Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 6/15/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – Town residents voted down an amendment to the budget during their Annual Town Meeting that would have reallocated increased funding for the police department toward the town’s public schools.
The June 9 meeting took place in a drive through style in the parking lot of St. Theresa’s Parish, with some residents sitting in their cars watching the meeting via a large screen while others sat in socially distanced chairs under a tent. Selectboard members sat under a tent while the moderator conducted the meeting from atop an elevated truck. Residents used electronic tabulators to submit their votes, but were also given yes/no paddles which were also used throughout the meeting.
Articles one through six were part of a consent calendar, which allowed for the saving of time by voting on the articles as a single vote, as they were expected to pass overwhelmingly. The first six articles included in the consent agenda allowed for the town treasurer to borrow money in anticipation of revenue, authorizing the treasurer to enter into balance agreements with banks, allowing the Selectboard to defend suits brought against the town. One resident questioned if the town had any ongoing or significant suits brought against them recently, to which the moderator said officials had told him there had been no significant suits brought against the town.
Additionally, it would allow the Selectboard to apply for and accept grants from the state, accept money for Chapter 90 highway funding and allow the town to fix the salaries for elected officials for FY22. After some slight confusion on how to operate the handheld voting devices, the motion ultimately passed unanimously.
Then the town moved to pass consent calendar b, which included articles seven through 10. Articles seven through 10 included establishing an other post-employment benefits liability trust, establishing “prudent investor” guidelines for the town’s financial policies, to accept a section of Massachusetts general law related to the town’s financial policies, and to accept a section of the state’s general law regarding tax payment agreements and tax title processes.
The chair of the Bylaw Review Committee said they took an unanimous vote to recommend article 10 as it directly related to their mission. “The Bylaw Review Committee considers the articles that change or delete town bylaws and the vote was unanimous,” she said. Town residents voted to approve the consent agenda with 80 people in favor of the motion while one opposed.
Article 11, which would authorize the Buttery Brook Park revolving fund for $22,000, was referred to as a “housekeeping item” by Selectboard Chair Jeff Cyr. One resident addressed the combining of votes from electronic tabulators and the yes/no paddles. He said there was no way for the town to track who was voting electronically so if a resident wanted they could also hold up their signs and vote twice. The moderator said they would “rely on the good faith of Town Meeting members” to be honest and vote just once, additionally, he said there would only be as many votes as there were Town Meeting members.
Another resident said he didn’t have faith in the handheld voters, but the moderator said they had used voice votes in the past which held the same level of accuracy. A motion was then made by the resident suggesting the town simply use the yes/no signs they had been given for votes as it seemed the technology wasn’t working. The moderator said instead of a motion, they accepted it as a point of order that would allow for residents to vote on if they wanted to just use the paddles they’d been given or if they wanted to continue to use the electronic devices. Ultimately, town residents voted by a majority to continue using the electronic devices.
The moderator then went back to the question regarding article 11, which passed unanimously. Article 12 was then addressed, which would allow for the FY22 operating budget for the town to be passed and implemented if residents voted in favor of the budget. The total of the FY22 budget was $49,525,631; Cyr said it was “a balanced budget” and had been deliberated over “several months.” He said the Selectboard was in favor of the budget.
Appropriations Committee member Thomas Terry said they had met with both the Selectboard and members of the school district and based on that cast a unanimous vote in favor of the budget. Resident Adam Reed moved to amend the budget to instead of further increasing the Police Department budget, allocating such funds to the Mosier School fund to continue the town’s investment in education. He said he felt it was the community’s responsibility to invest in programs that were in favor of the well being of the community rather than an increase to the police budget “for at least the second year.”
“Good amendment” could be heard shouted from the crowd of voters before another resident addressed her support of the amendment. She said that a similar amendment had been brought forth at last year’s Town Meeting and while it had received significant support, it had not passed and she felt the town had done nothing to address systemic racism within the community.
Another resident said he had been a resident of South Hadley for 60 years and employed people of all races and had not seen racism within the community. He said instead of attempting to take funds away from the police, they should salute the police and unite the residents and “change in which the way we have taught police to shoot to kill.”
