Charter Commission Survey #1 Comments

Town meeting doesnt work

I would like to see the charter commission be open to various options based on community input. I dont think having a point of view this early on makes sense until all options are considered.

Town meeting is completely inefficient for a town of this size.

Please be fair and balanced. Look at all sides, including the current Town Meeting format. try to remember that we are a town with multiple facets. dont overlook that and try to make sure that anyone who wants to be active in government can be - dont place obstacles - be they financial or logistical - that prevent citizen involvement.. At the same time, make sure that the new government cannot be abused by either those elected or those not elected.

All personel of high position should be voted in that position

Town Meeting Needs to go. Town manager as well

The government 'Structure' should be secondary to the fact that all governing should be EFFICIENT, TRANSPARENT & ACCOUNTABLE. The second question above is disingenuous...... direction is not as important as management, which should have plans, contingencies, and long range visions, which can change.....given all other factors, primarily economic. The mish-mash of Departments who have no communication between and among each other, especially the schools (which are the driving engine of population - and are currently a huge hot-mess) have created silos worthy of an MBA thesis. Some are fabulous, ie. DPW, Parks & Rec. Others not so much. I believe as long as Social Service agencies of all kinds are allowed to "Dover' their way into taking tax property off the rolls, and Real Estate professionals have too much say in Government, we are headed to "Lowell/Lawrence-ville". Remember BJ's suing to be in Framingham....a success story. Nowadays, we deny good productive businesses, but allow acres of real estate to rot. Where is the Economic Development in more Social Service 'schools' etc. Real Estate taxes cannot support all the Town should offer. The generation with kids in the schools are not going to stand for the BS that is that Dept for too long; they will vote with their feet. The generation whose kids have been properly served by the schools, and who have investment in their homes will sell, and this curve of economics will depress the markets, and taxes, both RE and Business will suffer. It isn't Rocket Science, guys...... we have talented people, who work hard, economics hasn't changed in a hundred years. Keep the basic factors of efficiency, accountability and transparency in the forefront, let the experts run the individual departments, but have them report to a Central Administration.

Our current form of town meeting government is antiquated (my opinion anyway) and we need something better, more efficient and more modern. While I freely admit I am not 100% in-the-loop on this entire process, nor do I understand all the pros vs. cons for Town vs City, I would like to impress upon the Committee to be OPEN MINDED and weigh all options. Coming in with your pre-conceived notions and being unwilling to compromise and work together is doing the Community of Framingham a disservice.

Thank you in advance for doing the hard work.

Public schools should be sold. Nobody should be forced to pay taxes for an educational system to which they are morally opposed

Very unhappy with Charter Commission. Don't like the idea of a mayor - has complete control, only accountability is election. Want more community involvement - move elections to Election day, not some random day in April when no one cares about voting. Fed up. No interest in Framingham becoming like a Gateway city - all these are not desirable places to live. Framingham needs more community involvement - not less. City removes almost all need for community involvement. Each distinct area of Framingham has it's own problems and interests - ie. Nobscot - changing character, traffic, delapidated plaza, downtown- crime, housing, homelessness and revitalization, Saxonville etc. And Framingham overall, needs much greater focus on schools, as they have gone downhill and it is effecting our students and real estate values. Framingham needs solid representation from each distinctive area - a mayor will not achieve this. The goals and needs of Nobscot are significantly different from downtown. Charter commission is probably not really interested in this goal. Very sad for Framingham.

I'm not sure how the planning board fits into this discussion, but I think permitting of business should also be included in this discussion.

While I like the CONCEPT of Town Meeting, I believe that the body of representative has become too large to be agile while at the same time does not offer adequate representation for all community members (not the fault of Town Meeting but essential nonetheless). A local government that would allow equal representation and be able to act and react more quickly and with more accurate focus would be ideal in order to assure the growth and vision of Framingham to come to full potential.

I do not like the Town Meeting form of government that we have now as too many cooks spoil the broth (or in this case, too many people have too much to say). I would prefer that a professional manager run the town government with oversight from a council with elected members. Thank you.

As a nearly 30 year resident of Framingham, I have been happy with the overall functioning of the town services that are provided through the property taxes paid by residential and commercial property owners. I am sure that each department endeavors to continuously improve their functional responsibilities, and with strong leadership, this will naturally continue. I have been disappointed with some decisions that have not seemed to respect residential property owners, but I do not believe that changing to a city government would diminish these kinds of decisions...they would increase. One area for change that could improve accountability would be that the town manager and the school department, through the superintendent, work together. The town manager and board of select people should have a means to block ever increasing school budgets. I have heard town meeting members a need for this change.

