AMHERST — Despite both written and oral appeals from advocates for the town’s unarmed community responders, two positions in the department will go unfilled for the next year after the Town Council approved a $103.3 million fiscal year 2026 budget for town, school and library operations.

Councilors Monday, following an extended discussion about the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service department and rejecting an amendment to remove $269,704 in free cash going toward the $28.32 million elementary school budget, voted 10-3 to adopt the full spending plan presented by Town Manager Paul Bockelman on May 1.

The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 earned support from At Large Councilors Andy Steinberg and Mandi Jo Hanneke, District 5 Councilors Ana Devlin Gauthier and Bob Hegner, District 4 Councilors Jennifer Taub and Pam Rooney, District 3 Councilor George Ryan, District 2 Councilor and Council President Lynn Griesemer and District 1 Councilors Cathy Schoen and Ndifreke Ette.

But in part because of the diminished staffing for CRESS, which like the police and fire departments will have unfilled positions, At Large Councilor Ellisha Walker, District 3 Councilor Heather Hala Lord and District 2 Councilor Pat De Angelis voted against the budget.

“I really urge the council to stand on the side of justice, equity and community care and to not vote to accept this budget and to freeze the CRESS positions, because this will have a lasting impact on our community members,” Walker said.

Walker said people in the community are facing a dangerous situation and won’t be adequately protected and served by the police alternative, which she added has been underfunded and understaffed and never has become an around-the-clock operation as envisioned.

“How are we even to give an adequate evaluation of the department,” Walker said.

Lord said with the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in town, people facing evictions from their homes and other challenges, CRESS is critical.

“I’m against the freezing of these positions in the budget, Lord said. “I really believe we need to increase the CRESS presence because it’s really gaining momentum and doing great things.”

Steinberg said while he feels badly about CRESS, there are questions about whether there is sufficient staffing for other public safety departments, including firefighters who are making sacrifices by covering additional shifts. He said there has to be recognition about competing demands in other departments.

During public comment at the outset of the meeting, members of the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee and supporters of CRESS spoke, including Amherst resident Lauren Mills, who said there is racism and undercurrents of anti-Blackness in many spaces in town, making CRESS essential.

“We see this underfunding, this undersupport, is likely to whither any impact CRESS would have,” said former resident Ash Hartwell, who now lives in South Hadley.

“This is not the commitment you initially pledged and it’s not something the town can be proud of,” said resident Martha Hanner.

CRESS is also losing its implementation manager, a position that was funded through a state grant.

School budget

Councilors, who previously had approved the $19.74 million assessment for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, OK’d the rest of the budget with little discussion, including the $29.5 million operating budget for the town, which covers public safety, public works and Town Hall operations, and $2.39 million in tax support for the Jones Library.

Hanneke, though, put forward an amendment to remove $269,704 in free cash going toward the elementary school budget, which would reduce that $28.05 million. This was defeated 12-1.

Hanneke said free cash is supposed to be a bridge to savings, when Wildwood and Fort River schools close and students attend a new 575 K-5 school, with a 6th Grade Academy to be created at the middle school, and not for operational expenses. But whether those savings will be realized has not been made clear.

“The Finance Committee did not receive those assurances, in fact, multiple finance members during conversation construed the responses we received as basically stating there would not be operational or efficiency savings when the new school opens,” Hanneke said. “So if the district can’t give us those basic assurances one year from the slated opening of that school, then I am troubled in referencing the free cash as bridge money.”

Devlin Gauthier said one-time use of free cash is appropriate and reasonable under the circumstances.

“I don’t feel it’s suddenly fair to nitpick the use of funds here,” Devlin Gauthier said. “We cannot punish the children in our schools for the lack of communication from adults. That is not fair,”

The free cash is an effort to soften the transition to the new school, Schoen said.

“I think it’s important to include this money for multiple reasons,” Schoen said, including the ongoing contract negotiations for the schools.

“I believe that our schools are not getting all that they need, they’re struggling with what they are getting,” Lord said.

Rooney said she empathizes with Hanneke’s frustration, but wants to believe that the free cash will be a bridge.

The Town Council’s draft memo for school officials advising against building the fiscal year 2027 budget from a base with the free cash raised concerns for School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Shiao.

Shiao, who said she was speaking for herself and not the committee, will acknowledge receipt of that memo if it comes, but the committee is unlikely to pledge not to build off the base, and advised councilors they wouldn’t be able to “memo yourselves out” of making difficult decisions next year.

“My sense, though, is you want to minimize conflict or friction when it comes to the fiscal 2027 budget, you want the School Committee to fall in line and not ask for more than the Town Council wants to give,” Shiao said. “That is not something we can acknowledge or agree to.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.