This is who is voting on budgets
Recap of this week –
Town Council Meeting 1/27 – You can watch the recording here.
- Finance Committee: Council President Lynn Greisemer appointed Councilors: Mandi Jo Hanneke, Robert Hegner, Cathy Schoen, Andrew Steinberg, Ellisha Walker (these are the same Councilors as the prior term). You can see more details here in terms of who requested which committee.
- Joint Capital Planning Committee – this is the committee that advises the Town Manager on the creation of the annual Capital Improvement Plan, via which capital funds are dispersed for ongoing repairs/equipment/smaller projects in town, including at the elementary schools. Councilors are voted onto this Committee by the entire Council. Councilors who were selected were: Robert Hegner, Cathy Schoen and Heather Hala Lord. Discussions in this committee will be important, especially this year, because the town is poised to restrict these funds in order to pay for the four large capital projects and because, in the past, the schools have received a very low percentage of these funds, resulting in a lot of deferred maintenance.
- Budget Coordinating Group – This group consists of members of the Town Council, the Library Trustees and the School Committees. Last year there were four Town Councilors on the Committee. This year six Councilors expressed interest and although Council President Lynn Griesemer was fine with appointing all six, Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke expressed that this could be seen as a show of force rather than collaboration and suggested they stick with four Councilors as in past years. For reference, last year there were four Councilors, two members of the Library trustees, two Amherst School Committee members and one member of the Regional School Committee. Last year was the first year that the Regional School Committee was allowed to participate. Councilors appointed by Council vote: Lynn Griesemer, Andrew Steinberg, Mandi Jo Hanneke, Ana Devlin-Gauthier. Discussion at these meetings tends to be dominated by town officials and public comment in support of the schools is always helpful.