June 2009 Archives

Annual Town Meeting concludes, with final tally vote

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Amherst's 2009 Annual Town Meeting wrapped up on Wednesday, June 24, and true to recent form, the final night generated one tally vote.

The budget for the libraries was again front and center, returning to Article 22 for approval of the budget.  The Finance Committee proposed a budget of $2,093,584.  Facing the risk of decertification from the state if the budget wasn't funded at a sufficient level, the Library Trustees proposed an amendment to increase the appropriation by $34,704, the amount that would be required to guarantee certification and avoid the process of applying for a waiver to retain certification.  There were a couple other amendments seeking to raise and lower the appropriation by larger amounts, but the Trustees' amendment was the primary alternative to the FC amount.  The votes proceeded, as usual, from higher amounts to lower amounts, and the vote on the library budget generated a tally vote, failing by a vote of 74 YES, 76 NO.  This was the closest tally vote in Town Meeting in over two years (in May 2007, a vote to amend the General Government budget failed by a single vote).

With the 2009 Annual Town Meeting now concluded, the database at tallyvotes.org has now been updated with complete tally vote results and attendance records from all eight sessions of the meeting.  Links to the results from each individual vote are shown below, along with a link to a page listing the results from all nine tally vote results on a single page.

5/4/09 - Extend Municipal Parking District (Passed - 137 YES, 47 NO)

5/6/09 - Adopt Mullin Rule (Passed - 107 YES, 51 NO)

5/11/09 - Appropriate $65K of CPA funds to preserve and display Civil War tablets (Passed - 91 YES, 84 NO)

5/11/09 - Appropriate $30K of CPA funds to install literary signs (Passed - 95 YES, 70 NO)

6/15/09 - Consider Human Services budget before Public Safety budget (Failed - 72 YES, 99 NO)

6/17/09 - Budget - Comm. Services - Gray increase by $24K (Failed - 50 YES, 98 NO)

6/22/09 - Budget - Elementary Schools - FC Amount (Passed - 116 YES, 45 NO)

6/23/09 - Budget - Capital - Buildings and Facilities (Passed - 82 YES, 56 NO)

6/24/09 - Budget - Libraries - Trustees increase by $34K (Failed - 74 YES, 76 NO)

All Spring 2009 Tally Vote Results

Tally votes from 6/22 and 6/23 posted

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As Town Meeting moves toward its conclusion this week, it has continued its recent trend of generating one tally vote per night.

The session on Monday, June 22 dealt primarily with school budgets.  During the consideration of the budget for the elementary schools, there were two proposed amendments - one by Vince O'Connor to raise the appropriation by $400K, and one by Michael Greenebaum to reduce the appropriation by $1K.  The rules of Town Meeting require voting on dollar amounts to proceed from the largest amount to the smallest, so the first vote was on the O'Connor amendment, which failed in a standing vote.  The next vote, on the original Finance Committee amount, went to a tally vote, and passed by a vote of 116 YES, 45 NO.

In Tuesday's meeting, the primary subjects of consideration were the capital budgets.  Article 27, the capital budget for Buildings and Facilities, brought forth two amendments, one by Library Trustee Pat Holland to reduce the appropriation by $34,704, and one by Jim Oldham to reduce the appropriation by $80K.  Again, the votes proceed from largest to smallest, and so the first vote was on the original amount recommended by the Joint Capital Planning Committee.  This went to a tally vote, and passed by a vote of 82 YES, 56 NO.

Tally vote results from both of these votes, along with attendance records for these two meetings, are now available in the tallyvotes.org database.

Elementary school budget - Tally Vote Results

Capital for Buildings and Facilities - Tally Vote Results

All Spring 2009 Tally Vote Results

Tally votes from 6/15 and 6/17 posted

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Last week's Town Meeting sessions on Monday, June 15 and Wednesday, June 17 generated one tally vote in each session.

In Monday's meeting, Select Board member Gerry Weiss moved to consider the Community Services budget as the first item of business under Article 22, ahead of the Public Safety budget.  The vote went to a tally vote, and the motion failed by a vote of 72 YES, 99 NO.

In Wednesday's meeting, when the Community Services budget was considered, there were six amendments to the appropriation, five seeking to increase it, and one seeking to decrease it.  The motion by Town Meeting Member Carol Gray to increase the appropriation by $24,000 went to a tally vote, and was defeated by a vote of 50 YES, 98 NO.

Tally vote results from both these votes, along with attendance records from these two meetings, is now available in the tallyvotes.org database.

Weiss motion to change order of consideration - Tally Vote Results

Gray motion to increase Community Services appropriation - Tally Vote Results

All Spring 2009 Tally Vote Results


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This site contains a comprehensive database of each individual vote in Amherst's Town Meeting since 2002, along with full attendance information. To get started, click one of the predefined searches at right, or see the help section for full details on how to use the database.

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