Rebecca Lisi At-Large City Councilor

Letter to OCD re: Proposed Demolition and Dispotion of Lyman Terrace

2012-03-23T12:54:00.003-04:00

Today is the deadline to submit public comments to the Holyoke Office for Community Development regarding the proposed demolition and disposition of Lyman Terrace.

Below you will find a record of the comments that I submitted. Please feel free to share your own letters as comments if you submitted any.

****

March 22, 2012

Alicia Zoeller, Deputy Administrator
Office for Community Development
20 Korean Veterans Plaza, Rm. 400
Holyoke, MA 01040-5036

Dear Ms. Zoeller,

Thank you for taking the time to go through and explaining the Environmental Review Record regarding the use of HUD (Housing and Urban Development) funds for the demolition and disposition of the Lyman Terrace Housing Complex located at 122 Lyman St. in Holyoke. Upon further review of the report, I have decided to submit the below comments to the Public Comment Period. They are focused on four areas in particular: historic preservation, land development, tenant notification, and tenant displacement/relocation.

Regarding historic preservation, I understand that the Massachusetts Historic Commission has submitted a letter dated December 28, 2011 stating that it has reviewed the materials submitted by the Holyoke Housing Authority and determined that the demolition of the housing complex is “unlikely to affect significant historic and archaeological resources.” I also understand that our local Holyoke Historic Commission has neglected to submit its own independent statement. However, I would like to argue that Lyman Terrace holds significant historical value based on two of the criteria that the Massachusetts Historic Commission outlines as qualifications for listing on the National Register-“association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history” and “embodiment of distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.”

First, Lyman Terrace has an association with the history of public housing in the United States as Holyoke’s first public housing project and the nation’s fifth housing project built in 1938. Second, the style of architecture is particular to the housing built by President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). Additionally, the 167-unit brick housing complex is constructed out of bricks that were originally from the Lyman Mills tenements built in 1854 that was removed through the “slum clearance” efforts that made way for the Lyman Housing Project. The brick architecture and copper awnings of the housing complex are visual signifiers of our city’s working-class history and architectural heritage that many today are working to preserve with downtown revitalization efforts throughout the city. Finally, I believe that the information provided to the Massachusetts Historic Commission by the Housing Authority is likely to have been biased toward securing HUD funding and may therefore
underemphasize the historical significance of the housing project and/or the present day value of maintaining brick architecture in our urban core.

Regarding land development, the Environmental Review Report states that the demolition of the Lyman Terrace Project in relation to both “Conformance with Comprehensive Plans and Zoning” and “Compatibility and Urban Impact” are listed as “Potentially Beneficial.” While I recognize that the standard HUD Environmental Assessment Checklist has a limited number of impact categories that may not accurately represent the real or future effects of demolition and disposition, to list on the Environmental Review Report that they will only have potentially beneficial impacts on the community is a subjective and lopsided assessment of what could potentially happen after demolition; one could just as easily state that there will be potentially negative impacts on the community. Simply put, it is not an assessment of demolition in and of itself and we just do not know what potential impact demolition and disposition may have as they are both contingent upon the RFP that is adopted in the disposition process. For the Environmental Review to suggest that only potentially beneficial impacts will be associated with the razing of the Lyman Housing Project is an anticipatively sanguine assessment.

Regarding tenant notification, the Environmental Review Report clearly documents the many public meetings the Holyoke Housing Authority has held with the Lyman Terrace residents. However, having spoken with Lyman Terrace residents about the current proposal to demolish and dispose of the property, there seems a degree of confusion among residents about what the Housing Authority is proposing exactly at this point in time. This confusion may be attributed to the degree of continuity between the Housing Authority meetings for their previous HopeVI proposal that was denied and the current proposal for demolition and disposition. Residents tend to report a description of the proposal that conflates the two projects and expect that new affordable and/or public housing units will be built to replace the Lyman Terrace housing complex.

While the Housing Authority may have fulfilled its requirements for holding public meetings, the confusion among residents as to what the current proposal for demolition and disposition entails raises several concerns regarding the substantive quality of those meetings and the communication between the HHA and the Lyman Terrace residents. I understand that the Housing Authority met with residents on March 5, 2012 to rectify some of this confusion, however many concerns remain. First, given the large population of Latino residents, have written materials been presented and oral presentations been conducted consistently in a bilingual format? Second, are materials and information presented in a way that is easy for lay people to understand, or in a manner that may appear overwhelming or indecipherable due to technical language or legalese?

Lastly, given the typically lower socioeconomic status of public housing residents vis-à-vis Housing Authority staff and personnel, what measures are taken to ensure that public meetings are spaces in which discussion and deliberation can take place? In other words, to what degree are Lyman Terrace residents comfortable asking questions and assisted in fully comprehending the implications of the information presented? Is participation in these meetings meaningful in that residents are encouraged to register their opinions and those opinions are seriously taken into account, or are the meetings simply an opportunity for the Housing Authority to report to residents about what is going to happen? The Environmental Review Report documents that the Lyman Terrace Project is in an Environmental Justice neighborhood which corroborates my claims that the residents make up a sensitive minority community whose access to decision-making processes needs to be ensured.

Finally, the Environmental Review Report lists resident displacement/relocation as having a “potentially beneficial” impact which is another contestable, subjective assessment. The outcome of tenant displacement due to demolition is unknown, so it is impossible to say definitively whether demolition and subsequent tenant relocation will have a positive or negative impact on residents. While the Holyoke Housing Authority has included a finalized Relocation Plan in the Environmental Review Report, the 98 percent occupancy of the Housing Authority’s units places the burden of finding, selecting, and securing new homes (through Section 8 Vouchers and replacement housing payments) primarily on the individual displaced residents as opposed to taking more comprehensive measures that would relocate the tenants while keeping the majority of the community intact.

As the Lyman Terrace community is listed as an Environmental Justice community, it is a sensitive, low-income, minority population that very likely relies heavily on neighborhood support networks that have been established over many years of living together in the Lyman Terrace project. Disruptions to those social and economic support networks could prove devastating to individual residents’ ability to secure amenities such as food, transportation, child care, and other social services that are easily accessed either directly through their neighbors’ support or from the familiar locations or agencies located in the neighborhood. I would argue that only a relocation plan that is able to retain the existing neighborhood network attributes should be deemed to have a “potentially beneficial” impact. Otherwise, we should assume that disruptions to those networks should be interpreted as having a potentially adverse impact and should require further study to assess what networks exist in the neighborhood, which would need to be recreated if displacement and relocation take place, and what are the plans and actions that would need to be taken to reestablish disrupted, yet valuable networks.

This concludes the comments that I wish to submit regarding the Environmental Review Report. I commend the Office for Community Development for the thoroughness with which they completed the review; the report’s high level of notifications and materials documentation have assisted me in making directed and pointed arguments. I’d like also to include for the record that the City Council will be considering on March 29, 2012 a Resolution that states its opposition to the demolition on ideological grounds. If it passes, we will be sure to send copies along to the OCD, HHA, and HUD.

Thank you,
Rebecca Lisi

“Supporting Responsible Downtown Economic and Community Development at Lyman Terrace”

2012-02-22T10:43:00.005-05:00

During the Public Speak Out period at the February 21 City Council Meeting, five residents discussed their opposition to the demolition and disposition of Lyman Terrace. Following the February 17 notice from the Holyoke Housing Authority stating that the demolition of Lyman Terrace would have "no significant impact on the human environment," they had spent the weekend canvassing Holyoke neighborhoods, talking to residents about their opinions of the demolition, and collected petition signatures opposing the demolition of the site. To date, they have reported having collected 112 signatures.

In advance of last night's city council meeting, these residents contacted me and ask for my support; "Was there any action that the city could take to prevent this from happening?"

Before taking action, there were several things to keep in mind, which I restated at last night's Council meeting:

1. The City has no financial investment in the project; all funds for demolition would come out of the HHA's Operating Budget and from HUD.

2. The City has no formal involvement in the decision-making process regarding demolition. The HHA owns the land outright and can therefore dispose of it as it sees fit and is legally permissible. Therefore, the only option the the City has to express its opposition is with a written letter submitted to the Public Comment Period that is available to all individuals and groups before the March 7 deadline.

