Framingham PILOT Committee

On July 27, 2005, the Framingham Board of Selectmen and Town Moderator named the ten local citizens who will serve on the town's PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) committee. Those ten members are:

• Bob Berman — town meeting member, member of the Planning and Zoning committee, Chair
• Yaakov Cohn — town meeting member, member of the Planning and Zoning committee, Vice-Chair
• Dawn Harkness — town meeting member, vice chair of the Community Services commuttee
• Cynthia Laurora — activity director at the Summerville assisted living facility and founding member of STEPPS
• Laurie Lee — town meeting member, Clerk
• Steve Orr — town meeting member, member of the Public Works committee, and founder of Frambors
• James Palmer
• Wes Ritchie — town meeting member, member of the Education committee, aide to Rep. Tom Sannicandro
• Nicholas Sanchez — professor of economics at Holy Cross College, Republican candidate for state representative last fall
• Kurt Steinberg — director of the fiscal policy for the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education (resigned)
• John Speranza — town meeting member, named by Board of Selectmen to replace Kurt Steinberg

We congratulate all ten members and thank them for their service to the town. We feel the town has made wise choices and selected members who will be thorough and fair, and we look forward to the committee's report.

As it works, the committee is posting minutes of its meetings and background material on clerk Laurie Lee's web site.

The PILOT Committee's charge

According to the town website, the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Study Committee has the following charge:

• To research a PILOT Program for all social service, non-profit agencies (Social Services) in Framingham.
  
• To conduct a comparative impact study of Social Services that is inclusive of any monetary and environmental impacts on town services such as fire, police, schools and safety.

The PILOT committee was created at the June 9 Town Meeting in part because of the controversy over the purchase by SMOC of the Framingham Nursing Home at 517 Winter Street. As Town Meeting member Ted Cosgrove, who put forth the amendment, put it, "I was shocked that, as connected as I am, being on the Planning and Zoning committee, I learned of this in the newspaper!" He called on Town Meeting to appoint the committee to study the growing impact of the social service industry on the town, and his amendment was passed by about a 10-1 margin.

Keeping an eye on social services

By David McLaughlin / Daily News Staff
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

FRAMINGHAM -- A newly appointed study committee is ready to set its sights on local social service agencies and pursue voluntary payments to the town from the tax-exempt organizations.

The Board of Selectmen and Moderator Ed Noonan last night each appointed five members to the committee, which is set to meet for the first time next week to begin studying a payment in lieu of taxes program.

The group includes people who have denounced the expansion of social service organizations in Framingham as well as one Town Meeting member -- Dawn Harkness -- who told selectmen she is an "ardent supporter" of the agencies.

Selectmen also appointed a neighbor of the Winter Street nursing home, which the South Middlesex Opportunity Council plans to turn into a shelter.

In her letter to the board, Cynthia Laurora wrote that while the agencies provide needed services, Framingham residents have a right to know "what the relative costs are to the community."

"It's not meant to bash social services by any means," Laurora told selectmen last night.

Residents living around the nursing home urged Town Meeting in June to create the 10-member study committee. They have formed Stop Tax Exempt Private Property Sprawl and have trained a spotlight on the non-profits ever since news surfaced of SMOC's shelter plans.

Town Meeting also called for the group to investigate the influence of social service agencies on the town, including financial and public safety impacts. The committee is supposed to report back to Town Meeting in the fall, though its work may not be done by then.

Noonan announced his appointments last night after meeting with candidates privately. They are: Town Meeting members Yaakov Cohn, Laurie Lee and Steve Orr, James Palmer and Nicholas Sanchez.

Selectmen voted by ballot on their five appointments after reading letters from the candidates and listening to brief remarks from some of them. Besides Laurora and Harkness, the board voted to appoint: Town Meeting members Wes Ritchie, Bob Berman and Kurt Steinberg.

Ritchie, an aide to state Rep. Tom Sannicandro, D-Ashland, told selectmen he was excited to serve on the committee and uncover "facts to talk about instead of hysteria."

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