from the E Media Studios in the East Works Building, 116 Pleasant Street, East Hampton, Massachusetts. >> Welcome to Mayor Monthly with Salem Derby. Hi, I'm Thomas Trout, community producer at E Media. Every month, I'll check in with Mayor Derby to find out
what's on his desk about some upcoming projects and a little bit of personal chitchat to keep the residents of East Hampton informed. Welcome, Mayor Derby. >> Thanks so much. I appreciate it. >> We're about three months into your term, and this is our first show, but I wanted to get started with just a basic
question. How's it going? >> Well, it's exciting. Uh, it's dynamic. Uh, it's interesting. Every single day is different. Um, and every single day is a new adventure. Uh, it's challenging and you know, I think this this is a lot
of what I expected when I started to become interim mayor and going through the paces, getting a feel for the job. You know, now it's official. So, you know, 3 months into my official term. Uh, and I gotta say, you know, East
Hampton has some challenges, but the opportunities that are in East Hampton are just so profound. The potential that East Hampton has is so exciting and really being a a anchor for Western Mass
with our neighbors in Holio and Northampton to bring culture, to bring arts, to bring, you know, all sorts of different, you know, um, exciting activities for the residents, you know, while maintaining the basic services
that everybody expects. you know, that is like this juggling, but like I said, it's not easy. >> Well, I'm sure it isn't. Um, well, we're going to start our first segment out, which is talking about what's on your desk currently. >> Yeah. >> Um, why don't you tell us about some of the things that are happening? >> Well, right now we're in the thick of
budget season. And, you know, we've just met with all of our departments and they've submitted their official budgets asking for what they need for next fiscal year. And this part is one of those parts that's challenging. Um, and really it's challenging because I
inherited a $4 million structural deficit. And what does that mean? It means last year the revenues that the city raised were about $4 million off from the expenses that the city had. And those things don't close on their own.
And you know, in fact, it's really difficult as you look at structural deficits. It's really difficult because of Massachusetts Proposition 2 and a half. you can only raise two and a half percent on the levy on the taxes. Which means that if your growth uh your new
growth like new buildings, new businesses, you know, new homes, um you know, permit fees, all of these things, if they don't outpace that 2 and a half% by a lot, then you're going to find yourself in the hole. >> And so, currently, we are finding
ourselves in a bit of a hole. Um but you know that just makes us have to get creative. Uh you know we're not looking to do an override um which would allow us to kind of fill this gap using taxpayer funds um this year because you
know last year the mayor uh former mayor Lash Chappelle used $4 million of stabilization funds to balance the budget. So at the time there was a $7 million um you know uh balance in the stabilization. So 4 million out that
means 3 million left. Now this year I'm looking at potentially around a five$5.5 million deficit. >> We don't have that money. But what we can do is we can get creative on making sure that we make cuts where we can make cuts that aren't going to impact
services where we're not going to lay off employees. That's really one of my goals is to not lay off employees. Um, and then find ways to get creative with revenue, whether it's using grant funding to kind of, you know, fill a hole here so we can move some money
here. Whether it's um, you know, taking something out of the budget that we can find later on, maybe find that money and do an appropriation for. So, we can we have some tools, but I think really what I'm looking for is stop the bleeding and
look towards next year where we might have to do an override. Um, and I'm going to try to be as fiscally as responsible as I can be because I get it. Like, I get that people are having a difficult time with inflation, gas prices going up, the uncertainty at the
federal level. Like, we are living in a kind of, I would say, chaotic times. Not that we always haven't been, but these are especially chaotic as it relates to threats to our democracy and threats to just like what we normally consider to be normal operations of the federal
government. >> And without that federal partner, it makes our job more difficult >> because without that federal partner, the state has a more difficult time. And without the state having resources to be able to give to the communities, the 351 cities and towns, it's going to make all
of our jobs more difficult. The good news here is we're not alone. >> You know, every city in town is feeling this pinch in the in Massachusetts. So, um you know, we have a a strong coalition of mayors. Um Josh Garcia, the
mayor of Holio, is the president of the Mass Mayors Association through the MMA, Mass Municipal Association. And we're being able to use our collective voice to advocate for what the cities and towns need. And being part of that process is is really exciting, but it's necessary.