3. Residents absolutely deserve better quality living conditions. One of the main arguments that the HHA is making in support of the demolition is that the residents should not have to "live in those conditions; the residents want demolition." However, demolition is just one among several options to improve the quality of life and living conditions of residents in Lyman Terrace. Rehabilitation/renovation alone or coupled with some demolition to make mixed-income or mixed-used units in that area could also be explored.

4. Opposition to the demolition is based strictly on perceived historic value and structural integrity of the buildings. According to the Massachusetts Historic Commission, there are at least two criteria that I believe Lyman Terrace meets that would qualify for listing it on the National Register: a) its association with the history of public housing in the United States, and b) a method of construction that is particular to the Works Progress Era. Additionally, no forensic studies have been presented to identify whether the building have any structural problems.

As such, there were four things that I thought were appropriate and effective actions to take. First, the City Council could adopt a Resolution to formally go on record stating its opposition to the outright demolition of Lyman Terrace based on the perceived historic value and structural integrity of the buildings. Second, we could as a representative body offer a written letter to the public comment period expressing our concerns and opposition to the demolition. Third, that we invite all the parties involved in the proposed demolition and the future of Lyman Terrace to the City Council to discuss what the situation at Lyman Terrace and what are the potential range of options for dealing with the problems there. Finally, we should ask the Holyoke Historic Commission and Massachusetts Historic Commission to investigate whether Lyman Terrace qualifies as a historic site that belongs on the National Register.

I motioned to have the Resolution adopted due to the upcoming March 7 deadline for public comment. Since of regularly schedule March 6 meeting is canceled due to the Presidental Primary Elections on Super Tuesday, this was the only opportunity the council would have to decide to take action as a body before the end of the comment period.

That motion was amended to send to the Redevelopment Committee by Council McGiverin for further discussion. By a show of hands the motion passed.

However, I counted a tie vote: Alexander, Bresnahan, Leahy, McGiverin, Murphy, Tallman, and Vacon voting in favor and Bartley, Ferreira, Jourdain, Lebron-Martinez, Lisi, Soto, and Vega voting against sending to committee (and in favor of adoption that evening), so I asked for clarification which let to a reconsideration of our actions (passed 8-6 with Tallman joining those who initially wanted to adopt).

Finally, on the roll call vote to send to committee the vote was again 8-6 (this time, Ward 1 Councilor Lebron-Martinez joined those who favored sending the order to committee instead of taking action that evening).

Despite having "lost" the vote that I was after, i was very satisfied with awareness-raising efforts of both the Orders that I filed and the citizen involvement and participation demonstrated by the 30 or so Holyoke residents that came down to City Hall to support the issue.

The order will likely come up in Redevelopment Committee after the close of the public comment period on March 7, so I will be submitting written comments as an individual citizen/city councilor. I urge those of you who are following the debate to do the same. Comments can be submitted to:

City of Holyoke Office for Community Development, City Hall Annex Room 400, Holyoke, MA 01040 by first class mail, by fax to 413-322-5611 or email to zoellera@ci.holyoke.ma.us

I am also looking forward to having in the Mayor, the Housing Authority, HUD, Holyoke Office of Community Development, and Holyoke Historic Commission to discuss this order in public. Hopefully, the residents will come and attend and hear, in a more balanced power setting, what the situation with Lyman Terrace currently is and how we can generate a variety of options to improve the area. This is especially important because when I hear that "demotion is what the residents want" I can't help but think that demolition is presented to the residents as the more reasonable and responsible decision because a wider range of options have not been explored.

There was a lot of media generated from last night's event, so I will be updating this post as audio/video/photography links are posted.

Where do I vote in Holyoke on November 8?

2011-11-07T08:52:00.010-05:00

Polling Places for each Ward

WARD ONE
Precinct A - Rosary Towers, 24 Bowers St.
Precinct B - Prospect Heights Community Room, 41 Chestnut Street

WARD TWO
Precinct A - Morgan School Gym

Precinct B - Falcetti Towers, 475 Maple Steet

WARD THREE
Precinct A - Elmwood Engine House, South Street

Precinct B - Metcalf School, 2019 Northampton Street

WARD FOUR
Precinct A - St. Paul's Church Parish, 485 Appleton Steet

Precinct B - St. Paul's Church Parish, 485 Appleton Street

WARD FIVE
Precinct A - Lt. Elmer J. McMahon School Gym
Precinct B - Maurice A. Donahue School Gym

WARD SIX
Precinct A - First Lutheran School

Precinct B - First Lutheran School

WARD SEVEN
Precinct A - E. N. White School, 1 Jefferson St
Precinct B - E. N. White School, 1 Jefferson St

Rebecca Lisi: Ideas, Energy, Action!

2011-11-03T22:45:00.003-04:00

The Future is Here!

2011-11-03T01:52:00.006-04:00

Rebecca Lisi has been building the foundation for a successful future Holyoke on a reinterpretation of its historic industrial past through:

Responsible Downtown Revitalization
Building Holyoke’s Reputation as a Leader in the Green Economy
Creating Local Jobs for Holyoke families
Strengthening Community

Vote LISI on November 8!

RE-ELECT REBECCA LISI
CITY COUNCILOR AT-LARGE

City Councilor at-Large Rebecca Lisi Receives Endorsements from Local Organizations

2011-11-02T10:17:00.010-04:00

City Councilor at-Large, Rebecca Lisi, received endorsements from the following local organizations:

Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council
Carpenters Local 108
IBEW Local 7
UAW 2322
UFCW 1459
Neighbor to Neighbor, MA

She is proud to have earned the trust and respect of these organizations and is honored to receive such amazing recognition and support.

Remember to vote LISI on November 8!!

RE-ELECT REBECCA LISI
CITY COUNCILOR at LARGE

Holyoke City Council begins planning in case Mount Tom coal plant shuts down

2011-10-19T11:09:00.003-04:00

Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 9:50 PM Updated: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 8:31

By Mike Plaisance, The Republican

Staff Photo by John SuchockiMount Tom Power Plant, in February

HOLYOKE – With a dozen sign-holding advocates looking on with approval, the City Council Tuesday took a step to begin planning for the reuse of the Mount Tom coal plant amid concerns it could be closing.

“We don’t need a dirty plant sitting (unused). We should have a plan,” said Daniel Perez, of Tokeneke Road.

“I hope that the city of Holyoke is pro-active,” said Jane Andresen, of Keefe Street.

They were among the advocates in City Council Chambers at City Hall with signs like “Protect No Toxic Mercury” and “Mount Tom coal plant will retire – let’s plan ahead. Action for a Healthy Holyoke.”

By unanimous voice vote, the council asked Mayor Elaine A. Pluta to form a committee of residents and officials to study how the Mount Tom Power Plant on Route 5 near the Easthampton line could be reused in an environmentally friendly way.

The committee of about a dozen would consist of at least one resident from each of the seven wards chosen by the mayor in consultation with other leaders and community groups.

Also on the committee would be representatives of the Board of Health, Board of Assessors, Planning Board and Conservation Commission.

The committee would hold regular public hearings and submit a written report to the City Council by October 2012, under the council order. It was filed by councilors Aaron M. Vega, Kevin A. Jourdain and Rebecca Lisi.

Labor union officials last week said the owner has said half the plant’s 60 employees will be laid off because the plant is not operating often enough to justify its present level of staffing.

The plant’s owners, FirstLight Power Resources and GDF Suez North America, declined to comment last week.

The plant was built in 1960 and can generate 146,000 kilowatts, or enough to meet the electrical demands of a city twice the size of Holyoke, according to First Light Power Resources and GDF Suez North America. The plant can burn 1,200 tons of coal daily.

From 2007 to 2009, First Light installed $55 million worth of air pollution-control equipment after the state determined it was the second largest polluter in the state.

In July, the owner reached a settlement with the state attorney general’s office and agreed to install air-monitoring equipment at the plant and take other steps to correct pollution problems.

Advocates represented at the council meeting were the Sierra Club, of Boston, Toxins Action Center, of Boston and West Hartford, Conn., Conservation Law Foundation, of Boston, and Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts.

INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC VISITORS TOUR HOLYOKE

2011-07-14T12:40:00.005-04:00

Participants of a U.S. State Department program will meet with city officials and take a tour of Holyoke. Participants come from 18 different countries from every area of the world.

Academics participating in a State Department institute from 18 different countries spent time visiting with Holyoke city officials, toured various locations throughout the city, and lunched at a local restaurant. The international visit was coordinated by Rebecca Lisi, City Councilor at Large and a Political Science Doctoral student at UMass Amherst. The participants met with Mayor Elaine A. Pluta, City Solicitor Lisa Ball, and John Dyjach of the Office of Planning and Development.

