Occupiers Shut Down Northampton City Council: Video
With help from touring Occupy Wall Street activists, local protestors disrupted a City Council meeting with chants and demands for “conversation” — then seemed confused when Council President Bill Dwight asked them to set a date to meet.
By MARY SERREZE
As DPW Director Ned Huntley made his case for deficit spending on snow and ice removal this year, protesters filed into the room. (NCTV image)
NORTHAMPTON — The Occupy Wall Street Northeast Road Trip rolled into town Wednesday on a biodiesel bus for two days of events. The bus, which originated in Brooklyn, is transporting more than a dozen activists from Zuccotti Park on a five-week, 15-city tour.
Occupiers convened around the city for various workshops, potluck meals, a dance, and a showing of #occupy-related short films. On Thursday afternoon, a rally in Pulaski Park was followed by a 200-strong downtown parade that stopped to protest at the doors of the group’s four featured targets: a Bank of America branch, Verizon offices, ServiceNet headquarters, and the Dunkin’ Donuts on King Street..
At 6 p.m., the group reconvened in the basement of the Unitarian Society for what was billed as the Western Massachusetts General Assembly.
Video produced by Northampton Community Television (NCTV); clip edit by Northampton Media
Occupying the City Council Meeting
Three hours later, only steps away in the Puchalski Municipal Building, Mayor David Narkewicz and the nine-member City Council were finishing up a soporific but important meeting that featured discussion about the city’s bond rating, classroom collaboration between the Clarke School for the Deaf and the Leeds Elementary School, and the finances of decommissioning the city’s landfill.
At about 9:30 p.m., Public Works Director Edward “Ned” Huntley stepped to the podium to deliver his yearly plea for permission to deficit-spend on snow and ice removal.
Mayor David Narkewicz in the moment he noticed protesters filing into Council Chambers. (NCTV image)
The DPW chief, with his back to the room, didn’t notice the two dozen occupiers as they filed into the council chambers. Mayor David Narkewicz, with a glance toward the door, revealed what he saw, but quietly continued the business of the council until shouts shut down the meeting.
“Mic Check!” yelled a young man, initiating a ten-minute, high-decibel call-and-response performance where the occupiers issued a laundry list of vague demands.
“We are occupying the Northampton City Council,” one woman yelled.
Chant leaders said they wanted “community-supported agriculture,” “education,” and an end to any city support for the “military-industrial complex.” Joel Saxe, a downtown resident who hosts the “Bread and Roses” show on Valley Free Radio, said that Smith College should devote some of its properties to “the community” and stated inaccurately that Smith College pays no taxes to the city. (Smith College is indeed the city’s largest taxpayer, contributing more than a half million dollars last year.)
One voice was heard protesting a “four-story, $20-million prison” being built in Northampton, apparently a reference to the new $17 million police station being built downtown. Spending for the new police station was approved last year at the ballot box — after a lengthy public discussion and months of work by an appointed public committee — by a 60-40 margin.
A Demonstration To demand a Conversation
Oddly, most of the issues raised by the crowd (affordable housing, quality education, public space, and tax breaks for economic development) are tackled on a regular basis by the City Council or other municipal boards in open sessions; and the city’s commitment to community-supported agriculture is among the strongest in the state.
“We do have rules of decorum that we ask people to observe when they’re here,” Narkewicz offered the crowd, before being shouted down again.
City resident Rose Bookbinder (standing), a professional labor organizer, suggested the occupiers "demand" Council President Bill Dwight schedule a forum with them.
“Are we allowed to participate in your conversation?” yelled one young man, as Narkewicz tried to call the council meeting back to business.
The mayor told the protesters they were welcome to speak their minds in the public comment session held before every council meeting, an invitation which only elicited more shouting.
Even as the mayor was being heckled, he continued to calmly chair the meeting, recognizing City Council President William “Bill” Dwight, who directly addressed the protesters.
“I understand that this is a demonstration (and) not necessarily what we would call a ‘conversation’,” said Dwight, “But I don’t think you’ll find a single person in here who is not open to a ‘conversation,’ particularly about the issues you raise.”
Council President Bill Dwight said he'd be happy to meet with the occupiers to discuss their concerns, which seemed to confuse the protesters.
As Dwight spoke, the group became silent until local union organizer Rose Bookbinder finally stood and proposed to the group that they demand Dwight schedule a forum with the occupiers to “have a real conversation about ‘this.’ ”
Not pressing Bookbinder for a definition of the word ‘this,’ Dwight called her bluff. “Call up your Google calendar,” he said. “Give me a date.”
After Bookbinder engaged the group in a laborious discussion about who among them should be the point person for communication with city government, Dwight peacefully got up from his seat and stepped into the crowd to hand out his email address.
Meanwhile, Narkewicz called for a vote on the snow removal measure (which passed unanimously), Huntley left the meeting after being thanked by the mayor, and the protesters filed from the room chanting “We are the 99 percent.”