>> And I would say just another aside here is one of the things that's driving the increase in that cost because I said we had a $4 million deficit and now I'm like, well, it could be five five million. Healthcare, you know, and health care is just one of those things that everybody's dealing with. The the
increases in health care don't keep up with 2 and a half% increases. you know, we looked at a 40% increase from from July and we're looking at another 12 and a half or yeah about 12 and a half% increase um when we get to June. >> Wow.
>> And these are you know the city pays 75% of our employees health care they pay 25%. So that comes to the city where uh in the form of a big bill >> and in order to be able to pay that bill, which we should, you know, we have
to figure out how we're going to reappropriate these monies. And and this brings me to another topic, which I think is really critical just to mention, which is the fact that we run our health care system in the United States for profit is so shameful
>> and and so inappropriate. you know, we would never run our police or fire departments or EMS for profit, right? There's a reason why those things are brought into centralized government, part of the commons, right? Just like education, you know, education, police,
fire, EMS, those are brought um into the the commons because they're all such important issues. Police and fire, life and death, right? The education of our children, critical to the survival of democracy. So the fact that we don't understand that health care is just as
critical, that people are going bankrupt because of health care costs is crazy. So, you know, anytime I can, I'm going to try to advocate for looking at the system as a whole and saying this is a point where we need to start looking at
some sort of a change because status quo is not going to get us there. >> Well, you're not unique. Eastampton isn't unique in that situation with healthcare. It's a truly, you know, American problem in the in the respect that, you know, in other countries, other industrialized nations, people
don't go bankrupt because they get cancer. Um, people don't go bankrupt because their kid gets sick. But for some reason, we think that that's okay here. >> Um, and you know, when we look at a percentage of the budget, like this is an exponential increase from 10 years
ago. >> Yeah. and and you know we look at the system and healthcare CEOs are making millions and millions of dollars and you know uh shareholders are are you know gaining huge profits while the the
hospitals the doctors the nurses the people who need those services all of them are struggling >> are you finding that the mayors across the state are talking about the same thing are they are they all up against the same kind of numbers right now >> we are yeah I mean we're all struggling
ling with these numbers. We all have different ideas on how to like figure out a way. You know, I would I would be really interested to have a mayor's coalition um to really start promoting and looking at and and working with our legislative partners to say singlepayer
is what we need to be doing >> because the status quo is is unsustainable. >> Yeah. Thanks for that update. Let's talk about a few things that are on the horizon, things that are happening in the in the near future that you want to talk about. Yeah. So, there's a lot of really great things that are going to be
happening as we move into the warmer months, which yes, you know, the sun setting later. It's, you know, we have this renewed energy. So, I'm really excited to to bring some great things to East Hampton where to get people outdoors um and to get people enjoying the amenities that we have. I mean, East
Hampton is such a beautiful place, right, with the pond and the mountain and the open space that we have. like people should be coming to East Hampton not just to like go to our restaurants or come to our stores but to enjoy the beauty that we have here and the open space that we have here. So I think
that's you know a really um important thing for people to understand. And so you know we are creating an app right now for East Hampton. So um I'm hoping that it's going to be done soon. I'm pushing my team and saying let's get this thing done. Um, and part of that app would be, you know, I'm trying to
not only have like important things on there like being able to pay your bills, you know, having emergency notifications, being pushed to your phone, so if the mountain is closed, you'll know immediately. Um, if you need to bring a mattress to the dump, where would you go? If you need if you move to
town and you need to hire a hauler to take your trash cuz you don't want to go to Valley Recycling on Northampton Street, then you can find that there. So, is this something new that hasn't been announced? >> This has never This is This is new. I had this idea when I was interim mayor and we're working on it. Takes a while. >> Um, but you know, part of that is having
a couple of pieces of that app that are more like quality of life pieces. So, like if you want to go for a bike ride >> and you can say, you know, there'll be a a a button on the app where it can be like recreation opportunities or like
get active or, you know, something. We haven't figured out what the button is going to be called yet. But what it'll do is you can filter by activity and we'll give you suggestions on where you could go. >> Cool >> to do those things. So we have the bike path, right? We have Natuck Park. Um, you know, mountain biking has been something that people have done in
Nanatuk Park for three decades, right? There used to be Thursday night mountain bike races at Nate Park. Most people don't know that. Oh, cool. >> You know, so there's cool trails in Mount in Nuk Park that you can ride on. Um, if you wanted to go cross-country skiing, you know, there are multiple parcels in the city where you could go cross-country skiing. You wanted to go
snowshoeing or or just for a hike, you know, so pushing people to the Mount Tom North trail head, pushing people to the Hendrick trails, you know, letting them know Nanatuck Park, the bike path, all these parcels, the Pasquamic Conservation Trust parcels, >> having those in one spot, I think is so
cool. >> Yeah, that's great. and and it kind of like it dubtales into something that Josh Garcia, the mayor of Holio and I are working on, which is trying to um increase and uh elevate the the um standing of Mount Tom. You know, Mount
Tom is a great recreational asset, but it's also a great asset for conservation. There's many protected species there. It's just beautiful in the in the um fall there's um you know bird migrations where you get like paragan falcons and all these beautiful bird. It's like a gem. Yeah.