Lisi said, "Each of us need to be helping to highlight Holyoke to our connections outside of the city. It's a great way to build a more positive public image of the city."

The participants are part of the U.S. Institute on American Politics and Political Thought funded by the U.S. State Department and implemented and managed by the University of Massachusetts Civic Initiative, a democracy education and research program of the UMass Donahue Institute. Participants came to Holyoke to discuss challenges facing American cities and see first hand attempts to deal with these problems.

According to the Program Director, Michael Hannahan, “These individuals are chosen to attend this program due to their engagement in the issues and problems of their home countries and communities. Giving them a chance to see first hand and talk with individuals in the United States that face similar problems is an outstanding opportunity for them to broaden their perspective and consult with colleagues facing issues much like their own.”

The group met at City Hall on Wednesday, July 13^th at 9:30am, talked with a panel of city officials followed by a driving and walking tour of the city. the visit ended with lunch at the Fernandez Family Restaurant.

CRUSH named Best Activist Organization in the Valley by the Valley Advocate 2011

2011-04-20T23:41:00.004-04:00

from The Advocate, Best on the Valley 2011
Best Activist Organization

C.R.U.S.H.
PO Box 6441
Holyoke, MA
(413) 340-1040

www.crushonholyoke.org

Founded two and a half years ago, C.R.U.S.H.—Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke—is a self-described "network of Holyokers who want to live, work and have fun in a healthy, successful and revitalized former industrial city." The group holds events ranging from Party With a Purpose, with themes of interest to residents, to an annual block party that takes over a downtown block for music, food and fun. Member Rory Casey says C.R.U.S.H. works hard to attract a diverse membership—city old-timers and newcomers; residents of all ethnic and economic backgrounds and political persuasions. "At the end of the day, we're just a group of people who love Holyoke and know the potential our city has," he says.

Councilor Lisi Donates Free Passes to Area Museums to Holyoke Public Library

2011-03-21T18:33:00.002-04:00

HOLYOKE- City Councilor At-Large Rebecca Lisi donated free passes to area museums to the Holyoke Public Library this week. The passes to MASS MoCA and to the Norman Rockwell museum admit up to 2 adults and two children each. Holyoke residents are welcome to check out the free passes with their library cards at the Library Circulations desk.

Councilor Lisi donated the museum passes to the Library in honor of the graduation of her husband, Damian Cote, from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) with a Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking. Lisi also said that the gift seemed to be an appropriate addition to the Library’s collection given all the other work going into restoring and updating the Public Library building.

“Damian and I are real art enthusiasts and I wanted to make sure that the city’s residents could easily access and enjoy art to the extent that we do. Other area libraries carry free passes to these museums and it seemed to be the perfect time to gift them to the library,” said Lisi.

The Norman Rockwell Museum passes expire on November 1, 2011 and the MASS MoCA passes expire on February 12, 2012.

Holyoke city councilors call for more aggressive attempt to track down tax scofflaws before sewer fees are increased

2010-11-30T22:30:00.004-05:00

Published: Monday, November 29, 2010, 3:51 PM Updated: Monday, November 29, 2010, 3:57 PM

Mike Plaisance, The Republican

HOLYOKE – City councilors said they want more done to hunt down $600,000 in late bills before they will agree to increase the sewer rate, which would be unfair to those who pay bills on time.

“Essentially, they’re asking everyone to take on an added burden of those who owe fees into the system,” Councilor-at-Large Rebecca Lisi said on Nov. 18.

“We should go after these bills without raising a penny of the sewer fee,” Councilor-at-Large James M. Leahy said.

Leahy has proposed the city hire a collection agency to track down sewer bill delinquents.

Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said she was willing to discuss the hiring of such a collector with city Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra, provided councilors understand that such a hiring requires spending.

Councilors’ concerns come as Public Works Superintendent William D. Fuqua has outlined a proposal that would increase the sewer rate by 18.5 percent. That would be to avoid a $341,900 deficit in the sewer fund by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, he said.

Under the proposal, the average household’s yearly sewer bill would increase to $430 from the current $365.

That’s based on the current rate of $5.40 per 1,000 metered gallons used, increasing to $6.40 per 1,000 metered gallons used.

The setting of the sewer rate is a City Council decision.

Councilor Diosdado Lopez, chairman of the Ordinance Committee, said councilors want additional information that includes more effort on late bills. He was still hopeful about establishing a new sewer rate by late December, he said.

The sewer fund is about $8.7 million. Most of that is money the city is contractually bound to pay to United Water, the private company that manages the sewer system, Fuqua said.

United Water will be paid about $6.8 million this year, and the company gets an increase based on the rate of inflation, he said.

The problem that could result in a sewer-fund deficit is that revenue coming in from sewer customers isn’t keeping pace with the rate paid to United Water, he said.

Fuqua is working with Lumbra to issue letters to the overdue customers who collectively owe more than $600,000. That step precedes the city’s placement of a lien on the property. A lien is a legal step that assures that if the property is sold, the city is the first to get paid.

“That’s our only, most effective way to collect the money,” Fuqua said.

Lopez was among councilors seeking actions with more tangible results than liens. Sewer customers who owe money should be put on notice that permits or licenses they have from the city are at stake, he said.

“For example, a letter will go out on a specific date, and if you don’t pay by another date, you will lose the permit,” Lopez said.

Fairfield Avenue in Holyoke gets its own historical commission

2010-11-29T20:29:00.003-05:00

Published: Sunday, November 28, 2010, 2:39 AM
Mike Plaisance, The Republican Mike Plaisance, The Republican

2009 rebecca lisi fairfield avenueThe Republican file photoHolyoke City Councilor Rebecca Lisi on historic Fairfield Avenue.

HOLYOKE - A street in the Highlands neighborhood has become the only one in the city with its own historical commission.

The Fairfield Avenue Local Historic District Commission consists of seven members authorized to preserve its distinctive architecture and other significant details.

The street, which is perpendicular to Northampton Street, is lined with Victorians and old mansions that date to 1870, 1800 and 1891.

Mayor Elaine A. Pluta appointed the commission and the City Council confirmed the appointments last month.

“I think it’s wonderful. It’s been in process for” years, Olivia L. Mausel, a member of the new commission, said.

Mausel, who also is cochairwoman of the citywide Historical Commission, said Fairfield Avenue is the city’s only street with its own historical commission.

Establishment of the commission will provide protection from demolition and inappropriate remodeling as commissioners try to maintain the street’s historic nature, she said.

The commission is permitted to review only changes proposed to the exterior architecture visible from a public way. The commission’s existence doesn’t mean all changes are banned, Mausel said.

“The intent is to make changes and additions harmonious, and prevent the intrusion of incongruous elements that might detract from the aesthetic and historic values of the district,” Mausel said.

The commission will hold meetings, which will be posted and open to the public, to discuss changes residents want to make to Fairfield Avenue homes, she said.

Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi has pushed for several years to get a Fairfield Avenue commission appointed and was glad it is now in place.

“It’s an excellent example of citizens really taking revitalization of a community in their own hands,” Lisi said.

Support on Fairfield Avenue for such a commission wasn’t unanimous. Some residents have been wary of the street having such a designation.

The ordinance establishing the Fairfield Avenue Historic District says that in addition to residents, the commission must include one member from two nominees submitted by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects and one member from two nominees submitted by the local Board of Realtors.

Besides Mausel, of 25 Briarwood Drive, the commission consists of residential members James Sutter, 30 Fairfield Ave., Sandra Parent, 347 Westfield Road, Wendy Weiss, Fairfield Avenue, and Matt Chenier, 20 Fairfield Ave., who is chairman.

Others on the commission are Realtor Charles Davignon, 167 Main St., and architect Peter Papineau, 42 Fairfield Ave.

© 2010 masslive.com. All rights reserved.

Holyoke councilors say no to responsible employer ordinance

2010-10-08T11:14:00.001-04:00

from The Republican,
Published: Thursday, October 07, 2010, 5:10 PM

HOLYOKE – The City Council has rejected a proposal for a so-called responsible employer ordinance because of concerns that requirements in the law would thwart big projects and invite a lawsuit.

Requirements that a certain number of jobs on a municipal building project go to city residents, unionized workers, women and minorities, could scare away contractors and undermine the intent to help the city, they said.

