Hwei-Ling Greeney

By Kate Dillon
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was an action hero. Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura was a professional wrestler. Amherst Select Board member Hwei-Ling Greeney picked asparagus in Hadley.
It was a natural career choice for the ultra-frugal Greeney. If reelected to the Select Board on April 1, she plans to try to run Amherst on her thrifty business model.

"I'm a very frugal person, and there is always a way to make do with what you have," said Greeney.
She is one of five candidates running for two seats. The others are Stephanie O'Keeffe, Irvin Rhodes, David Keenan and Diana Stein.

Greeney wants to strengthen the town's current agreement with the University of Massachusetts so that the university pays more money for services that Amherst provides, including ambulance, fire and educating the children of graduate students, she said.
Another of her goals is to get other towns that use Amherst's ambulance services to pay a larger share for them than they do now.
She is promoting "social host" legislation that would hold students living off campus in Amherst and Hadley responsible if emergency services have to respond to a renter's house.
Some residents are charging $2 a cup for beer, and "make $800 in one night" to pay their rent, she said. But when things get out of hand, police have to break it up, costing the town money, according to Greeney.

She advocates a policy that doesn't arrest and send people through the court system,wasting town money on policing and not helping anyone. Rather she preaches a policy more centered on civil action against the offenders by doling out fines which can then be used to pay for other services.

Greeney also would like to see UMass contribute more for services some students use such as the public schools for their children.

Greeney says it costs Amherst "$10,000 a year for a regular student and $18,000 for a student with special needs."
She does not want to see expenditure on town maintenance and other services cut down, rather she wants to see town revenues go up. She promotes regionalizing "for an economy of scale" and thinks that Amherst needs to work with the other towns in the Pioneer Valley to better suit all their needs.
Greeney is also very big on cutting down carbon emissions here in the town and wants to see more green projects being taken on in Amherst.

"The town budget is a meat and potatoes issue, so most people care about it, but we want to keep Amherst affordable, support small businesses and keep Amherst green," she said.

One of Greeney’s campaign goals is to keep Amherst strong by supporting local businesses. “I’m a big proponent of shopping local,” said Greeney, who is not a supporter of bringing “big box stores into Amherst.”

Instead, Greeney hopes to economically strengthen Amherst through “knowledge based, creative economy and tourism.” For example, Greeney supports building retirement housing in Amherst which would bring in a large amount of revenue for the town.

When asked who she'd prefer to work with out of her opponents, Greeney countered like a true politician, saying that although there were differences in temperament between her and her challengers, she was willing to work together with any of them for the good of the town.

"I must have the ability and the willingness and the desire to work with anyone on the board," she said during a recent interview with UMass journalism students.

Greeney acknowledged meetings can go on for a very long time, sometimes five hours.

"The Select Board members like to talk." Unlike other bodies of government, "We allow the public to come into the conversation; we solicit their opinions," she said.

Greeney maintains she adds a lot to the board.

"I'm a team player, reaching out to neighbors and always the first person on the scene to investigate the issue," said Greeney.

A native of Taiwan and the mother of four grown children, Greeney moved to Amherst from Tennessee with her family, because they were attracted to the school system, she said.
Greeney is director of the soup kitchen Not Bread Alone.
Her husband, Robert Greeney, is a physics professor at Holyoke Community College.