There is so much going on, I’m not even sure where to begin, but I guess the best place to start is with the entry of two “OG’s” into the race for Greenfield City Council.
No one was more shocked than this reporter to see former Greenfield Mayor Christine Forgey run for an at-large city council seat. All indications were that Forgey had her fill of politics the last go-round, but apparently has decided it’s time to come back and lend her voice to a council long on ambition but short on experience.
Forgey picked up her nomination papers alongside long-time political ally, former Council President Dan Guin, who is running in Precinct 2. If Forgey’s candidacy was a surprise, Guin’s was anything but, especially after he was rejected for the Precinct 2 vacancy created by the resignation of John Lobik.
I knew the minute certain progressive councilors admitted to being “underwhelmed” by his application that Guin would be back, and his entry into the race sets up a potentially interesting matchup with the guy who was appointed to that seat, current Precinct 2 Councillor Mark Berson, assuming he decides to run for a term of his own.
Meanwhile, Berson and his fellow councilors are gearing up for what could be a long town meeting budget fight regarding the school budget.
The Greenfield School Committee this week voted to ask the City Council to pass the committee’s original fiscal 2020 budget, not the number submitted by Mayor Bill Martin, which is $1.35 million below what the full committee and Superintendent Jordana Harper requested.
Under Mass General Law, a legislative body can consider a higher school budget amount if requested to do so by the school committee. Passage of that higher amount will require a two-thirds majority vote of the council, which last year voted to reprogram $400,000 in funding from other city budgets to the schools.
Unfortunately for the school administration, the budget issue won’t be decided until after the district issues layoff notices for the 15 to 20 employees who will lose their jobs if Martin’s budget is adopted. The contractual deadline for those notices to go out is Wednesday.
Another concern is the potential impact this budget strife will have on school choice dollars. Parents right now are starting to make decisions on where to send their kids to school next year, and in an era where people can ship their kids anywhere for any reason, this type of public budget uncertainty does not help matters.
Greenfeld learned that the hard way a few years back, when a million-dollar mid-year budget deficit was discovered on former Superintendent Joe Ruscio’s watch. The impact triggered a school choice exodus from which the district is still recovering.
It’s entirely possible that gap widens even more if Martin’s cuts are allowed to stand, which will just move Greenfield closer to the “fiscal cliff” it has, so far, managed to avoid.
It’s unclear when it will actually happen, but it looks as though Greenfield residents will be voting on whether to overturn a City Council vote to build a new library.
Some have argued that the vote should happen in June at a special election, while others want to wait until November, to save the city the $10,000 to $12,000 it would need to spend to hold said special.
There are others who want the council to ignore the referendum petition altogether, which doesn’t seem likely. But if the vote does wait until the fall, it would seem to play right into the hands of mayoral candidate Brickett Allis, who may not want the library, but clearly wants the issue to campaign on.
Brickett’s May 1 campaign kickoff was all about fiscal austerity, and the need for Greenfield to focus on what it “needs” rather than what it “wants.” And while that position is likely to face criticism from those who hold the belief that you cannot “cut your way to prosperity,” anyone who overlooks the potential impact of the Allis message does so at their own peril.
For years, the battle over development was the central issue in Greenfield. Today, it’s about the affordability of living in a city where tax bills keep rising while wages and services remain stagnant.
The mayoral candidate best able to speak to that issue, and demonstrate a plan to improve things, is going to have the inside track heading into what will likely be an extremely active and potentially volatile campaign season.
Chris Collins is a former Recorder staff reporter and a Greenfield native. He can be reached at sourcechris.collins@gmail.com