Another part of such an ordinance would require establishment of apprenticeship training in the building trades while projects are ongoing.

“It scares me,” Councilor at Large James M. Leahy said, on Tuesday at City Hall.

But Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi, who proposed the measure with Ward 4 Councilor Timothy W. Purington, said the city by dismissing the proposal has missed a chance to help Holyokers.

“I think it’s exactly because we have these new projects coming in that we should have this ordinance,” Lisi said.

The city is planning to build a new library for $15 million and a senior center for $8.1 million.

The largest project in the works here, a $168 million high performance computing center set for the canal area, is mostly private-funded and would fall outside such an ordinance.

The Ordinance Committee voted 3-2 to recommend the full council withdraw the proposal, and the City Council adopted that by voice vote.

Councilors said among their concerns was an Aug. 16 letter from a law firm representing the Utility Contractors Association of New England Inc., whose Web site says it is a Quincy-based trade association comprised of over 250 major contractors and associated business.

Lawyer Richard D. Wayne, of HinckleyAllenSnyder, of Boston, warned in the letter to City Solicitor Lisa A. Ball that the association has challenged responsible employer ordinances in other communities and would do so with Holyoke’s.

Kara Lamb Cunha, second assistant city solicitor, advised in a Sept. 28 opinion that the council avoid adopting a responsible employer ordinance. The Utility Contractors Association is challenging Fall River’s ordinance and resolution of that case might address issues with Holyoke’s proposal, she wrote.

Lisi said, “We shouldn’t allow this city to be bullied because of our reputation as one of the poorest cities in the commonwealth.”

“I just think it’s the wrong timing,” Councilor at Large Patricia C. Devine said.

Purington was absent.

Build Local, Hire Local

2010-08-24T13:58:00.004-04:00

Holyoke's proposed REO would require contractors to set aside jobs for residents
from The Valley Advocate, August 26, 2010
By Maureen Turner

The city of Holyoke is poised for somewhat of a building renaissance these days, points out at-large City Councilor Rebecca Lisi. There's the upcoming expansion and renovation of the city library, the new senior center, the long-awaited, yet-to-be-sited high-tech computing center.

"There are a lot of big projects coming our way," Lisi said. "There's a lot of positive attention on Holyoke these days, and we're doing a lot of work to prepare for the future."

And that, she added, makes it an opportune time for a new city policy that would ensure that Holyoke residents reap all the benefits they can from those projects. That's why she is co-sponsoring a proposed ordinance designed to guarantee city residents a certain percentage of jobs on publicly funded constriction projects. The "Responsible Employer Ordinance," or REO, would also require contractors to hire a set percentage of minority and women workers, to provide workers with decent wages and benefits, and to offer apprentice programs for city residents.

The proposed ordinance, which is still in draft form, was drawn up with local labor unions representing the building trades. Backers describe it as a way to keep local money in the local economy, and ensure that contractors give back, through employment and training, to the community paying for the projects. But critics in the industry say REOs actually have a hidden agenda: to steer public construction projects to union shops, at the expense of non-union shops, who often cannot meet the requirements of the ordinances as easily as union bidders.

*

According to a tally kept by Associated Builders and Contractors—a national organization of "merit shop," or non-union, construction firms, and a chief critic of responsible employer ordinances—REOs exist in almost 20 Massachusetts communities. They include Springfield, which passed an REO last summer.

Boston, Lawrence, Worcester and Somerville are among the cities that have REOs on their books. In Fall River, the City Council recently repealed that city's REO, which it had revised back in the spring. According to the Fall River Herald News, councilors made the move in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of employers who alleged that they would be discriminated against under the ordinance, which required 50 percent local hires.

In Holyoke, the proposed REO is sponsored by Lisi, Ward 2 Councilor Diosdado Lopez, Ward 4 Councilor Tim Purington, and at-large Councilor Aaron Vega. In its current draft form, its requirements would apply to construction contracts worth $100,000 or more that are at least partially funded with city money, or subcontracts of $25,000 or more.

The REO would require that at least 35 percent of jobs on a qualifying project go to Holyoke residents. Twenty percent would go to minorities, and 5 percent to women. Waivers from these requirements would be granted to contractors who demonstrate to a city monitoring committee that they could not find enough qualified workers in those categories, after making serious recruitment efforts.

The REO also calls for contractors to comply with existing state laws by paying prevailing wages and providing health benefits and workers' compensation coverage, and to maintain a pension plan for employees.

In addition, under the REO, contractors would have to set aside 5 percent of the jobs for apprentices learning the trade, and offer a state-approved apprentice training program for each trade in their workforce, graduating at least two apprentices a year per trade.

Contractors would be required to participate in a close tracking system to ensure their compliance with the REO. The program would be overseen by a monitoring committee, with members appointed by the City Council and mayor. Contractors who violate the REO would face a fine of $300 per day for each violation.

*

Too often, taxpayer-funded construction projects go to out-of-town, or even out-of-state, construction firms, which bring in workers from outside the area, says Dan D'Alma, president of the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council. The council represents union shops in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.

The workers commute in at the beginning of the workday, and head home at the end.

The economic spin-off for the host community? "Maybe a coffee on their way in in the morning; maybe a six-pack and a coffee on the way home," said D'Alma.

"They want to come in and do the project, and yet they're not giving anything back to the community," he said of the contractors. "They bid the job, bring in their people. The city taxpayers, not one of them has an opportunity to work on the project."

The Building Trades Council has more than 300 residents who live in Holyoke, D'Alma added. With big jobs like the computing center on the horizon, "they should be afforded the opportunity to work on the project. ...

"They're taxpayers," he added. "It's their city, and they're locked out of working."

REOs, D'Alma said, ensure that the communities paying for the projects reap at least part of the benefits. In particular, they help get work for people who've historically been under-represented in the industry, like women and racial minorities. And their apprenticeship requirements help get residents on the path to good-paying jobs with solid benefits—an especially crucial benefit in cities like Holyoke and Springfield, where un- and underemployment is high.

"To me, it's about making sure the benefits of the projects are distributed as evenly as possible," said Lisi, the city councilor.

"This is not something that's supposed to be confrontational," she added.

*

But it is controversial, at least in one large sector of the building industry.

"While promoting responsible contracting is certainly a worthy goal, a closer look at union-sponsored Responsible Employer Ordinances (REOs) shows they are really about controlling the marketplace and limiting competition from non-union or open shop firms," Greg Beeman, president of the Massachusetts chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, wrote in a recent opinion piece.

"At first glance, REOs seem reasonable. But a closer look shows that they are a wolf in sheep's clothing—much more about controlling the marketplace than promoting responsibility," Beeman wrote.

ABCMA has been tracking REOs around the commonwealth for years, Beeman told the Advocate; in recent years, he said, the trend has been toward stricter and stricter requirements. "The Holyoke one is the most extreme I've seen," he said.

ABCMA's 425 member construction firms support the general concepts of REOs, Beeman said. "They want to do the right thing. They want to have an industry that has high standards," Beeman said.

But REOs like Holyoke's, he contends, have a more specific agenda: slanting the playing field to give union contractors an unfair advantage over non-union shops—which, according to Beeman, account for about 80 percent of the industry in Massachusetts.

REOs, Beeman noted, don't just guarantee health care and retirement plans, for instance; they guarantee benefits equal to or better than that offered under union collective-bargaining agreements, which automatically puts union shops bidding for the jobs in a stronger position.

In addition, Beeman said, REOs' apprenticeship requirements are written so tightly as to ensure that union shops will be able to meet them easily, while non-union shops will not. Union contractors participate in group apprenticeship programs, which serve all members of the union. A non-union shop, however, would not only have to establish its own apprenticeship program—something, Beeman said, most already have—but also meet the specific graduation rates (in the case of the draft Holyoke REO, two graduates per year in each of the trades represented). For small shops that don't have a lot of employees, that number is just too high, Beeman said.

"If this was just about being a responsible employer, we'd have no problem with it," Beeman said. "I don't see this as responsible. I see this as setting very difficult terms that are difficult for non-union shops to meet. ... We would like them to be fairer to the majority of employers and contractors, who are not union."

REOs, Beeman also contends, add yet another layer of regulations—and paperwork—to an already heavily regulated industry. "It seems like a textbook example of how to kill a company with paperwork," Beeman said. "A lot of small businesses, they're just struggling to keep up."

