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The 2006 Framingham Town Election led to a major shift in the makeup of the Board of Selectmen, as chair Katie Murphy was ousted by political newcomer Jason Smith, largely over the social services issue.
On Tuesday, April 4, the Town voted overwhelmingly to replace Board of Selectmen chair Katie Murphy with political newcomer Jason Smith. In a special meeting of the new Board the next day, Dennis Giombetti was elected chair, replacing outgoing Selectman Katie Murphy.
In the Boston Globe article "Murphy's ouster a sign of the times," Lisa Kocian wrote: "Katie Murphy [was] known for her friendly attitude toward social service programs, immigrants, and affordable housing [and] often formed a majority with Selectmen Charles Sisitsky and John Stasik. Selectwoman Ginger Esty, who supported Smith, has raised concerns about expanding social services and illegal immigration. Selectman Dennis Giombetti has often been a wild card. Now, with Smith on board, Esty, the most conservative member, will have a chance to ally with both Giombetti and Smith, finding herself in the unusual position of power broker."
That analysis is a little simplistic, but possible. There is no doubt, though, that this appears to be a major change of direction for the Town. Katie Murphy, the outgoing chair, held together a coalition of Selectmen consisting of herself, Charlie Sisitsky, and John Stasik. Now that coalition is gone, and it remains to be seen if the Board will unite under the more moderate Giombetti, whether there will be a new coalition, or whether the Board will struggle with its identity.
Outgoing chair Katie Murphy, meanwhile, created quite a stir with her blog entry "What Really Happened." Many people complained about her lack of civility, but we at STEPPS were more concerned with her interpretation of events over the past year:
When STEPPS first contacted me, they wrote a letter saying they were coming to Public Participation. I never saw the letter, as our Admin Assistant read it to me on the phone. I told him to put STEPPS on the Agenda, picked up the phone and called David Westwater. I invited him, and his people to the meeting and told them they were on the Agenda. We had a good dialogue and the Selectmen listened carefully and offered all the support we had to offer. [...] Spurred on by the Precinct 1 anti-JCHE, anti-affordable housing folks, STEPPS' fury grew and they focused on me, the Selectwoman who had invited them to the Board in the first place, and pretty soon, social service agencies became the catalyst, the focus, the issue around which a hurricane of lies, fallacies and anger would coalesce. [...] Many people were pawns in this campaign, and most will never know it.
It is true that Ms. Murphy invited us to the Board of Selectmen's meeting and put us on the agenda, though we would have been there anyway and dominated public participation. It is also true that the Board listened closely and offered what help they could. They answered most of the questions in our letter (Download 812 KB PDF), though most basically said, "you'd have to ask SMOC." It's also possible that the Board had something to do with the Building Commissioner's denial of SMOC's change of use for 517 Winter. We certainly appreciated all of this. But while her actions last summer were appreciated, they did not earn her a perpetual "get out of jail free" card. By election time, we had to judge her record as a whole and gauge how she would act in a second term, and we decided to back Jason Smith.
Contrary to what Ms. Murphy wrote in her campaign flyers, she never seemed to grasp that social services had become a major townwide issue. She also did little to ease people's suspicions that she was unaware of Framingham's increasing crime rate. These cost her the election. In her campaign literature, she stated that social services were "under the jurisdiction of the state," as if there were nothing we could do about them. However, we learned later that there was a great deal more that the Town could be doing regarding social services, such as licensing lodging houses, including the wet shelter and various sober houses.
We are surprised and mystified by the use of words like "fury" and "lies" to describe us. We have worked hard to always be polite and never knowingly spread a falsehood, so we don't know what Ms. Murphy was refering to. In private conversations, she awlays told us how much respect we had earned with our professional, even-handed approach. It is unfortunate that she chose to leave office on such a negative bote.
Let's give Katie her due, though: she did, as she stated, offer a hand to STEPPS and spent years serving Framingham with considerable energy. We at STEPPS appreciate the help Katie Murphy gave us and hope that she continues to serve Framingham with all her energy and enthusiasm. Andwith the election of Jason Smith, we hope Framingham gets a fresh start.
In other races, Joel Winett defeated Ed Noonan to become Town Moderator, Andy Limeri defeated Wes Ritchie to sit on the School Board along with incumbent Pam Richardson, and Planning Board incumbents Tom Mahoney and Carol Spack kept their seats.