“It is not their fault, it is the training. If you run from police you’re asking for trouble,” he said. “We need to retrain our people to understand supporting police while police need to understand their actions need to be appropriate and sound.” He then urged residents to defeat the motion.
Resident Rick Constant said while there was undeniable evidence that there were problems in police departments across the country, that was not the case in South Hadley. He said if there were a problem in South Hadley, taking away the police budget was not the answer and encouraged residents to defeat the motion.
Resident Trevor Baptiste voiced his support for the amendment and said he moved to South Hadley “Because police recommended it, I fully support police.”
“To me there is no more reason to support a police officer than a garbage man, in fact I would be acutely more hurt if my garbage man didn’t have the funds,” he said. He added that the money to support teachers and schools would be more beneficial and the town should invest in such areas for the sake of their future.
“I think it’s time in the 21st century that we reject things that are standard and fundamental,” he said. “Our money would be much better spent on our future and children would, be much better spent on managing our resources.”
Resident Jodi Miller said they were facing an increase in police budget for the second year. “How could this be after the year we just had, how could this be,” she questioned. She said while some may believe it may not be the time to allocate items in the budget she said she felt it was the perfect time as it was the time to speak up and voice their values.
She said in the past year the Police Department had implemented policies such as the SCRAM policy, which allows for police to use private residents’ security camera videos, which increased policing rather than addressing it.
“The basis of this call is because it has been shown that reforms of police departments do not work, more money for the police to reform to train do not work,” she said.
Another resident pointed out that a later article, article 19, appropriated more than $1.5 million for police department equipment. He said he felt defunding the police was “nonsense,” but wouldn’t say whether he supported the amendment.
Resident Charles Miles said he’d experienced needing to call the police a couple of times. He said while he felt safe and assisted, he was a “white male” and felt he couldn’t make the judgment how the Police Department impacted residents of color. He said a couple of months ago the support to submit a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in favor of building or renovate a school had been voted down due to the proposed potential funds that may be required of the town, but as the previous resident had stated, $1.5 million had been allocated for the updates to police equipment.
Another resident said she was not in favor of the amendment as she felt that Police Chief Jody Gundersen had brought nothing but positive changes to South Hadley. “While we are all appalled at what is happening across the nation, we have to do everything in our own resources to rebuild South Hadley,” she said.
One resident said he knew that there was racism within the community and he agreed with a lot of what those supporting the amendment had said. However, he said he disagreed with the process in which the amendment was brought before the town and felt as though there had been many opportunities to voice such an amendment during the budget process, which had not been done. Additionally he said he felt as though if the amendment was passed it would cause more harm to relations within the community and town departments moving forward.
Selectboard member Carol Constant who was sitting amongst the crowd, said she agreed with almost everyone and it was an important issue that needed to be addressed. However, she said the process of budgeting was important and they needed to be thoughtful about how they addressed allocating funds. She said while she was in favor of allocating funds for the Mosier School and addressing policing within the community, there may be a different way to go about it.
After discussion from several more community members, residents voted on the amendment, which was defeated with 34 in favor and 47 in opposition of the amendment. Residents brought up that there were once again issues with the electronic devices and Baptise expressed his frustration at the elimination of names on the screen which showed who voted in favor or in opposition of the amendment. The town then voted on the budget as a whole, which passed with a majority vote – with 62 in favor and 32 against.
The town then moved on to article 13, which dealt with releasing a portion of a sewer easement on lot 35 on Kimberly Drive. Cyr said there was currently a sewer easement and the sale of the property was not within the guidelines of the set easement, which would allow for future sales of the property to “not be problematic.” Town residents voted in favor of the article by a majority.
They then moved on to article 14, which would change the town bylaw and allow for the use of handheld devices. The chair of the Bylaw Review Community said they had voted in favor of the article, but had reserved the right to change the language moving forward. Baptiste said he didn’t mind using the devices, but had been looking forward to seeing who voted on topics during the meeting. He said while it was public knowledge to see how people had voted at the meeting he believed that they should be able to see how people voted by name in real time. Residents then gave Baptiste paper to officially propose an amendment and make it official moving forward. Several residents spoke in opposition to using the devices as they said they had bad experiences with ensuring their votes were cast. Ultimately, residents voted in favor of the amendment by a majority vote.
