🔨 Screeching Halt on Salem End
The State of Accounting in the Memorial Building | Looking at Election 2023 | Charter Review Committee Holds Forums | Civic Week Ahead
Election season is over, Framingham. What an interesting night. My thoughts on the election and what’s next are below.
Framingham held its annual Veterans Day ceremony in Nevins Hall on Saturday. Congresswoman Katherine Clark participated in the ceremony recognizing some of Framingham’s Gold Star families, and this year’s Massachusetts Medal of Liberty and Medal Fidelity recipients. Thank you to our Veterans Services Office for organizing another solemn event.
Have a comment or question? I’d love to hear from you. Email me at mkfeeney@gmail.com
Did someone forward this to you? Awesome. Subscribe here and never miss an issue.
Screeching Halt on Salem End Road
The three way stop is no more: Last Thursday night the Council voted to remove the three way stop signs at the intersection of Salem End Road and Singletary Lane.
What happened? Stop signs were temporarily installed on Salem End Road at the beginning of October. The installation caused several accidents in a matter of days and longer traffic jams on Salem End. Yet those who regularly drive on Singletary were fans of the signs. Facebook groups lit up with discussion. According to the Councilors Thursday night, their inboxes were filled with a variety, but mostly negative, opinion.
Traffic Commission approved: At their October 24 meeting, the Traffic Commission voted 7-1 to install the signs permanently with the FPD designee voting against. After their vote, it headed to the Council for final approval.
Background: Chief Engineer and Vice Chair of the Traffic Commission Bill Sedewitz proposed two measures - the three way stop and splitter island near Still Meadow Way - to slow traffic and increase safety on the road at their meeting on September 26. According to studies, there were 19 accidents in 5 years at the Singletary and Salem End intersection. The Traffic Commission discussed Salem End Road seven times since first put on the agenda in October 2022.
30 days: The signs were installed for a 30 day test run. According to traffic laws, the Council had to vote on making the signs permanent within the 30 day window.
Now what? The accidents have not stopped in that intersection. The city removed the signs over the weekend without any heads up giving to drivers or neighbors. It is unclear what is next to solve the issue of speeding and traffic safety on Salem End.
On a personal note: On Friday I attempted to take a left from Singletary onto Salem End. The cars on my left were at full stop, and no one was at the right stop sign. As I was turning, I looked again at my right to see a SUV speed down the street, and missed the stop sign. It was an extremely close call. The left hand turn, while I totally get why people like it, also gives a false sense of security. There is no easy answer for Salem End.
The State of Accounting in the Memorial Building
Now hiring: The City of Framingham is seeking a new accountant and assistant accountant. The accountant position opened in July.
What they said: “How do we run a $400 million corporation without an accountant and assistant accountant?” asked Council Chair Phil Ottaviani to CFO Louise Miller.
“Not competitive”: Miller said there is a shortage of accountants and Framingham is not offering a competitive enough salary to attract talent. The City has reached out to several municipal placement firms and headhunters to help attract applicants.
Who is doing the work? Miller said she has assumed some of the duties of the accountant, including approving purchase orders and warrants, payroll, and dealing with issues such as the one at the end of October when direct payment processing issues hit banks around the country causing some employees not to be paid on time.
Review of public records ordinance: News about the lack of accountants popped up during a review of the city’s compliance with the 2021 access to public records ordinance. Councilor John Stefanini requested the review, and asked the Mayor several questions about access to financial information and OpenCheckbook on the website.
Is the budget online? In previous years, Framingham’s budget and spending was available on the city’s website. Under the Spicer Administration, the software was upgraded to OpenGov, but was riddled with issues.
No online budget software has been available to the public since Sisitsky became Mayor. According to Stefanini, the topic of opencheckbook-type software has been discussed several times in the Finance Subcommittee. When asked when it would become available the Mayor said he would look into it. Miller said “they are working to bring back OpenGov” later in the discussion.
Trouble obtaining information: Councilors expressed frustration for not receiving financial information when requested. Because of the lack of an accountant and assistant account, requests for information have to be put together by Technology Services.
Commentary: Looking Back on Election Day
For a sleepy election season, last week’s results sent reverberations throughout Framingham. While we may not see the impact of this low turnout election for some time, I believe this is a watershed moment for several reasons.
The lack of competitive elections, which resulted in a low voter turn out, is not a good thing for Framingham. To those who never supported us becoming a city, they blame false advertising of the promises of the Charter back in 2017. Blaming the Charter or becoming a city is too easy, too predictable and not even close to what is causing lack of competitiveness and low turnout.
It is clear there is a disconnect between our city government, elected officials and the general population. With no daily media to keep government accountable and residents informed, we lose out in being active participants in our civic life. I wrote about this back in the spring when the Framingham Source ceased publishing original content. Most people, this time, had no idea there was an election. I try my best to keep you informed, but my readership is not a majority of Framingham residents. (One way to help grow my readership is to share The Ham’er - it makes a difference!)