>> So, uh, the mayor of Holio and myself are working on putting together a coalition of partners to really kind of promote and cons and, you know, help elevate the conservation of Mount Tom. >> Cool. >> Working with DCR and Kestrel Land Trust
and, you know, Trustees of the Reservation, National Parks to really kind of bring all the players together to kind of elevate that. So, that's that's another piece that we're trying to do. >> I hear a little Whoville in there. So, >> a little bit of Whoville stuff going on for sure. and um you know and then you know some of the things that we're going
to try to do for culture I put forward a um a proposal to the East Hampton City Arts to do a mural festival um and that's in the works the public arts uh subcommittee is working on that. Um we're going to have some great music coming to East Hampton.
>> Oh, cool. >> Um so we're going to try to do like a little weekly concert right at the pond. have e media here. Yeah. Come down and live stream it and record it and have it be East Hampton's little tiny desk but outdoors and beautiful. >> Oh, nice. Okay. >> Right. Uh and so >> they had the Mil Pond series,
>> Mil Pond Live, which was great. I worked with um you know, Louable Productions to to help bring that to East Hampton. But and in you know, we're going to we don't have Cultural Chaos this year. Um, I'm hoping that we can maybe bring it back next year, but we're gonna try to really create a culture of arts and music on a
more regular basis in East Hampton. Um, using our outdoor venues, using our indoor venues. And then one of the really exciting things is I wrote my first grant. >> Um, I I was um, searching around and talking to people and someone said, "Hey, there's a mass tourism grant for
bringing FIFA watch parties to communities." And I was like jumped all over it. I wrote my I wrote my first grant >> and we got it. >> Oh, cool. >> So, we're going to be bringing FIFA watch parties to Milside Park this summer. >> Um, and I'm really hoping to make it an exciting, vibrant event with food trucks
and our breweries and our local vendors and music. So, like, you know, I still haven't seen the parameters of what we're required to do, like if we have to be like showing their halftime programming or whatever, but >> having bands ready to go. So if we can
do some music during halftime, we can do some music after the show, really bring music at to be part of it. So we'll have soccer games during the day and then have a a show at night because all the infrastructure will already be there. >> Great. Do you know how many how many the local how many local, you know, Western
Mass communities are involved in? >> Yeah. So um so I know that there's only a few, you know, there's a there's a kind of a short list of communities that did get these grants. Um, the ones that are close to us, Northampton, I believe, partnered with a youth soccer organization. I don't know what they're going to do. I do know ours is probably
going to be like uh really exciting. So, I I just I'll just say that. Um, and I think Greenfield maybe has one and Pittsfield. And I think that's it for our local community. >> The rest of them are probably more in the eastern part of the state. >> More eastern part of the state. >> Well, good for you to get that that grant. That's >> Well, it's exciting to bring that kind
of energy to East Hampton. You know, Milside Park is such a great asset, but one of the things that's really cool about that is it's right on the bike path. So, people could park in Northampton and they could ride one of the Valley Share bikes or they could just ride their bike to East Hampton, not have to worry about parking. You know, they could park down at city hall,
jump on the bike path and come down. They could walk. Yeah. >> You know, so there's there's a lot of like, you know, and that was one of the things I really highlighted in the grant was this is the spot where we can have people come from all over. They don't have to drive. >> Yeah. And it's a multicultural international affair. It is. So you're going to get people from all the
communities around here because their their country is going to be playing that day or whatever. Exactly. That's very cool. >> So and you know one of the things that I'm trying to work on right now is to say okay this is multicultural. You know I think the first game Scotland vers Haiti >> and um you know there's a there was a
Celtic band playing in East Hampton kind of like a heavy metal Celtic band. Awesome. I was like these guys would be perfect for the Scotland game. >> Awesome. Okay great. you know, so thinking about how we can connect some of the cultural things and, you know, we'll figure out a way to to work in Haiti in some way. Maybe we can find a
food vendor or like, you know, there's really cool ways that we can kind of bring the culture into this experience. And another interesting part of this is, and I wrote this into the grant, was to celebrate the the United States 250th birthday, >> right?
