes, Hanneke divided them into five categories. (For a list of the suggested changes and previous discussion, see here.)

Hanneke explained that there are two ways to approve changes to the charter. The council could use Chapter 43b of the Massachusetts General Laws, which would entail a two-thirds vote of the council and a public vote at the next regular town election in November 2027, after a review by the Attorney General. The second way is through a special act of the state legislature. That would require a majority vote of the council with State Representative Mindy Domb filing the proposed changes with the State Legislature, which would then need to approve them—a process that could take at least a year. The council could choose to approve some changes to go through the 43b process, and others to go through the special act. Putting some of the suggested changes into the council’s Rules of Procedure could also be a possibility, and that would allow the council to modify them more easily in the future. 

∙ Through the Town Manager, to request the Town Attorney to prepare language for a Special Act of the Massachusetts Legislature to amend the Charter for the following recommendations: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 22 

∙ Through the Town Manager, to request the Town Attorney to prepare a motion and regular town ballot language for amending the Charter through the MGL Ch. 43b process for the following recommendations: [none were listed]

∙ To refer the following recommendations to the Governance, Organization, and Legislation Committee for substantive discussion and recommendation to the Town Council by June 29, 2026: 5, 6, 8, 15, 21 

∙ To refer the following recommendations to the Finance Committee for substantive discussion and recommendation to the Town Council by July 20, 2026: 17, 18 

∙ To table the following recommendations: 11

In Hanneke’s table above, several recommendations are to be referred to the Governance, Organization, and Legislation (GOL) committee and two others to the Finance Committee. All need to be reviewed by the town attorney.

The subsequent discussion did not result in any agreement among councilors as to how best to proceed (see recording at time mark 1:46 through 3:29). Clerk of Council Athena O’Keeffe suggested that the council consider the town attorney recommendations for the handling of each amendment before making a decision, although she was not sure that referral to the attorney counted as the council acting on the recommendations. The issue will be discussed again at the March 23 meeting.

April Is Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month
As in past years, the council passed a proclamation declaring April Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. A flag for child abuse awareness and prevention will fly in front of Town Hall from April 3 through April 30. The flag-raising ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 3.