After several residents spoke in opposition of the handheld devices, Town Clerk Carlene Hamlin said they had done their best to get as much information to residents as possible. She said they were trying to advance the process of Town Meeting to make it more efficient and effective and it was not how they envisioned the night. She said they were not the only community experiencing such issues, and town officials would communicate what worked and what didn’t with regards to the devices. She said the tabulators were “the future” of town meetings and “we need to embrace them.”
She apologized for frustration among residents and a resident offered an amendment to avoid using the tabulators at any Special Town Meetings in the coming year. A resident then proposed another amendment that would allow for the bylaw to pass, but not use the devices until the 2022 town meeting. He said assuming they were able to test the devices further, in a year’s time they would be able to use the devices confidently and know there would be very few, if any, technological difficulties with regards to the counters. Due to technical difficulties, votes were counted just using yes/no paddles. The amendment was voted down. Continuing to use just paddles, residents then went on to vote in favor of using handheld devices at town meetings moving forward.
The town then moved onto article 15, which would allow for the appropriation of $197,000 for the purchase of the 27-acre property known as O’Meara et al Property. Cyr said he believed that this, along with other conservation properties in town, would be managed appropriately by the Conservation Commission. He also thanked the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and Anne Capra, director of the Conservation Commission, for their work on obtaining and purchasing the property. One resident expressed concern regarding the expenditure of the funds due to the uncertainty of the economy and felt they should preserve the town's capital. Capra said they had already secured a grant.
“A vote yes tonight would allow the town to seek reimbursement for these funds,” she said.
Baptiste pointed out that members of the community weren’t concerned about being “fiscally responsible” when it was concerning the conservation of land, but were concerned about such topics when it came to increasing funds for the Police Department. Capra reiterated that the state was going to be reimbursing 68 percent of the cost, “the balance is going to come out of the conservation care fund,” which was a fund controlled by the commission. She said the balance had been allocated already. Residents passed the article, which required a two-thirds vote, by a vote of 80 to three.
They then moved onto article 16, which would allow for River Lodge Road, which at the time of the meeting had not been recognized as an official town road. Cyr presented an amended motion to the article as he said there was still some required documentation needed. The amendment would allow for the town to vote on the acceptance of the road, pending the acceptance of the needed documentation. The article was approved by a majority vote.
Moving onto article 17, Cyr moved to allow the town to transfer $150,000 from unreserved free cash as a grant match to support an agricultural preservation restriction for a property to be purchased by the Kestrel Land Trust.
Capra explained the article was “security” for the commission to help them purchase the land for agriculture. She said the commission was seeking donations and grants, and wouldn’t need to begin paying on the restriction on the property for a year. She said prior to the meeting, a campaign had been launched to begin raising the funds needed. Since the campaign had been launched she said more than $16,000 and she felt good about raising the money and not needing to come back to the Selectboard. However, in order to move forward the land protection agencies needed some security from the town on the matter. The article, which required a two-thirds vote, passed unanimously.
Article 18 was then discussed, which allowed for the transfer of waste water treatment plant retained earnings for several purchases, repairs and replacements including a plant roof repair for $85,000 and a generator replacement for $400,000. Cyr said the generator was more than 25 years old and needed to be replaced as it was vital. Once again, residents voted unanimously in favor of the transfer.
Article 19 was then discussed. The article, if passed, would allow for the transfer of $1,748,000 from unreserved free cash for capital purchases, repairs or replacements such as $1,300,000 for a dispatch communications system, $236,000 to purchase three new police cruisers, $82,000 for a dishwasher at the high school, $30,000 for Smart Boards at the high school and $100,000 to replace IT system servers related to municipal operations. Two residents expressed concern regarding the purchase of police vehicles. One resident said two vehicles per year for the Police Department seemed “out of junction” when Mosier School didn’t have air conditioning and it “seemed excessive” to purchase two new cruisers each year. Residents voted as a majority to approve the article.
The final article of the night, article 20, was to appropriate $400,000 to transfer $200,000 to the stabilization fund and the $200,000 to the capital stabilization fund. Cyr said these were newly established savings accounts, which he supported. Residents voted in favor of the transfers to the accounts.