Every town in the United States that has become a city has a higher tax consequence for its citizens after becoming a city. The insurance rates for cities are also the super majority higher than insurance rates for towns. The ability for citizen involvement is higher in a town government than city forms of government. Becoming a city puts much power in either the mayor or city manager or both and removing an elected official can be much more difficult than firing an incompetent Town Manager. I believe the strength of government is in the engagement of its citizens, and I see no direct or indirect benefit of the city form of government. I believe the Charter Commission is acting in the capacity of a very pro forma City Government group, and is NOT being transparent to that end. Of course government has its limitations, but perhaps government shouldn't act quickly on important decisions, but should weigh and balance all positions. A mayoral form of government is inherently going to be biased depending on the political slants and desires of the mayor. If one studies the outcomes of Towns that have become cities the implications are clear: higher taxes, higher insurance rates, and more bureaucracy and waste. A city form of government is not a panacea.

Would like to see ALL options considered. Process seems rigged.

Framingham needs to best align itself with the state; to be sure to efficiently take advantage of state funded programs and economic opportunities. These efforts need to make it easy for companies to invest and develop in town that enables increased employment. Growth of the town government needs to stop and wasteful spending needs to stop in an effort to decelerate growth of residential taxes; my property taxes are up 90% in 15 years. My income is up approx. 12%. This is not sustainable.

There should be specific term limits to everyone so no single persons dominate over years. There should be restrictions against "dark" money for everyone running for whatever position.

Since no form of government is perfect, I am not convinced that changing will afford a real improvement. I fear that you are too focused on forcing a change to a city government and I do not understand why that is. I really hope as you work through this issue that you clearly identify exactly what is wrong with our current system and how any proposed new system would be clearly better.

This survey did not allow for any nuances of responses, such as would be the right direction with a few modifications, or the ranking of priorities didn't allow for ties or indicating some things were very important and others were not very important. Please note: The current structure of Town Meeting could listen to arguments and override the CFO, Town Manager, Selectmen, and give the schools another 2 million...not possible in other smaller, more centralized power structures. Certainly NOT if a mayor was on the school committee where fiscal decisions alone rather than education plus fiscal decisions would rule.

I think it would be so helpful to have a well-designed website that is regularly updated to see what exactly is the progress or status of each outstanding item or project....following all the email threads is rather confusing and ineffective.

Schools should be our first priority and attracting new/good businesses should be second

A few things are clear: 1) We need to be operating under self-rule via a charter, 2) We need to reduce the number of elected representatives so that ALL positions are filled, but they should remain area based (like precints but maybe fewer of them) representation (we do not want all elected officials from the nicer parts of town, that ignore the needs of the other parts of town!), 3)A small (<9 or so) Council will probably not reflect the diversity and interests of the town/city fully, and there should be 1 person with reasonable authority to guide the direction, whether that is best a Mayor (assuming elected) or Manager (appointed by Council/Representation) or something else is unclear.

It is time for Framingham to become a leader in MetroWest and the Commonwealth. Right now we have no direct leadership - who can I call if I have an issue? Who represents the community to businesses and other government officials? Certainly not my Town Meeting members. These issues need to be addressed in the proposed form of government. We cannot become the community we deserve to be in our current colonial era government - as much as some folks want to hold dearly onto the way we've always done things.

It would be unwise and make your job of selling a new charter that much more difficult if you rule out keeping town meeting form of government with some changes to overall structure of same rather than continue on your steam rolling course toward city government with mayor/council.

Term limits for selectmen. Reduce town meeting to 6 per precinct. Relationship between Town Management and town meeting/committees/residents is dysfunctional management shows a lack of concern/accountability. Better communication to/with demographics not currently involved. Town Meeting/Committee members who miss a large percentage of meetings should be dropped (too much one-issue involvement). I'm concerned the Charter Commission is so focused on being a city that nothing else matters and the survey(s) are just for show. Clear accountable leadership. Eliminate town meeting which is controlled by self serving school and town employees This is a joke. You're going to strongly recommend a city with a mayor and a council. Most of you had your minds made up before you were elected. Is it fun pretending to study a few options and pretend you care what people think? This survey was not easy to use. The rank ordering feature was not user friendly at all. I hope future opportunities to participate will be better presented. I voted for people I thought would consider both town and city options and now they are saying that they will not entertain various town forms. It could well lead to a faulty proposal if all options aren't considered before ruling them out. propose a large council, maintain current elected boards, consider term limits Newton...strong mayor/alderman which get small stipend. 1. I would love to see the Mayor as a voting member of the School Committee, but not serving as Chair. 2. I would like to ensure equal participation from throughout the town for Council Members, that can only be done by forcing all seats to be elected by local district/precinct and having no at large seats. As a new TMM, I'm impressed that it is broadly representative of the town, and is actually functioning fairly well, despite what I heard from outsiders. Most decisions at TM were made with broad consensus and were informed by good pre-work in the committees. Much of the complaining about TM seems to originate in small minorities who would like a different outcome WHICH IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE MAJORITY OF THE TOWN. It may not be a bad thing that these dissatisfied groups exist. Perhaps a reduction in size of TM would cause more elections to be competitive, but it is also probably unrealistic to expect good, informed debate of issues in town precinct level elections, even if competitive.