And it's not just non-union firms that suffer under REOs, Beeman argued—so do taxpayers. When governments are hiring contractors for publicly funded jobs, it's important to attract as many qualified bidders as possible, to get the best deal possible. The sort of strict requirements REOs place on potential bidders limit the number of firms vying for the job, he said.

D'Alma, the union leader, rejected the criticisms made by ABC as "sour grapes."

REOs don't reduce competition for public building jobs, D'Alma responded; when the city of Springfield recently sought bids for a new Putnam High, he said, more than 80 subcontractors bid on the job.

D'Alma also dismissed arguments that REOs are unfair to smaller businesses, or drown firms in paperwork. The ordinances simply require that contractors put a certain percentage of local people to work, he said. "They want to bring in who they want, make their money, and go home."

"That cracks me up, when I hear 'it's a union thing,'" D'Alma added. "It's not a union thing. It's a residency thing."

The building trades council, D'Alma said, is in the early stages of a campaign to get an REO passed in Chicopee, and has its eyes on other communities, such as Greenfield, as well. "I think every city should have one," he said.

*

Holyoke's proposed REO, Lisi stressed, is still a work in progress. In Springfield, city officials spent about six months hashing out the details before passing that city's REO last August. Holyoke councilors will also take their time, listening to all the affected parties and tailoring the ordinance to best meet their city's needs, Lisi said.

That could mean reducing the percentage of local hires from 35 percent (the figure in Springfield's REO, and in Holyoke's draft) to 20 or 25 percent—although, Lisi added, "I would like to still see it aggressive, because that's where we get the big benefits from." It could also mean raising the contract threshold that triggers the REO requirements—currently, in the draft ordinance, $100,000—to a higher figure, or expanding the residency requirement to include neighboring communities as well as Holyoke.

The ordinance is "still being molded," said Lisi, who recently met with Beeman and other ABCMA officials about their concerns.

While ABCMA has made its objections to the REO clear, another major business group has yet to officially weigh in: the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President Doris Ransford told the Advocate her group is still studying the draft ordinance and soliciting feedback from its members.

Some have expressed concerns that limiting the pool of potential bidders in a community as small as Holyoke would limit competition, and could end up costing the city more money, she said. Others have expressed concern about the amount of paperwork the REO would require, or questioned whether the $100,000 threshold in the draft ordinance is too low.

"There's a lot of questions and issues," Ransford said. "It's not something we would blanket say 'no' to, but it doesn't look very good to us at this point."

No chicken of due process

2010-07-07T18:29:00.005-04:00

~~Misleading the public~~
~~unpublished Letter to the Editor~~
(submitted to both The Sun and The Republican June 22, 2010)
from The Sun, July 16- 22, 2010

Dear Editor,

This letter is in response to City Councilor Patti Devine’s Letter to the Editor entitled “No thanks, chickens,” published in The Sun June 18, 2010. Councilor Devine’s letter contains several myths and untruths regarding the political process that citizens in favor of transparent and responsible government should be made aware of.

First, City Councilors use orders to bring new ideas forward to the public and their colleagues. Orders are generally sent to an appropriate committee to be discussed in an open meeting and typically, the council votes to bring in relevant departments or experts in the field to help inform the council on its decision. In the case of the “chicken order,” the majority of the residents who participated in the political process voiced their opposition and Councilor Purington and I respectfully acknowledged the will of the citizens at this point in time and decided to vote with the Ordinance Committee 5-0 to give the order “leave to with draw”.

Second, giving an order leave to withdraw simply means that the council is ending the discussion on that topic; it is neither a vote for nor against that issue and the issue may be taken up by the council again at a later time. For Councilor Devine to claim that Councilor Purington and I, along with the rest of the council, voted against the chicken order is overtly misleading. Considering the many years that Councilor Devine has served on the City Council, as well as the fact that several of her own orders through the Ordinance Committee (including rescinding the business overlay district on Northampton St.; attaching late fees to special permits that are not picked up from the clerk’s office; restricting the grant of special permits to residents who have lived in the city for at least a year; among others) have been given “leave to withdraw,” I would assume that she is well aware of the significance of the term and its implications.

Lastly, during the committee meeting Councilor Devine accused the “chicken order” proponents of being out of touch with the residents. I beg to differ; if Councilor Devine believes that Holyokers have an appetite for fear-mongering and manipulative political tactics, then it is clearly she who is “out of touch” with the community.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Lisi

Holyoke City Councilor At-Large

CRUSH and Mount Holyoke College hold economic summit on city’s future

2010-05-23T20:31:00.010-04:00

from The Sun; May 14-20, 2010

By Dennis P. Hohenberger
Turley Correspondent

HOLYOKE - The Citizens for the Revitalization and Urban Success of Holyoke (CRUSH) and the Roosevelt Institute at Mount Holyoke College hosted “Revitalizing: Building Holyoke’s Future” at Heritage State Park May 7. The daylong economic summit brought together local officials, as well as regional and national experts on urban planning and development. As final site selection for the High-P e r f o r m a n c e Computer Center nears, organizers discussed ways Holyoke can best leverage its economic and natural resources.

“[The event is] a perfect example on how Holyoke can be smart and connected,” CRUSH member and Holyoke City Councilor Rebecca Lisi said. “It’s making use of the knowledge and energy resources that are in the five-college area.”

She said the economic summit is a first in a series of “Civic Learning Labs,” whereby residents come together and discuss what works in other communities, and how those lessons can be replicated in Holyoke. “It’s all about thinking big, about what is possible,” Lisi said. “We don’t have to put a lot of hard work into re-inventing the wheel. It’s really about figuring out how those other models can fit and work for Holyoke.”

Casey Maliszewski, of the Roosevelt Institute, said the Mount Holyoke chapter was founded a year ago. The chapter, along with CRUSH, formed the summit to “stimulate dialog” on the city’s future development. “I think one of the purposes of event, and a great opportunity, is to learn what other cities are doing, because everybody has a different approach,” she said. “These gateway cities in Massachusetts, in a way, need to be aligned with one another, to bridge some ideas.”

John Dyjach, of the Holyoke Economic Development Department, was part of a panel that examined Holyoke’s current economy. He was joined by Brian Beauregard, of Holyoke Gas and Electric (HGE), and Bob Forrant, a professor at UMass-Lowell.

Dyjach said the “day-to-day, down-and-dirty” work conducted by city departments barely gets noticed. He said his department has set priorities, which includes retaining current businesses. “Our effort to retain businesses starts with outreach and we want to meet with as many businesses that we can in town,” he said.

He said the outreach can be frustrating at times because of limited resources, as city businesses face a number of challenges. Dyjach spoke of Holyoke’s industrial past, when internationally recognized companies were the norm. Now, he said, family owned businesses are the dominant
economic model.

Attracting new business since the downturn in the economy, he said, has been difficult, but that Holyoke possesses significant supply of water, which is used primarily for power generation, a key factor in the future development of the High-P e r f o r m a n c e Computer Center. Though there are sizable parcels available for the commercial and industrial use in the Ingleside section of Holyoke, the city’s main focus will be in developing the newly named Arts & Innovation District downtown.

Dyjach said challenges exist with blighted and abandoned buildings. “The last thing we want to do is take down some of these buildings,” he said.

According to Dyjach, the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside is the city’s largest employer, as the mall employs more than 3,000 persons in the region. Holyoke’s unemployment rate, though, is over 12.2 percent, higher than the state average.

He said businesses, such as the Holyoke Health Center, have returned workers to city-center and brought back needed foot traffic. While the city has seen some growth, much is riding with the High-Performance Computer Center, which is scheduled to break ground in the fall.

Though the center will not generate many jobs, city planners feel high-tech and other companies will position their businesses nearby, which could generate high-paying jobs both in the city and region. In the next few years, a north-to-south passenger rail will return to the city, which could
spark more economic growth.

Holyoke’s future depends on theavailability of cheap energy, power generated by the dam and canal system and other green technologies. Beauregard said the HGE “keeps the lights on in the city of Holyoke.”

Since 1997, said Beauregard, HGE has not only focused on energy generation, but on telecommunications and has constructed a fiber optic network. The network connects 90 percent of medium and large size businesses to high-speed internet. Still, he said, energy generation will remain HGE’s major focus.

“We can’t forget our core business and we have to ensure that we meet our mission statement - Excellent rates, excellent customer service and reliable service,” he said.

