Amherst Historic Preservation Commission·June 9, 2026
A new commissioner recommended · A minutes vote that couldn't pass · Five landmark nominations waiting in line
The Town of Amherst's Historic Preservation Commission spent a short June session on the quiet machinery of preservation: it interviewed a candidate behind closed doors and then voted 4–0 to recommend Kayla Clark[*] — cited for a background in architecture and planning — to fill its vacant seat. With only four of six members present, it could not even approve its own May minutes: one member abstained because she had missed that meeting, leaving the motion short of a majority and pushed to July. Members confirmed their Buffalo History Museum and preservation-commission memberships are paid and active, agreed to sit down with the Town Attorney's Office over long-pending changes to the Town's preservation code, recapped a five-municipality preservation roundtable, and turned to the bigger task ahead: getting five landmark nominations sitting in the queue onto Town Board agendas for public hearings.
The most consequential thing the Commission did on June 9 happened where the public could not watch it, and was ratified in about thirty seconds where they could. Roughly four minutes into the meeting, Chair Brian Swartz moved the board into executive session — not to discuss policy, but to interview a single candidate for the panel's open seat. "Executive session for the purposes of interviewing a candidate for our vacant position on the board," Swartz said, after a colleague asked him to state the reason for the record before the recording stopped.[1] The public feed went dark for the better part of forty minutes.
When the board came back on the record, Vice Chair Catherine A. Waterman-Kulpa[*] moved to recommend Kayla Clark[*] to fill the vacancy — citing, per the minutes and the audio, her interview and a resume reflecting "her knowledge of preservation" and "her schooling and degrees… in architecture and planning."[2] Member Jennifer Kensy[*] seconded. The motion carried 4–0.[2]
The recommendation is not the final word: a town commission recommends, and the Town Board appoints. Chair Swartz turned to Assistant Planner James Quinn and asked him to relay "anything associated with the process" — the paperwork that carries a recommended name from a volunteer board up to the elected officials who make it official.[3]
Before any of that, the Commission tripped over its own housekeeping. The first agenda item was routine — approval of the May 12 minutes, which the chair noted were "pretty short."[4] A motion was made and the chair called for the vote. Then came a wrinkle: one member had not attended the May meeting and so abstained, as members typically do on minutes for a session they missed. "You abstain… then it doesn't pass," a voice observed.[4]
With only four of the six sitting members present, and one of those four properly abstaining, the motion lacked the majority it needed. "Motion does not pass; we do not have quorum — we will adjourn this until our next meeting," the chair concluded.[4] The May minutes now wait for the July 14 meeting. The official minutes record the tally precisely: three ayes, no noes, one abstention (Kensy, who had been absent in May), and two members absent.[5]
Approving minutes normally passes without a thought — but it still requires a majority of the full board. Two of the Commission's six sitting members were absent June 9. Of the four present, the member who had missed the May meeting abstained (you can't vouch for the accuracy of a meeting you weren't at). That left just three affirmative votes — not a majority of six. So the May minutes weren't rejected on their merits; they simply ran out of votes, and carry over to July. It is a small reminder that even a friendly, uncontested item needs the numbers.
The evening's forward-looking business circled around a backlog. Five landmark nominations are pending, and the Commission chewed on the logistics of moving them — who puts them on an agenda, whether each requires its own public hearing, and whether to send them up individually or as a batch. Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci,[*] the Town Board member sitting with the panel, proposed coordinating with the relevant Town departments to start scheduling the landmark-nomination public hearings for upcoming Town Board agendas.[6] Members traded practical worries about the optics — one noting that "if the people line up for one, they're going to line up for the next one," and might react differently to each depending on how it is presented.[7] No vote was taken; the item was left as a plan to advance.
On the Commission's other standing project — a rewrite of the Town's Historic Preservation code — there was motion but no resolution. Assistant Planner James Quinn said he would coordinate with the Town Attorney's Office on the proposed code changes, calling it one of his "top tasks this week."[8] Members also confirmed that both the Buffalo History Museum membership and the panel's preservation-commission membership are paid and active — a single shared museum membership the board can pass around, since "we're not all gonna be at the museum at the same time."[9] And Quinn reported that he had handed the Town's list of "blue-rated" historic properties to the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors, which called it a heavy lift but agreed to use the data as best it could — a step toward flagging a home's historic status for prospective buyers.[10] Separately, members recapped a preservation roundtable held June 2 that drew four other municipalities — Lancaster, East Aurora, Lewiston, and the Village of Williamsville.[11]
A six-member commission with four present and voting on June 9: Chair Brian Swartz, Vice Chair Catherine A. Waterman-Kulpa, and members Jennifer Kensy and Hallie Wright, with Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci sitting in (Town Board liaison). Members Mary Lou Mancuso and Jeffery Amplement were absent. Movers, seconders and vote positions are drawn from the official June 9 minutes.
Following a closed-door interview in executive session, the Commission voted to recommend Kayla Clark[*] as a member of the Historic Preservation Commission, citing her interview and a resume reflecting a background in architecture and planning and an interest in preservation. The recommendation now goes to the Town Board, which makes the appointment. Moved by Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa; seconded by Member Kensy; carried.
Chair Swartz moved to enter executive session for the stated purpose of interviewing a candidate for the Commission vacancy; seconded by Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa; carried. A second motion (Waterman-Kulpa, seconded by Swartz) to close the executive session and return to the regular meeting also carried 4–0. The interview itself was not part of the public recording.
Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa moved to approve the May 12 minutes; seconded by Member Wright. The motion failed to reach the required majority — with two members absent and one member (Kensy) abstaining because she had missed the May meeting, only three affirmative votes remained. Approval of the May 12 minutes was adjourned to the next scheduled meeting.
After the miscellaneous discussion wound down, a member moved to adjourn; the motion was seconded and carried on a voice vote ("Aye. Aye. Motion carries."). The minutes record adjournment at 7:56 p.m.
Member attributions in this brief — who moved, who seconded, and how each member voted — are drawn from the Town's official June 9 minutes, reconciled against the meeting audio. The Commission's roster was verified against the Town of Amherst's official Historic Preservation Commission page — Chair Brian Swartz; Vice Chair Catherine A. Waterman-Kulpa; members Jeffery Amplement, Jennifer Kensy, Mary Lou Mancuso and Hallie Wright; with James Quinn (Assistant Planner) as staff. Where a name was reconciled from imperfect audio against that roster or the minutes, it carries a [*].
The transcript is machine-generated and lightly segmented. The audio ran about 55 minutes but was transcribed in a run that produced relatively few, long merged segments, so quoted phrasing is approximate and reconstructed to the best available reading; verify any quote against the official record before relying on it. The name of the recommended appointee, "Kayla Clark," appears in both the audio and the Town's posted minutes but should be confirmed against the Town Board's appointment action.
What aired and what didn't. The Commission interviewed the vacancy candidate in a closed executive session lasting roughly 38 minutes; that portion was not part of the public recording, and this brief reports only the open-session motion, the vote, and the outcome as recorded in the official minutes. Figures, names and vote tallies should be verified against the Town Clerk's record before any formal use.