um and to have that kind of built into the infrastructure of this because you know the FIFA is coming to the United States. Well, the United States is this is a pretty big milestone 250 years, right? >> Um and and I think it's worth noting and
worth celebrating. You know, >> it's the semi quincentennial >> semi-quincentennial or 250. That's >> 250. >> Keep it simple for me, right? Yeah. So, yeah, but that's those are some, you know, I think really exciting things
that are kind of on the horizon. Um, and it's it's fun to be able to have some of those things uh to help kind of offset the the um somberness of the budget and all of like the day-to-day operational things
that you know are are not always fun. you know, that are serious business and and really require, you know, a lot of concentration and effort and focus. Um, but you know, all work, no play. You know what they say. >> Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good for you, man. I mean, you got to have it all cuz you got
it all. I mean, you got a you got a lot going on. >> We got a lot of boxes to check. Yeah. In order to be a happy, successful community. >> Yeah. Um let's let's move on to the to our last segment which is um really just kind of checking in on uh you know more personal stuff like you were on the city
council for 20 years. Yep. >> Um you you campaigned on the fact that you have a lot of experience you know in in the local government and stuff like that. Uh how's that played out now that now that you're in the in the mayor's office? >> I mean here's here's like so I was the city council for 22 years and you that
is a different level of engagement. you know, when it becomes your full-time job and the day-to-day is like with your department heads, with your staff, really focusing on, you know, making sure things are running smoothly there. It I will say it's not that different from being a teacher
>> in a lot of different ways. In fact, like the generalization and transfer is very applicable, right? So, you can generalize like managing people, right? Dealing with pe different personalities, dealing with crisis, right? and then transfer that to the municipal setting and I'm dealing with a lot of
personalities, dealing with crisis and having to be able to pivot, having to think on the fly, having to be creative and really meeting people where they're at. You know, when you're a teacher, you have to really work hard in a classroom of, you know, 20 or 30 people to find
the connections with each of them to make it relevant for them to be able to be successful and to and to find a way to like make things understandable and clear, >> right? It's not that much different when you get into a situation where you have many many employees and you know, it's
not always easy and there's going to be times when you make mistakes. But the critical part is what do you do when you make a mistake? Do you shut down and and put up a wall cuz you're the boss? No. You learn from your mistakes. You acknowledge the fact that there's growth. Every every single day is a
growth opportunity. Every single and that growth mindset, I think, is critical. And you know, I I am happy every single day that I'm in this position because I feel like that background has really prepared me so well for the challenges that we're
facing and and allows me to be more successful in my role. >> Good. >> So that is really like feels good. >> So it so it has played out well. I mean it has >> I remember you on the campaign trail talking about that and I thought to myself, well that that's that's a good thing. Yeah. And you know, once you get into the office, things could change
dramatically because you really don't know what's coming at you. >> You never do. >> Yeah. >> And things are coming at me, you know, and it's like, and that's and and at the end of the day, there's always going to be people that want you to fail, >> right? No matter what you do like you know society and and people are complex
and we all have different ideas but you know what I have to do is I have to make decisions for the benefit of the city and and it's really important to be keep that lens and to keep things um you know
there was a I think the name of the book was the three agreements um but I I read a book and one of the things is like when people are attacking you or when people are upset with you, generally it's not about you, you know, generally it's about things that are swirling
around in their lives and you become the the the conduit that they decide to like unleash on, right? And so not taking things personally and allowing things to unfold and and listening, >> you know, and and really trying to understand where people are coming from,
I think, is really important, you know, and that's a good lesson for me, you know, cuz it's it's not always easy when people come at you. >> Yeah. Right. You know, >> because a lot a lot of times your first your first, you know, uh defense is to be defensive, >> right? And that that's what they remember.