Beauregard said the HGE is currently studying the viability of harnessing wind power from the top of Mt. Tom, hydrokinetic energy from the Connecticut River, and other sources, with the emphasis on low-emissions sources.

Mayor Elaine A. Pluta, spoke during a break. “People are here because they feel the momentum and energy in the city of Holyoke,” she said. “We are, indeed, on the brink of being revitalized and reenergized. There’s a renaissance coming to the city. Everybody feels that and wants to be part of it.”

She said despite the national economic downturn, the city continues to move forward powered by an infusion of state, private and educational money, dollars that will go toward future high-tech and other projects.

The last half of the summit was devoted to “Lessons from other cities: Challenges and Opportunities.” The panelist included Benjamin Forman, of MassInc.; Kelly Aikin, of the Regional Planning Board of Hampden County; Adam Baacke, from the city of Lowell; Thomas Deller, of Providence Economic Development; and Timothy McGourthy, city of Worcester.

Don’t be chicken

2010-04-24T22:44:00.005-04:00

from The Sun, April 23-29. 2010

To the Editor:

The recent proposal for an ordinance allowing citizens to raise chickens on their own property by councilors Tim Purington and Rebeca Lisi appears to have spurred a lively debate here in Holyoke. This is as it should be in a democracy. Ironically it is the humans rather than Chicken Little that seems to think the sky is falling!

This debate should be based on rational and evidence-based dialogue, not vague stories of days past when cupboards were lined with chicken wire.Emotional and knee-jerk reactions or epitaphs like “tree huggers” will not help further the dialogue. The urban farming movement and the interest in locally-produced food is growing stronger and has become a popular movement. It is not an ethnic or hippie ideology. It is based on sound ideas by intelligent individuals who strive to enrich their local community and protect their food sources. It is here whether the city of Holyoke accepts or rejects its philosophy.

Allowing citizens to raise chickens has many positive benefits. The nutritional quality of a fresh egg, free of antibiotic or hormone residues is not the least of these. The humane treatment of chickens allowed room to manifest normal behaviors such as walking and scratching in the earth is beyond compare to that of factory farm raised laying hens, the latter of which are raised on wire floors with just enough room to turn around, in a building where the light of day never shines. The educational benefit and sense of empowerment to families and their children in raising and controlling a food source is another obvious benefit. Additional benefits include discarded food to be eaten by the chickens instead of adding to over burdened landfills, and the composting of nutrient-rich chicken-manure for the family garden. Chickens are also very effective at removing insect pests, including ticks, from their immediate environment. Lastly, the pleasure and entertainment afforded by the observation of a clutch of hens can rival most midday soap-operas.

The negative aspects of chickens in Holyoke are few, and appear to be based on unsupported claims. First and foremost are sanitation and health concerns. Chickens produce manure, but as already mentioned this is a benefit to those with yards, and there is no odor if composted properly. The amount of excrement produced by three or four chickens pales in comparison to that of one 50 pound dog. Dog manure contains many more potential zoonotic pathogens (i.e. transmissible to humans) than that of chickens. As long as we are on the subject, you won’t ever see an emergency room victim of a chicken attack - I wish the same could be said for cats and dogs!

Salmonella (e.g. typhoid) and Avian Influenza (e.g. H1N1) are often thrown around as a perfectly logical reason to protect the public and ban chickens - except the argument doesn’t “fly” to those who understand infectious diseases. First, Salmonella is a species of enteric (gut) bacteria that inhabits chicken intestinal tracts and can be in excrement – but they also reside in your gut, your childrens’, your neighbor’s, your dog’s, cat’s, in fact most living vertebrates with an intestinal tract. The problem with salmonellosis as a disease is that it usually occurs in highly crowded, stressful environments (think factory farms) where virulent strains emerge. Additionally, the problem affects people when they handle raw, uncooked chicken products in an unsanitary manner – not in a small chicken coop on your neighbor’s property. The same science pertains to influenza of birds. A new strain of flu that affects humans will come from highly concentrated groups of birds in poorly ventilated, stressful environments (again, factory farms), not from a small flock of backyard fowl. Yes, wild fowl (especially ducks) could carry the virus, but it requires intimate close contact (beak to beak) or a really good fly-over duck poop to hit your chicken yard.

We have REAL problems to deal with people….The small diverse hobby farmer is a small scale solution to the problem of salmonella and influenza – not the cause! If you want to see how the treatment of animals has global health implications, pick up a copy of “Bird Flu” by Michael Greger M.D. Lastly I think anyone who has grown up with chickens understands how clean and quiet these animals are if given the proper environment. You don’t have to worry about noise or smell if your ordinance is clear and based on good husbandry practices. Mr. Purington has done his homework and is willing to work with experts to do just that. I applaud councilors Rebecca Lisi and Tim Purington in their attempt to allow citizens the right to live their lives in a healthier and enriching way. I heard someone say we have much greater problems to tackle in Holyoke –I couldn’t agree more. Let’s pass this ordinance and move on to more pressing issues facing this city.

Dr. John Perdrizet, DVM PhD

Shifting the Trash Burden: Holyoke takes the lead in a campaign to reduce waste at the source--manufacturers.

2010-02-17T10:41:00.002-05:00

from The Valley Advocate
by Maureen Turner
February 18, 2010

By Maureen Turner

Chart showing how waste has changed radically

First, the good news: recycling rates in the U.S. are higher than they've ever been. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2008, Americans recycled or composted 83 million tons of the waste they generated—an average of 1.5 pounds per person per day. About one-third of the waste generated in the U.S. each year is recycled, up from 16 percent in 1990 and 6.6 percent in 1970.

But that still leaves an enormous amount of waste heading to strained landfills, incinerators and other waste disposal sites—the 83 million tons of trash that get recycled each year is overshadowed by the remaining 167 million tons that don't. EPA figures show that the majority of waste generated by Americans is made up of packaging and containers (30.8 percent), durable goods (18.3 percent) and nondurable goods (23.5 percent)—items that can be difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to recycle through their municipal waste systems.

Public and political pressure is building for a new approach to handling this waste, one that shifts the burden from consumers and municipalities to manufacturers, who would be forced to take responsibility for what ultimately happens to the products they make. Called "Extended Producer Responsibility," or EPR, the approach requires manufacturers to absorb the cost of collecting and recycling their products—a shift, it's hoped, that would motivate them to make more environmentally friendly products in the first place.

The EPR model has been embraced by the European Union, which has taken a leadership role on the issue. In the U.S., it's catching on more slowly, with individual states adopting laws that address some, but not all, product categories. But as more and more regions face the prospect of running out of places to put their trash, momentum is building for a broader approach.

Earlier this month, the Holyoke City Council signaled its support for that effort, passing a resolution that calls for the state Legislature to pass a bill that would require electronics manufacturers to bear the cost of recycling their products. In addition, the resolution called for a broader statewide EPR program that would include many more products.

Holyoke is the first community in Massachusetts to call for a statewide EPR program.

"I thought the issue was tremendously appropriate for Holyoke," said City Councilor Rebecca Lisi, who sponsored the resolution. She sees it as an opportunity for the city to position itself to potential investors in the much-touted new "green economy"—and to save taxpayers money in the process.

Laws that hold manufacturers responsible for the "end life" of their products are not new. Perhaps the best-known examples are bottle laws, such as Massachusetts', that make beverage companies responsible for collecting and recycling used bottles. Massachusetts has a similar program for the disposal of products that contain mercury, such as thermometers and thermostats. Twenty states already have EPR laws for the disposal of electronics, or "e-waste."

Massachusetts is not one of them, which means towns and cities are responsible for the disposal of the roughly 300,000 computers, televisions and similar products disposed of in the state each year. Because TVs and computer monitors contain toxic metals, including lead, they've been banned from state landfills since 2000. Instead, municipalities hire private recyclers to handle those products. In total, Massachusetts communities spend about $2 million to $4 million a year to get rid of e-waste, the Boston Globe reported last year.

An e-waste bill is pending in the state Legislature. That bill, filed by state Rep. Frank Smizik (D-Brookline), received a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture last fall and is now sitting before the House Committee on Rules. Holyoke is one of about 180 municipalities in the state that have called for that bill to come to the floor for a vote. (Valley communities that have passed similar resolutions include Amherst, Belchertown, Chicopee and Greenfield. The environmental group Clean Water Action is also calling on supporters to write to House Speaker Robert DeLeo to ask that the bill be brought to a vote.)