Narkewicz and the council, making no mention of the disruption, then picked up where they had left off, falling into the familiar rhythms of Roberts Rules of Order to complete the evening’s business.
© 2011 Northampton Media
Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@northamptonmedia.com
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It’s not a wholly honest argument to dismiss Occupy’s admittedly wrong claim about “Smith not paying taxes” as you do with the oft-repeated line that they are the city’s largest taxpayer and then move on, like nervous cops clearing away the rubberneckers at the scene of a wreck involving a drunken police chief.
I’ll take your word for it that Smith pays more than any other property taxpayer, and I expect that from a wealthy school with huge real estate holdings and a $1.4 billion-plus endowment. But at a time when the city is struggling to make ends meet, has been forced to go to the public for more taxes in the midst of the worst recession of our lives, and is continually threatening even more cuts and jobs, is it not wise to expect more from Smith, so that it pays at least a little bit more for the total value of its currently non-taxed holdings?
Smith is getting the bargain of the century by not having to pay millions more for its property, in the same way that extraordinarily rich people like Mitt Romney use the tax code to pay the IRS a much lower rate than most middle-income people. I wonder how many thousand struggling Northampton homeowners and small businesses it takes to pony up the equivalent amount of cash that our wealthy private school manages to avoid paying on its exempt holdings? What they are doing might be perfectly legal, but it fails the smell test in such lean times.
So, yes, castigate your ill-informed readers if that’s what you want. But you can’t dismiss us for raising a glaring example of unfairness that continues to escape deserved scrutiny in Northampton.
Smith College pays no taxes? It makes a good slogan, but it’s not true.
My colleague Mary Serreze reports that Smith College pays more taxes than any other property owner in the city. Oops. You could have said the same for the Catholic Church in town, but now even it’s being taxed for closed churches.
So yes, the SYSTEM is broken, and yes, the 1 percent’s take of income is obscene. And yes, many people in this city support the Occupy movement, including many city councilors. But do your homework and pick your targets.
It was nice to see Occupiers flex some muscle in Northampton, but sheep-like echoing of talking points (sometimes misinformed and scattershot) at the City Council meeting did not rally citizens to the cause. It was a little embarrassing.
Mary Serreze’s coverage, including her airing of an NCTV video clip, was a little tough on the group, sure. But are you saying that news articles are “demeaning” if they don’t show a total and unquestioning support for a good cause? I thought Mary showed some courage, too, by holding your group to the same standards as anyone else. It’s tough to buck the PC crowd, even when you support the cause.
But don’t whine about coverage when you foist yourself onto the public stage, and barge in on government at work — like Joel Saxe did last week, threatening a lawsuit and trying to bully a reporter. Informed criticism — of the system, the government, the press or the protestors — is all good. Sharpen the message and keep it up.
Our reporting on this issue was spot-on. Bias? Yes. We believe in the rule of law and the social compact, and that mob rule is just plain wrong. The story here is the 13-minute misguided and misinformed attack on local democracy that occurred last week — not whether Smith College pays taxes to the city or not.
(Smith does make a Payment in Lieu of Taxes to the city, by the way. Do your homework. If you feel that Smith doesn’t do enough for the city, then schedule a meeting with the mayor to discuss your concerns.)
We ask: If Tea Party members showed up at City Council and hijacked the legislative process, would the Occupiers be supportive of them? How about if they were yelling “mic check” and trying to shut down, say, Tapestry’s reproductive health services? Or if they were calling for radical property tax cuts and slashing the school budget? Or outfitting the downtown cops with drug-sniffing dogs?
The radical right is probably as frustrated as the occupiers. Both sides claim the moral high ground. If your philosophy of “no more business as usual” is consistent, you would support a similar action on their part.
The “no more business as usual” argument fails because the Occupiers have not even attempted to engage in local democracy in a productive manner.
It takes far more “moral courage” to quietly engage in the life of your community than it does to stage a destructive, misinformed stunt. There are many opportunities to participate in local government; to serve on committees, participate in public hearings, launch a voter registration drive at Hampshire Heights, or even run for office.
There are certain things that are just plain wrong, that should not be glossed over by the news media. Dumping toxic waste into rivers, for example. Racial profiling by cops. Corruption and cronyism among public officials. Rallying a mob to shut down local government falls squarely into that category. We stand by our reporting.
Maybe they were confused by the concept of a “converstaion” with the great puffed-up windbag Dwight. Honestly, that guy loves to hear himself talk (and talk, and talk…)
The Occupy protesters complete overkill is pretty embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as reading a piece of “reporting” with such a clear bias against its subject. Gross.
This is a very demeaning article. Occupy is not about business as usual. These times of crisis in our country and the world demand us to use tactics other than what has fostered business as usual. Rose did a fabulous job… she did not look confused; although most people, flying by their seat of their pants, certainly would in such a situation that takes enormous moral courage.
It is time to crack open the system, and ask the questions that need to be asked ! WHY does Smith College pay no taxes to the city of Northampton ?! WHY ?! WHY ?!