>> Yeah. So, you've got it. So, good for you to sort of, you know, be on that that level now, you know, getting rolling. Um, and another question is, um, what's harder than you expected and what's working out better than you expected? So I mean I think the the
challenges around um navigating some of the complexities of uh and the minutia of like how interacting with unions and like you know what what kind of changes can you make just because it's a good idea and and what kind of changes do you
have to go through like a significant process and like stick to certain timelines. that that's something that people don't necessarily talk about much, but it's like an important thing to know, you know, and so like contract negotiations and, you know, with our changing landscape of health insurance
and navigating that, you know, there's a lot of complexities there. >> Did you know much about that with the city council stuff? No, not really because it's not the city council generally doesn't get involved in those types of things unless it gets to the point where you need to pass some sort of legislation or adopt, you know, an
MGL or and and you know, we had only I think the last time we looked at, you know, doing that was back in 2011, >> you know, so and so a lot of these things are just executive branch operations. Um, and with all of the, you
know, things that are happening, I mean, it's it's like imagine a, you know, 10,000 piece puzzle in front of you, right? You can't look pick up every piece and look at it and understand what every piece is, you know, until you need to pick up that piece. So sometimes if a
piece needs attention, >> you haven't looked at that piece yet, >> right? >> You know, because there's so many pieces, >> um, and so that's kind of hard just because there's so many pieces to this puzzle, >> right? So that is it's just a a a time situation for you to build that understanding of what's going on.
>> As you know, like I am I I pride myself in being not only willing to learn but excited to learn, >> you know, I've always been kind of intellectually curious. >> Can you take on too much that way though? >> You could. >> I mean, can you kind of over overshoot it a little bit? >> Absolutely. You know, so I think like
understanding um priorities, understanding um triage, like what needs attention first. >> Yeah. Right. Right. Um, which is what like again, you know, I go back to my my younger days of being an adventure guide. That's weird. You would think
what a weird transition, but like a lot of those things really kind of are complimentary to this this idea of municipal government governance, right? >> Emergency situation. >> Yeah. Emergency like being able to make decisions in real time based on the information that you have, right?
>> You know, um, so what's been easier? Um, you know, I think really, uh, the community connection piece, um, has been a little easier than I expected. I thought I was going to have a lot more detractors, a lot more haters
coming after me. And and and I I'm should knock on wood here. I don't want that because really what I want to be is I want to be a mayor that people say this person cares about East Hampton and he and he's trying to do a good job and he's working hard. >> Yeah.
>> Right. I may not get what I want exactly or I might not agree with every decision that's made but it's really clear that this person cares. >> Yeah. >> It's really clear that this person's working hard. >> Right. And I see you you've done the coffee um the morning coffee thing already. Yes. You have open open
meetings at your office now. Yes, on Thursday the show. I mean, just ways to just say, "Hey, I'm I'm making the effort." >> And I want that is so important because like I'm I live in East Hampton, you know, like I pay taxes here, too, >> right? I care so much about this
community, not just because I'm part of it. Um, but because it's who I am now, you know, and and I want people to feel that. I want people to feel a sense of connection. I want people to feel a sense a sense of stewardship, you know,
I I want people to care. And so I figure the more I get out and talk about some of these things, I can help people connect in some way to the city of East Hampton. >> That's great. Well, we're going to be here every month to kind of, you know, get updated on this journey that you're on. >> It is a journey.
>> It's a journey. And um so we're going to end it here for today. Great. >> Thank you. And we're going to be back next month for another edition of Mayor Monthly with Salem Derby. Thanks for watching. >> Let's do the social media thing, but I don't have I don't have anything.
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