I do think having a single elected executive would represent the town / city better when dealing with outsiders, so I like the idea of a more empowered, elected executive, rather than a board. Suggest you look at the structure of government of the city of London, which has an elected executive Mayor, and elected Assembly which interacts with the Mayor, approves budgets, etc. This effort will be for naught if the school budget is not brought into the orb of the central government administration. the head of the town side must be the head of the school Committee. mayor should NOT be able to control school committee, keep separate, Elected library board like now. elected school committee. Here are my thoughts and comments: 1) Representation should NOT be driven by strictly by geography, but needs to be influenced also by population. It should be more House than Senate! A compromise could include electing some representation by districts and the balance “at large.” The actual structure of what this would look like would take a LOT of discussion. 2) Decisions should be TIMELY, not necessarily QUICK; quick response to emergencies is necessary, but taking a reasonable time to respond is OK in non-emergency situations. 3) While I do not participate in our local government, those who have time/inclination should be given ample opportunity to do so. 4) Leaders are accountable to the public only if the public HOLDS the leaders accountable; yes, there should be some mechanism for this. 5) I do not understand the citizen concern question-- if an issue has enough local support, it should absolutely be able to get onto the ballot. But I don't think that one person or a small group should be able to inundate voters with their personal agenda if it is unsupported by the community. Is this what the question is asking? Some meaningful criteria of local support should be applied, e.g., number of signatures needed to put a question before the voters. I guess the question about traits requested a ranking to try and get an unambiguous view of importance overall, rather than having disgruntled people ranking everything very high or very low. But truthfully, there are probably people who really do think that ALL of the items are important, and so an 8th priority does not mean they think it is unimportant. Mathematically speaking, there are THOUSANDS of possible orders to rank the 8 traits. If you get enough responses to be informative, it could potentially take some sophisticated analysis to make sense of them. From my perspective, it would have been easier to answer, and maybe more informative, if there was a 4-point scale ranging from "Very Important" to "Very Unimportant" to choose from, with “Not sure” as an option. Sorry about all this, but you did ask for thoughts! What is broken with Town Meeting should be considered and proposed solutions presented. the town should become a city, the schools have zero funding and even ran out of paper for a while, that's an issue!!!! I do not like school choice. You can have 10 kids on your street and not know any of them. Don't break things that are already working such as the libraries and Keefe Tech. Not at this point, I would like to see the study of different forms of gov. Before coming to a decision Since we are such a large town with representative town meeting I do not feel involved in the decisions, government and politics of our town. I feel that the current form of Town Meeting is inadequate to deal with today's level of social and financial complexity. Its fundamental structure is hundreds of years old and has not evolved with the time. As a Town Meeting member for the last 4 years I have concluded that an entity the size of Framingham cannot be managed by volunteers who simply do not have the management expertise to critically evaluate in their spare time a budget which now exceeds a quarter of a billion dollars. I contemplate (but do not necessarily recommend) that if a paid professional council of 10 could reduce the budget by 1% which does not seem unrealistic from my experience in the Private Sector, then they could each be paid $150,000 / year while the "City" would save $1,500,000. In my personnel life, I trust my investments to Paid Professional Managers. It is simply my job to look at the bottom line Return On Investment and switch managers if I feel it is inadequate. I would like to see Framingham work in a similar model. Sometimes in Town Meeting I feel like the Lawyer who is representing himself and who has a fool as a client. School leadership must be integrated with city leadership. Extra effort must be made by leadership to equalize opportunity in all parts of town for Jobs, housing, education, sports, arts, music etc). Diversity must be valued and celebrated. Judges and social service 'org' MUST partner in new ways to SUPPORT POLICE in keeping our city safe. There need to tax or eminent domain consequences for owners of blighted, unused property. (Thanks for asking! EH) Yeah clean up the center area with all the junkies hanging around. They are trying to clean it up and look nice but they are destroying the area. Get rid of SMOC and the Salvation Army which will elimate the trash. Make all the store fronts look nicer and clean them up as well. I also wish to see that when an issue or complaint is given that is be tended to not ignored! the current version can work if it is streamlined. Town meeting needs to be smaller with things moving along quicker. Residents should be able to vote for the town manager or even a mayor but this can be done with a town form of government as well as a City. The Charter Commission is very biased and has made it obvious that they want to look at only a city