Amherst Town Board's newest local law is meant to improve transparency, but concerns remain over the level of oversight.
The law is specific to the budget and requires a two-page budget summary available to the public, in addition to any visuals like graphs, or charts.
The full budget documents also will be available online, and there is still the requirement for public hearings before any decision, board members said.
Resident Allison Sagraves referenced the law, calling into question whether the remedy carried any weight.
“Non-compliance with this law shall be addressed by the town board with potential measures, including a directive to comply," she said. "Okay, so what I'm deducing from this, is that if they don't comply with the law as written, a potential measure would be to tell themselves, ‘maybe we need to comply with this law.’ But it doesn't say they have to.”
budget discussions should take place during informal workshops with the community instead of exclusively during board meetings where their input isn't considered, resident Geri DiCosmo said.
DiCosmo's idea is one Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa said he would support.
“Regarding the idea of budget workshops, I don't hate the idea. I think it's something we need to look at," he said. "I think that ultimately, those are items that we can talk to and talk through as we go through the budget process.”
Monday’s meeting marks the second straight where audience disruption continued to the point where the board called a five-minute recess.
