Town of Amherst Town Board·May 11, 2026
A residency law splits the room · A 30-year highway worker calls it the “friends and family plan” · Neighbors fight over 13 streetlights
A long afternoon session ran heavily on two public hearings the Amherst Town Board deliberately left open rather than decide. The first — a rewrite of the Town's residency law that would let Amherst hire county-wide once its resident lists run dry and grandfather in non-resident staff — drew four speakers, including a 30-year highway employee who called it a way to extend “the friends and family plan,” and was carried over to a May 26 decision date. The second, a petition to add 13 streetlights to The Hamlet and Cricket Lane, pitted 48-year residents who want their dark, quaint street left alone against newer neighbors citing school-walk safety; the board adjourned it without setting a date. Between them the board accepted a clean external audit, honored a championship coach, and swept through resolutions 2026-375 through 421 — two bond resolutions on roll-call votes ($500,000 for a Northtown Center floor and $450,000 for police vehicles), a request to Albany for authority to levy a bed tax, and re-establishment of the Town as SEQR lead for the Boulevard mall redevelopment — every recorded item passing 5–0.
The afternoon's longest fight was over who has to live in Amherst to work for it. Resolution 2026-373 would amend Article 45 of the Town Code to create a residency preference in place of the current residency requirement: Amherst residents would still get first crack at every job, but once the Town exhausts its resident civil-service list and calls the full Erie County list, it could hire off that list “without residency as a barrier.”[1] Deputy Director of Human Resources Zachary Garlick[*] laid out the case: Amherst-only eligible lists have thinned, the six-month move-in waiver “rarely convinces somebody to come work for the town,” and unfilled clerical and technical posts leave higher-paid employees doing lower-level work. The law would grandfather current non-resident staff, hand HR explicit enforcement, and — unusually — sunset itself in 2032 so a future board can simply let it lapse.[1]
The board was sympathetic but not sold. Deputy Supervisor Marinucci[*] said she “still prefer[s] residency required,” noting from her own house hunt that finding a home in a chosen Amherst school district can take “almost 18 months,” longer than any waiver allows.[2] Councilmember Szukala[*] asked bluntly whether residency comes down to Amherst housing costs. The public was blunter still. Three residents urged the board to slow down — Matt Plunkett[*] argued the existing law already lets the board fill hard-to-recruit posts from outside, so “there's no reason that we have to do all of this,” and Don Smith[*] warned the change would let staff move away while quietly reducing the paper trail of who got a waiver.[2]
The sharpest testimony came from Glenn Attansio[*], a 30-year Highway Department employee and former union president. He said several employees hired in the last eight years took six-month waivers and never moved in — and now stand to be grandfathered permanently. “Somebody can stroll in from Tonawanda or Pendleton… never have to live here, never have to pay the taxes, never have to care what goes on in this town,” he said, calling that a morale killer and, in his read of the CSEA contract, a violation of it. His diagnosis of the recruiting problem was not housing prices but wages: a highway laborer, he said, starts around $19 an hour — “you can't even afford an apartment in this town for 19 bucks an hour.” The law, he concluded, looked to him like “just another way to extend the friends and family plan that has existed in this town forever.”[2]
No vote adopted or rejected the law on May 11. Supervisor Lavin moved to keep the hearing open and set a decision date of May 26, which carried 5–0.[3] Per the Town's official minutes, that follow-up hearing did take place: the board closed it at 7:30 PM on May 26 and adopted the residency local law 5–0.[4]
A public hearing is not a vote. Opening one starts a window for residents to be heard; the board can then close it (ending comment and clearing the way to act) or, as here, keep it open with a set “decision date” so the matter carries to a later meeting. So the residency law was neither passed nor killed on May 11 — the board simply extended the conversation to May 26, when it closed the hearing and adopted the law. The lighting-district hearing (next story) went a step further: it was adjourned with no date at all, leaving it in limbo pending state comptroller approval.
The second hearing, on Resolution 2026-374, would extend the Town's consolidated lighting district to add 13 streetlights across 25 homes on The Hamlet and Cricket Lane[*], at a project cost of about $172,000 — roughly $107 a year on the median $341,000 home in the district.[5] Town Attorney Steven Bengart[*] presented and, notably, asked the board not to vote: with New York State Comptroller approval still pending and “three or four” late objections in hand, he urged them to hold off.