The meaning of these races is unclear. The Moderator race was a close one, despite limited campaigning from Noonan. While we endorsed him, it was mainly based on his solid work as Moderator. We know much less about Mr. Winett, but trust that the endorsements of him by so many Town Meeting members mean he will do as well as Mr. Noonan did. There is no questioning the qualifications of Mahoney and Spack, but their re-election to the Planning Board could have been due as much to their name recognition, far greater than that of their opponent, Steven Meltzer, as to the candidates' stands on the issues. Regardless of the reason, we are confident that both of them will put their knowledge and skill back to work in bettering Framingham.
Oddly, the most interesting race from STEPPS' perspective was the school board race. While we had little interest in the race in relation to our mission, as taxpayers and parents we wanted the most qualified candidates to win. What's interesting is that Wes Ritchie was a member of the PILOT Committee, and an outspoken critic of the committee's work. We believe that his criticism of the committee's important work may have led to his defeat. In the preliminary election, Ritchie beat Limeri by 37 votes in Precinct 11, but in the final election, Limeri beat Ritchie by 91 -- a 128 vote turnaround in a race decided by 97 votes. Clearly, Precinct 11, birthplace of STEPPS, home of the Town Meeting member who shepherded the creation of the PILOT Committee, and the voters with the highest turnout in town, did not want a critic of the PILOT Committee rewarded with a powerful seat on the School Board.
There is a great deal for the Town to do in the coming year. The Town faces difficult financial times, but increased state aid should help. Still there are difficult infrastructure issues to deal with, such as repairs to the Memorial Building, and ambitious plans, such as downtown revitalization, all in a time of budget deficits. However, we feel that four items stand out as important agenda items for 2006:
Licensing lodging houses. One of the most divisive issues in the campaign was what to do about social service agencies like the wet shelter and the many "sober houses" that dot Framingham's landscape. The Town needs to review our lodging house license and how we apply it. Once this review is complete, we need to license the wet shelter and all sober houses. This is not only allowed, but the state expects towns to do it. Framingham has been far too lax over the years, and the result is that we are one of only six towns in the Commonwealth with a wet shelter. This has led to an increase in crime downtown and is inhibiting downtown revitalization.
PILOT program. Framingham agreed in 1997 to spend $10,000 on a PILOT study and nothing happened. It is critically important that the current PILOT committee not fail. The Board of Selectmen should put whatever resources are needed at the disposal of the PILOT Committee and Town Meeting should move quickly to institute a PILOT program once the committee makes its recommendations. In the Framingham TAB article "Is Framingham Broken?" editor Rob Haneison asked, "Why do people want a committee whose sole purpose seems to be fleshing out problems rather than looking for solutions?" This was a silly attempt by Haneison to demean the work of an important body of Town government. The PILOT Committee is about far more than "fleshing out problems": part of its mission is to look for solutions. Already they have identified several avenues for Framingham to take, such as the licensing of sober houses. They deserve the full support of the Town, and we call on Town Meeting and the Board of Selectmen to implement their recommendations as soon as possible.
H.4130 (home rule petition). This bill would alter Framingham's bylaws to give the Planning Board and Town Meeting greater say in the housing portion of the Town's master plan. One of the major reasons given for the legislature's stalling on this bill was that it would remove some power given to the Board of Selectmen in the 1996 Town Manager Act. While the Board of Selectmen voted 4-1 to support H.4130, the legislature seemed to give greater weight to Katie Murphy's letter opposing the bill. Now that Murphy has lost her seat, the Board is likely unanimous in its support of this important bill. The Selectmen should send a letter to the legislature demanding quick action on this bill, and if the legislature continues to stall, they should organize a ballot measure to bypass them.
Uniting Framingham. Framingham is badly divided today, and if we have hope for a bright future, we need to come together.
At the end of
a Board of Selectmen's meeting discussing 517 Winter last summer, Selectman
Katie Murphy approached a Town Meeting
Member from another precinct and said, "What are you doing here? This
is a Precinct 11 issue," and the response was "We're all one precinct
now." We think that sums up our attitude towards Framingham. We must
approach every issue in every precinct as if it affects all of Framingham
-- because it does.
Hopefully, we can all get past the rancor of a political race, leave personal squabbles behind, and put Framingham first.
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