In December, in a preview of a forthcoming Solid Waste Master Plan, the Patrick administration announced its support for several waste reduction efforts, including the e-waste bill and an expansion of the bottle law to include water and sports-drink bottles.

"[T]he Patrick-Murray Administration is committed to an aggressive agenda of recycling and waste reduction that gives cities and towns assistance to expand and improve their recycling efforts and requires greater responsibility from manufacturers for products—ranging from water bottles to televisions—that end up in our waste stream," read a Dec. 11 announcement from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

"Focusing on incineration and landfills is the wrong end of the waste equation," EOEEA Secretary Ian Bowles added.

Lynn Pledger of Clean Water Action is excited by those kinds of statements from state officials, which she sees as an acknowledgement that we need to focus on how to reduce waste in the first place, rather than simply on how to dispose of it. She's also encouraged by the Patrick administration's emphasis on manufacturers bearing responsibility for their products.

Pledger would like to see Massachusetts broaden those efforts by creating a "framework EPR" system, one that would authorize state officials (in this case, the Department of Environmental Protection) to add new product categories to the program, rather than the current lengthy, piecemeal process that relies on the Legislature to pass individual laws addressing individual products. A handful of states are already considering framework EPR bills, including Maine. These efforts would require manufacturers to cover the cost of collecting and recycling their products and would subject them to performance standards set by the state.

That, Pledger said, would have an immediate benefit for municipalities, by relieving them of the burden of handling products that are difficult or costly to recycle. They would also have a longer term environmental benefit, she added.

"Once you make producers responsible for the cost of what happens to their products when they're discarded, that's going to influence how they design their product," she said. "They're going to design it to make it easier to recycle. If it has a toxic component, for example, they're not going to want to pay to dispose of that toxic waste, so they're going to find a safer alternative."

The three Rs of environmentalism—reduce, reuse, recycle—represent a hierarchy, Pledger said, one in which the preferred option is to not create potential waste in the first place. Even products that can be recycled come with environmental costs, in their manufacture, in their packaging, in the recycling process. EPR, she said, helps create "long product chains. & And along the way, you're focusing first on reusing things that don't have to be ground up and remanufactured."

If the drawn-out, contentious history of the bottle law is any indication, broader EPR legislation will face opposition from manufacturers, who are loath to accept government restrictions on how they do business, and typically insist that such mandates would cause them to pass the cost on to consumers, lead to worker layoffs, or prompt them to move to a more "business-friendly" place.

Those were some of the arguments made against the Holyoke resolution. The Advocate contacted three of the five Holyoke city councilors who voted against the EPR resolution, including Patty Devine, chair of the Public Safety Committee, which had reported the resolution out without a recommendation; none responded to interview requests.

Rebecca Lisi described her colleagues' arguments against the resolution as based, in part, on concerns that the EPR movement would create "barriers for business" in a struggling city that could use more jobs and more tax revenue. In addition, some expressed concern that if manufacturers are forced to take on recycling costs, they'll pass it on to consumers by raising prices—a development that would be especially hard on poor people.

Pledger maintains that there are significant economic benefits that would come from EPR programs, including the creation of new jobs in the recycling and product repair sectors. They could also inspire companies to find smarter ways to make products, and to compete for the money of consumers who want safer products that won't just end up in a landfill.

"It stimulates innovations," she said. "Waste is basically inefficiency."

Lisi believes such a policy would lead to expanded recycling programs, which would create new employment opportunities. "That's where the big opportunity to create new jobs in the city comes from," she said.

As for poor people being unduly burdened by manufacturers passing on their costs, Lisi questioned whether those are the people buying high-end goods, like new televisions and computers. The working poor and other taxpayers, she added, are already picking up the cost for the city to handle disposed products.

"As a consumer, you can make a choice about which products to buy," Lisi said. "As a taxpayer, you're stuck in that community."

Last year, Holyoke was selected as the site of a new $100 million computing center, a partnership between UMass, MIT, EMC Corp. and Cisco Systems. The center is being hailed as a "green" project because it will rely on hydroelectric power from the Connecticut River.

"There's a lot of grassroots buzz about how Holyoke can be the home of an industrial green revolution," Lisi said. "Even if it's with small, symbolic steps like this resolution, we need to start signaling to the state and the other investors who are watching what happens with this new computer center that we're ready to think green, act green, that we're going to be welcoming all sorts of green investment&

"We need to be proactive about marketing ourselves as a green city," Lisi continued. The EPR resolution, she said, will help get that message out throughout the state and beyond.

Holyoke City Council passes EPR resolution to boost recycling, cut costs

2010-02-13T23:30:00.005-05:00

from The Sun, February 5- 11, 2010

HOLYOKE – Last night the Holyoke City Council passed a resolution supporting statewide Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR is a new approach to reduce, reuse and recycle that shifts the financial cost of managing discarded products and packaging from the cities and towns to the brand owners who design and market the products.

“Holyoke taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to dispose of toxic or hard-to-recycle products,” said Councilor Rebecca Lisi, who introduced the resolution. “The companies that put these products into the marketplace should be responsible for these costs.”

Recently MassDEP announced that EPR will be a key strategy in the coming decade to reduce the volume of products and packaging discarded in the commonwealth. By requiring producers to pay for the cost of recycling or disposal of their products, EPR provides brand owners a financial incentive to redesign their products to be less wasteful.

On Jan. 28, Lynne Pledger, from Clean Water Action, told the Public Safety Committee that EPR programs in other states have generated new businesses and jobs.

“Twenty states already have EPR programs for electronic waste. Maine has EPR programs that cover six product categories,” she said. “Cities in other states are already benefiting from costs saving and job generation; it’s time for Massachusetts to get on board.”

Holyoke had passed a resolution in 2002 calling for producers of electronics to pay for the costs of safely managing discarded computers and TVs. An e-waste bill was filed this year in the State Legislature and is expected to come to a vote in this legislative session.

“This new resolution calls for passage of the e-waste bill and for EPR Framework legislation to cover more product categories,” Pledger explained.

Holyoke is the first municipality in Massachusetts to pass a resolution calling for a statewide EPR program for multiple products. The council vote was eight to five.

“This initiative is in keeping with Holyoke’s plans to be known as a forward-looking, ‘green’ community,” Lisi said.

The Clean Water Action EPR presentation to the Public Safety Committee was attended by a group of Holyoke residents from Project GreenHolyoke.

Inforrmation about Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

2010-02-02T15:35:00.004-05:00

Hello,

I am posting a transcript of my comments regarding the EPR resolution that the City Council considered this evening as well as the resolution itself and other informational materials.

Please contact me if you have questions or comments!

Best,
Rebecca

I would first like to thank Lynne Pledger of Clean Water Action for coming before the Public Safety Committee on two separate occasions to educate the council and members of the public on Extended Producer Responsibility and its principles.

EPR is simply a way to make manufacturers responsible for the recycling and management of their products and in effect, lift the burden of high costs associated with management and disposal off of the municipality and its taxpayers.

By shifting the responsibility for management and disposal onto the manufacturers, we incentivize product innovations that extend the life of the product or make a product easier to recycle or refurbish.

For example: electronic waste is difficult and costly for municipalities to manage- they are filled with toxic components and computers, televisions, printers and so on, typically end up in our curbside trash pick up.

We pay a lot of money per ton for curbside trash and once those products end up in a landfill they pollute our environment.

On the other hand, we make money on the amount that we are able to recycle.

So, by establishing a program that helps producers increase the both number of collection sites and types of products that we can recycle, we can dramatically decrease the amount of trash tonnage that costs the city money to dispose of while increasing the amount of tonnage going toward recycling efforts.

Not only do we save money on trash disposal, but we actually make more money for increased recycling.

The legislation that tonight's resolution supports will help reduce the amount of dumping happening on our city streets and alleyways.

It will also help create jobs by expanding existing recycling centers and creating a demand for new collections sites and recycling centers.

The Patrick Administration and the State DEP are fully supportive of comprehensive EPR legislation and since they have targeted Holyoke as the site of the near-coming Green High-Powered Computing Center, I believe that with this resolution we can continue to signal to the state that Holyoke is ready to think green, act green and ensure future green investments in the newly emerging green industrial economy.

I am fully in support of this resolution and I hope that my colleagues will join me in building Holyoke's reputation as a leader in the green economy.