The petition's sponsor, Mary Kist[*] of The Hamlet, said organizers cleared both statutory thresholds — more than 50% of assessed value and more than half the homes — and cited children walking to nearby schools in winter darkness and a Justice Department finding that lighting can cut crime. Longtime Cricket Lane residents pushed back hard. Carole Rotando[*], 48 years on the street, said residents there had once petitioned against streetlights, questioned the assessed-value test as unfair to a lower-valued street, and noted the petition sponsor's home is now up for sale. Dari Girage[*], a resident since 1999, said flatly, “I do not support the streetlight idea,” and questioned the motivation. The board adjourned the hearing with no decision date; Lavin promised the 25 affected households would be re-noticed before any vote.[6]
Several speakers bristled that a lighting district turns on “50% of the assessed value” — letting a few million-dollar homes on The Hamlet outweigh a modest street. Lavin and the town attorney explained it is a New York State comptroller rule, not an “Amherst-ism”: because the lights become a new tax borne by the district, the state wants owners of more than half the value — who will pay more than half the bill — to be the ones asking for it. The board still needs state sign-off before it can levy the district at all.
The meeting opened with an in-memory for community volunteer Mary Norton Dryden and a proclamation honoring Coach Megan Johnson, the 2026 All-ECIC "B" Girls Basketball Coach of the Year, whom Marinucci credited with turning a “1-and-19” Williamsville East program into a Section VI Class A finalist. Auditors Drescher & Malecki[*] then delivered an unmodified (clean) opinion on the Town's 2025 financial statements — no findings, no material weaknesses, and a clean single-audit of roughly $43 million in federal awards (largely the $38.2 million Section 8 program run through Belmont Housing). Operating-fund balance rose about $11.4 million (a true increase near $8.6 million once restricted service-award money is set aside), with building permits at their highest level since before COVID; the one soft spot was the highway fund, down about $3 million on a planned draw-down. The board thanked Interim Comptroller Jennifer Adams[*] and her team for the fastest close “in recent history.”[7]
With no councilmember resolutions and both board-appointment slates full, the board moved through the department-head docket, every item adopted 5–0. Two were bond resolutions taken on roll-call votes: 2026-375, $500,000 in serial bonds to replace the rubber floor at the Northtown Center, and 2026-376, $450,000 for police vehicles. The board asked Albany, via 2026-377, for authority to enact a local bed / occupancy tax of up to 2.5% on hotel, motel and short-term-rental stays — 75% of any proceeds to general use, 25% earmarked for youth and amateur-sports facilities. Under Planning, 2026-417 re-established the Town as SEQR lead agency to prepare a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Boulevard Central District, the redevelopment framework around the former Boulevard Mall. The rest was housekeeping at scale: emergency-purchase ratifications (including the Town Hall bollards a resident flagged as an after-the-fact “emergency”), a raft of bid awards, two new volunteer firefighters, a fireworks permit for the Park Country Club, and five Notices of Claim and summonses referred to the Town Attorney before the board adjourned into executive session on personnel, litigation and a possible real-property sale.[8]
All five members were present and voting throughout: Supervisor Shawn A. Lavin[*] (chair), Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci[*], and Councilmembers Michael Szukala[*], John B. Davis and Jack Kavanaugh[*]. Unless noted, votes were unanimous voice votes, 5–0; the two bond resolutions (2026-375, -376) were recorded roll-call votes. The two public-hearing rows below were procedural motions (keep-open / adjourn), not final adoptions. Outcomes are drawn from the official IQM2 minutes; only the marquee and notable items are listed individually, with the balance of 2026-378 through 421 summarized in the final row. No recusals were recorded.
Public hearing on a local law replacing the Town's residency requirement with a residency preference; opened 3:23 PM. Presented by HR Director Robert McCarthy and Deputy Director Zachary Garlick. Speakers: Jane Cox, Matt Plunkett, Don Smith, Glenn Attansio. The board kept the hearing open and set a May 26 decision date (5–0). Per the minutes, the hearing was subsequently closed 7:30 PM on May 26 and the law adopted 5–0.
Public hearing on extending the consolidated lighting district (13 streetlights, 25 homes; ~$172,000). Opened 3:52 PM; Town Attorney Steven Bengart presented and asked the board not to vote pending state comptroller approval. Speakers: Carole Rotando, Mary Kist, Dari Girage. The board adjourned the hearing at 4:10 PM with no decision date; affected households to be re-noticed.
SEQR determination adopted, then $500,000 in serial bonds authorized for the Northtown Center at Amherst rubber-floor replacement (C.I.P. Project YR-2A). No public hearing required (a Town improvement, not a special district).
