Town Manager John Musante said he met with potential planning candidates before making a recommendation.
AMHERST - The Select Board approved Town Manager John P. Musante’s recommendation to appoint a former town planner to the town’s Planning Board.
Musante said he made the recommendation even after receiving a petition signed by about 100 town residents asking him to appoint former member Denise-Renee Barberet to the position.
Barberet served one term but was not reappointed by former manager Laurence R. Shaffer to a second term as is the custom.
Musante said he met with Barberet and “with other potential candidates.”
When it came time to make a decision though he said he felt it “we would be most effective and most valuable” to the town to appoint Connie Kruger to the board instead.
In his memo to the board, Musante wrote that Kruger “ brings to the Planning Board over 25 years of professional planning experience in a variety of state and local positions and is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners.”
She was a senior planner with the town from 2002 to 2010, and was senior program manager for the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, a quasi-public state agency that works with state government and with business, civic and community leaders to increase the supply of affordable housing across the state. She was also a former member of the Board of Assessors.
“I am particularly impressed by Ms. Kruger’s judgment, temperament, and commitment to social justice. I believe Ms. Kruger will be an effective and independent contributor to the Planning Board,” he wrote.
The Select Board vote was unanimous. Kruger will serve until June 30, 2013.
Barberet thinks she was passed over because she offered differing opinions.
She feels that there is a bias in the planning department and on the board toward developers to the exclusion sometimes of voices from the neighborhoods. She felt she represented those people who are not heard. She said at "I think it’s important to have many different points of view” on the board.
She also presented minority reports to town meeting, something that she felt was necessary.