Thank you.

/EPR%20overview%20pdf

/Resolution%20for%20Holyoke

/Patrick%20Administration%20press%20release

Holyoke City Council considers use of city-sanctioned e-mail system

2010-01-23T12:03:00.002-05:00

By Michael Plaisance

January 22, 2010, 4:03AM

HOLYOKE - If Holyoke is to be a center of computing technology, some city councilors say it makes sense for councilors to be accessible in a city-sanctioned e-mail system.

But other councilors say they would avoid using a city system because such correspondence is subject to public-disclosure laws, which could discourage constituents who want to discuss something in confidence.

The City Council on Jan. 5 referred the e-mail proposal to the Public Service Committee.

Councilors also will seek an opinion from the Law Department. They want advice about disclosure requirements of municipal e-mail systems and issues related to the Open Meeting Law if multiple councilors happen to exchange e-mails on an issue, said Councilor Rebecca Lisi, who filed the e-mail proposal.

“I think that constituents really want to be able to have that quick communication,” Lisi said on Tuesday.

The discussion comes as a regional task force has been discussing the potential benefits of an $80 million high performance computing center. A partnership consisting of the state, colleges and private companies plans to build the center along the canals in a project supporters say could make Holyoke a research hub.

Councilor Aaron Vega said it is important that people looking through the city Web site have access to councilors by e-mail. A councilor can always tell someone who wants to discuss a private matter that they can speak by phone, he said.

“Keep in mind if we are to (be) home to (a) high speed computer center and to an innovation district I believe we need to embrace new technologies and ideas that move us forward,” Vega wrote in an e-mail.

The Holyoke Gas and Electric Department operates the city’s Web site and e-mail services for department heads and others. Adding e-mail accounts for city councilors would be a minor adjustment, department Manager James M. Lavelle said.

Councilor Kevin A. Jourdain has a Web site and e-mail access, but it is a private account. He wants the public to feel free to contact him without worrying the discussion might have to be made public because it occurred on a municipal e-mail system, he said.

“This way, if a citizen e-mails me, if they want that confidence, they have that knowledge that they will have that confidence,” Jourdain said.

Courts have debated the disclosure requirements that public officials face regarding use of e-mail and other electronic communication. For example, according to Reuters news service, the U.S. Supreme Court said last month that it would decide in its current term whether privacy rights covered a worker’s personal text message on employer-owned equipment, hearing a case about an Ontario, Calif. police officer who sent sexually explicit messages from his department-issued pager.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, the state Supreme Court ruled in November that private e-mail communication to and from government employees don’t qualify as a public record. The Associated Press had sued to gain access to the correspondence.

John P. O’Neill, who is the Ward 7 councilor here and a lawyer, said he believes city business that a councilor discusses in any forum should be subject to public disclosure.

“In other words, if we’re conducting public business on our private computers, I don’t think we can get around the Freedom of Information Act,” O’Neill said.

***

Councilor Vega and I filed this order at this year's first city council meeting. We will work to keep you informed about how the issues progresses through committee.

Historic victory feels 'awesome'

2009-11-16T21:16:00.003-05:00

By Mike Plaisance

mplaisance@repub.com

Source: Sunday Republican (Springfield)
Sunday,November 8, 2009

Being the first woman is important, but Holyoke's new mayor is not losing sight of the issues.

HOLYOKE - The woman who would be making history in less than an hour sat in her kitchen and pulled a black shawl around her.

"I shouldn't hug anyone tonight," said Elaine A. Pluta, who had been fighting a cold.

But supporters either didn't know about her cold or didn't care as they lined up to hug Pluta, a city councilor, shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday as precinct results poured in showing she had been elected the city's first female mayor.

She defeated Daniel C. Boyle, by a comfortable margin, 4,794-3,245.

Pluta, 66, will be sworn in in January to replace Mayor Michael J. Sullivan, who has been mayor since 2000 and didn't seek re-election.

Making such a historic mark obviously matters to Pluta, who described the feeling of becoming the first female mayor with words such as "fantastic" and "awesome," but she also was dwelling on concrete matters.

There's the large number of Holyokers in poverty, many of whom speak little or no English, who need jobs, she said.

"We have to get those people involved," Pluta said.

Another big issue is the new-horizon potential awaiting the city with the planned $80 million high-performance computer center, she said. The project is being planned for the canal area by Gov. Deval L. Patrick and a team that includes the University of Massachusetts, Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prominent women and others here discussed the meaning of Pluta's election.

"Of course, she is an inspiration for many other women," School Committee member Gladys Lebron-Martinez said.

Lebron-Martinez listed Pluta's trajectory. She raised a family, spent 14 years on the City Council, worked four years as Management Assistance Program director in the 1990's, got a bachelor's degree in politics with a minor in urban studies from Mount Holyoke College and is on leave from her job as an aide to U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst.

"It is, for those of us who know her, like me, it is an inspiration," Lebron-Martinez said.

Suzanne L. Parker is executive director of Girls Inc., a nonprofit here that offers programs for girls of ages 5 to 18. Pluta's election as mayor fits with the organization's vision to help girls be strong, smart and bold, she said.

"We're always looking for women out in the community that are doing things that you don't necessarily see women doing," Parker said.

Pluta and her husband of 46 years, Theodore A. Pluta, have two sons and a daughter, all grown, so she said she understands the importance of an adult setting an example for young eyes.

But she said she also gets it that becoming her native city's first female mayor makes her a role model.

"It is a big responsibility. You have to be better than average. You have to remember that you're a role model and you always want to put your best foot forward," Pluta said.

She was born on Columbus Avenue and her family moved to Dwight Street when she was 2. Now, she said she is preparing to meet on Monday with Sullivan and on Tuesday with Gov. Patrick and other newly elected mayors on Beacon Hill.

Vanquished campaign foeDaniel C. Boyle criticized Pluta for being unfriendly to new businesses looking to locate here.

Pluta said as a councilor she has voted in favor of more than two dozen businesses. They included the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside expansion, the Holyoke Crossing plaza that includes Barnes & Noble and purchasing the hydroelectric dam, the key being the business can't be more harmful than helpful, she said.

Pluta's ability to manage a budget will be tested soon into her term. Most of Holyoke's $119 million budget consists of state funding and Patrick has warned that massive cuts loom.

City Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi said the danger in assessing the election of the city's first female mayor is to dwell on that at the expense of positions Pluta has taken that matter to people, at least as much or more than her being a woman.

Examples include Pluta's emphasizing economic development that is "green," or environmentally friendly, and re-establishing a vibrant downtown, Lisi said.

"I don't think that her 'femaleness' was something that was driving voters toward her, but I do think that what it signifies for us, as a community, is we were open to sharing power among diverse groups," Lisi said.

Councilor at Large Kevin A. Jourdain said it is important that the city has its first female mayor. In Pluta, people can expect someone who is not only willing to listen and compromise, but will say no to someone if that's best for the city, he said.

At her home at 72 Berkshire St. on Tuesday, Pluta noted it was nearing 7:30 p.m. Polls would close - and results would become known - in a half hour.

"We should get going," Pluta said. "Time to face the music."

At her post-election party at the Wherehouse? restaurant on Lyman Street, Pluta's friend Helen F. Norris, a former city councilor, summed up the election.

"It's historic, and Elaine couldn't have been a better choice," Norris said. "She's cool and she's thoughtful."

Councilor Lisi wins re-election at-large and welcomes 2 newcomers to the council- Aaron Vega and Brenna Murphy

2009-11-04T08:43:00.003-05:00

Remember to VOTE! November 3, 2009

2009-10-30T22:42:00.006-04:00

Young Democrats endorse Councilor Lisi and four newcomers to Holyoke politics

2009-10-11T21:17:00.009-04:00

The Pioneer Valley Young Democrats endorsed five candidates running for elected positions in the city of Holyoke.

The candidates are (pictured left) City Councilor At-Large, Rebecca Lisi; Candidates for City Council At-Large , Rory Casey and Jason Ferreira; Candidate for Ward 5 School Committee , Devin Sheehan; and Candidate for Councilor At-Large, Brenna Murphy.

In July, the PVYD invited candidates to fill out an endorsement questionnaire and submit them for review by the organization's political committee. They received many responses from candidates throughout the area and were overwhelmingly struck by the number of young people that are running for elected office.

To view the applications submitted by the candidates click here.