As for running for office, it is no secret politics in Framingham is considered a blood sport. Due to the nature of Framingham’s political scene still stuck in our Town Meeting Era, we keep repeating past personal issues and it can be hard for new people to feel empowered to run. And no one wants their life analyzed and gossiped about (something I know all too well) on the doors and social media.
However, those individuals of the traditional Framingham Town Meeting Establishment grasping onto the last strands of power are starting to be overshadowed. Some questionable online talking heads are still trying to spew false narratives and facts, but even those are not as loud as they once were. Is this a sign people are fed up with the constant negativity?
The District 2 Council race between Brandon Ward and Sean Silk was a neighborhood-based, cordial campaign. Both candidates ran campaigns that reflected themselves - for which both of them should be proud. It is my hope what they did becomes the standard for the future. A campaign about issues, not simply personalities.
It is encouraging that more and more people are volunteering on boards and commissions. This is critical for the health and democracy of our city - and we need to encourage more people to get involved. Our volunteers today are our elected leaders of the future.
I believe this midyear election is one of the last where we see people once involved with town government will be elected to office. As someone who is more recent to Framingham politics and never participated in town government or town meeting, I believe it is time for Framingham to move onto its City Era.
Over the past decade less than half the voters in the city were living here; and only one-third of residents were here 15 years ago. Let that sink in.
The big shock of the night was Leslie White Harvey beating two term Councilor John Stefanini in District 8. To many, Stefanini was considered a shoe-in due to his strong advocacy for his neighborhood, and work on a new southside school and community center. Incumbency is hard to beat.
But what if Stefanini is the canary in the coal mine? If there were other competitive races, would those incumbents tumble to challengers seeking change? Did Stefanini take the fall for what is going on in the Memorial Building?
It is clear people are frustrated by apartments, traffic, school buses, and quality of life issues. Neighborhoods around the city are all facing these challenges. A collective sigh is heard everytime a new apartment complex is announced. Decisions are being made and people don’t feel heard.
People who moved here from other cities are used to being in cities. They don’t see our community divided in the overdone debate of “city vs town”. They have high standards of what a city can be - and maybe Framingham’s leaders are letting them down.
Two years is a long time in politics. Yet, 2025 will be here before we know it. It is a Mayoral election year, along with the Council and School Committee. What will the next two years bring us? More involvement, more energy and new ideas? Or will some take the voters’ frustration as a way to talk and jockey themselves for the mayoral race, and not actually make progress in the meantime?
Framingham is at a crossroads of what it was and unclear of what it wants to be. It needs to learn lessons from this year and ask itself how it can better engage and encourage its residents? Is it planning for the future our residents hope and dream about?
We are in for a very interesting two years. But we will never see an election like 2023 again.
Charter Review Committee to host three “Drop-In” Focus Groups and survey the community about ideas for Charter Changes
The Charter Review Committee launched two additional ways for the community to give feedback about our government structure and hopes to engage people from across the community.
First, the Charter Review Committee has created a new survey form. In this survey, the committee returned to the hopes and goals the original Charter Commission had in 2017 and asks community members to weigh in on our progress toward those. Like their first form, there is also room for people to make specific suggestions for changes or add related comments. The form can be accessed here.
The Charter Review Committee has also partnered with the Framingham Public Schools to host three “Drop-In” Focus Group opportunities. In the “Drop Ins” people can come for just a few minutes or stay as long as they’d like to share things they like or dislike about our new City form of government structure and/or suggest changes. There will be Spanish and Portuguese translation services available at each.
The final drop-in forum is:
Tuesday, December 5th at Harmony Grove School from 6:00- 7:30
The Charter Review Committee wants to thank the Framingham Public Schools for being such a great partner on this work. If you cannot attend one of the drop-in meetings, you can also attend their regularly scheduled meetings on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.
The Civic Week Ahead
Monday, November 13
7:00pm: Board of Library Trustees Agenda
Tuesday, November 14
Wednesday, November 15
Thursday, November 16
In Closing
Next week is Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for in Framingham? Send me your thoughts and I’ll share them in my annual Thanksgiving post on Monday.
Let’s celebrate who we are and what we are grateful for - we could use that energy now.
Believe in Framingham,
Mary Kate
Regarding Salem End. Remove a portion of the stone wall so that the drivers can actually see what traffic is coming on Salem End. The impaired visibility is the main problem at this intersection.
Bob Draper
Framingham
It was a surprise to many people that the removal of the stop signs was on the city council agenda - the only people who showed up to speak about them were people who were not in favor of keeping them because they live on Salem End/Singletary and it was too noisy for them.
As someone who thought the signs were doing what was asked of them (and the traffic commission apparently has data supporting that the signs were working), had I known the item was on the agenda, I would have attended the meeting.
I am concerned by the lack of transparency in City Council agenda items being added last minute. How is that good governance where people can weigh in? How many items are being added last minute so constituents can't make their opinions known?
No one runs against the majority of the incumbent city councilors because no one really thinks they can beat them - too much cronyism in Framingham. I was pleasantly surprised by Leslie's win and I'm glad her neighborhood is willing to give someone else an opportunity to enact change in the city. I wish more people had the optimism Leslie has.