$450,000 bond resolution for a police vehicle purchase, adopted on a roll-call vote (Lavin, Marinucci, Szukala, Davis, Kavanaugh all aye).
Requests that New York State authorize Amherst to enact a local occupancy tax of up to 2.5% on hotels, motels and short-term rentals (per Assembly Bill A.10932A / Senate Bill S.9850A). Revenue split 75% general purpose / 25% youth and amateur-sports capital. Amended at the dais to add a three-year cap per state standards.
Re-establishes the Town Board as SEQR lead agency and directs the Planning Department to prepare a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Boulevard Central District (the former Boulevard Mall redevelopment area), supplementing the 2020 GEIS.
The remaining department-head resolutions all passed 5–0 on voice votes. Highlights: an SPCA intermunicipal agreement amendment (378); temporary access / license agreements at Casey Road and Westfield Road (379–381); a standard work-day resolution, an amusement license (Body Essential Wellness Studio, 5225 Sheridan Dr) and a Park Country Club fireworks permit (382–385); two new volunteer firefighters for Main-Transit and Getzville (387–388); building-maintenance and emergency-purchase ratifications, including the Town Hall bollards (389–393); CDBG pre-funding and budget transfers (394–395); a run of bid awards — sewer-jetting truck, uniforms, sports-field materials, sweeper parts, dump body, abatement, townwide dumpster service (396–403); grant acceptances (404–405); an engineering change order (406); highway materials and a lubricants piggyback (407–408); a slate of HR actions — leaves, hires and a department-head salary reclassification (409–416); and senior-services and youth-and-rec agreements (418–421).
Five communications received and filed, and referred to the Town Attorney's office: two Notices of Claim (2026-48, -49), a verified Notice of Claim from Richard Phillips (2026-50), and summonses/complaints from Wells Fargo Bank (2026-51) and US Bank National Association (2026-52). The board then adjourned into executive session (employment history, proposed spending and current litigation, a possible real-property sale, and attorney-client matters).
The board's five-member roster used here — Supervisor Shawn A. Lavin (chair), Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci, and Councilmembers Michael Szukala, John B. Davis and Jack Kavanaugh — is verified against the Town's official Town Board page and reconciled to this meeting's official IQM2 minutes, which record all five present and voting aye on every recorded item.
Sourcing. This brief is built from the Town of Amherst YouTube-stream transcript, the official IQM2 (Minutetraq) agenda packet, and the official IQM2 minutes for the May 11, 2026 regular meeting. Where the audio and the written record disagree on a proper noun, the minutes and agenda govern. Resolution numbers, titles, dollar figures, motions, seconders and outcomes are taken from the minutes; the transcript supplies discussion and quotations. Names heard only in the audio — residents who spoke, presenting staff and the auditors — carry the [*] flag and were reconciled to the minutes' speaker list where possible. Corrections applied from audio to the official spelling: “Marionucci/Marinuchi” → Marinucci; “Sacallo/Zucalo/Zucco” → Szukala; “Levin” → Lavin; “Glen Atenazio” → Glenn Attansio; “Carol Mutando” → Carole Rotando; “Dari Jerodge” → Dari Girage; “Andrea Morganti” → Andrea Morgante; “Steve Banghart/Brengart” → Steven Bengart; “Drescher and Maleky” → Drescher & Malecki. Street-name validation corrected audio “Cricut Lane” to the official Cricket Lane (confirmed in the minutes as “Cricket Ln”); the tool flagged “Hill Drive” as ambiguous, resolved via the minutes to Matt Plunkett's address, 299 Northill Dr (heard on audio as “North Hill Drive”); the flagged “Amherst Highway” and “United Way” are not streets (the Highway Department and the charity) and were left uncorrected.
Capture context. Amherst holds a companion Town Board work session; only the 3:00 PM regular-meeting stream is documented here. The audio duration logged (~97.5 minutes) exceeds the roughly 75 minutes of substantive proceedings, so some trailing dead air or held stream is likely included; the meeting itself ran from the 3:00 PM call to order to an adjournment into executive session. One procedural note carried from the record: the residency and lighting hearings were both left open on May 11, so no adoption occurred that day — the residency law's eventual 5–0 adoption on May 26 is reported here from the minutes, which fold the follow-up hearing into the same record. The [*] symbol marks a proper noun reconciled from likely Whisper homophone error against the official record; verify against the Town Clerk's minutes before quoting in any formal communication.