version, this is wrong and not fair to the residents. They should research and present both city and town options. If they cannot be unbiased and look at all possible ways to improve the current form of government then they should not be on the committee. I have no preference on the type/style of government. I am most interested for town business to be run efficiently for my tax dollar. The recommendation from the Commission should attempt to relate its proposed charter to the day-to-day wants and needs of its residents -- e.g., taxes, schools, emergency services. You will also want to compare and contrast the current versus proposed charters on the major ways in which they are different and how it will affect residents. Thanks for your good work. There are way too many people trying to run the show. If the decision to have a city government is decided upon, only professionals should be in 'places of power'. No one should have a paid position who presently does the job as a volunteer. Only people with appropriate degrees and accreditation should hold governmental paid positions. So people who wish to be on control must have some sort of college degree in governmental policy. I want the Charter Commission to compare the CURRENT form of local Government with the various alternative form of local Government. It's important that even the poorer working class be represented in the legislative branch of the local government. Without that, the needs of ALL of the inhabitants of Framingham could end up being ignored. Town Meeting is an outdated form of government that no longer works for a town this size, we need a mayor!! Way too big to be a town.. time to get with the 21st century!!! Thank you. Town meeting doesn't work. Can't even fill the positions and need police at the meetings. I'd be willing to give most anything else a chance. Please make Framingham a City with a strong Mayor who is also the Chairman of the School Committee! Very disappointed how we chased Herb Chambers away when was the last time someone was going to spend 10 million on the fringe of our downtown I have lived in Framingham for my entire life. I was against it becoming a city until I recently opened my eyes and saw how Framingham is missing out and being left behind. Not at this time Structure should be such that the public has as much input as possible for the direction of our town. The NORTH side of route 9 needs to be represented better, or break OFF and become its own city/town! Note that though I ranked the questions above, I'd have preferred to rate each on it's own, say on a 1 - 5 scale, since many would be at the same high level. #8 doesn't mean it's a low priority for me. Though I didn't rate "make decisions quickly" as very high, when needed we do need a way to do that - an escalation process for time critical decisions. I also feel it's important to have a citizen's review process for decisions they're unhappy with, but don't think it necessarily means bringing the issue directly to the voters, though perhaps this would be a final step after exhausting other escalation options. The concept of operations for the government should be easily understood. This allows for transparency and participation/accountability. I would like to see that there be a rep for each pct, as well as several reps at large to represent regions (east west north & south) as well as a couple who would represent the entire municipality. This could be as many as 25 - sort of like Newton's Board of Aldermen/women. Lived in Framingham for over 55 years, much is changed, time to become a city. Framingham, either way it's represented (town or city) is corrupt because you have allowed groups of people in, who are lawless. How will you have a gov't that will enforce the law when law is not critical or mandatory to them, by and large (particularly with regard to illegals). The situation merely foments further corruption. Any gov't you put in will reflect the corruption of those who are here, particularly illegally. You people on the Charter Commission are in the forefront of corruption because you are trying to force upon the town a gov't that won't affect any positive changes for the host population (US) except for those in charge. If you can prove that a city concept excels over the concept of a town by virtue of championing the law then I'd say, let's become a city, but I haven't seen that.

* "Gov'ts first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan. * "Our great republic is a gov't of laws, not of men." Gerald Ford. Please place a Mayor in office with a proper cabinet. The issues that surround Framingham are large and impact so many levels. The Town Meeting is doing its best, however, going over each article with painstaking time is not the best use of our citizens time. Framingham is vastly different from other towns in MetroWest, unfortunately. Why does Downtown have so much crime, it is an unsafe place and as the Downtown Renaissance is trying to make moves in a positive direction, the Downtown does not act as a resource for the town. I am not speaking of the diversity, in fact I feel that it is a significant value to our town and something that makes use unique. I speak to the fact that crime is prevalent in the Downtown area, vagrants congregate outside the gas station/market, and there is no recourse for public drug use (crack, marijuana, etc..) being used by the clientele. What are we doing about this? I have two small children and would like to stay in Framingham for the long term, but the facts named above create pause for our family and beg the question of, "If the Town of Framingham, Police Department (via the rules provided by the governing bodies) does not do something about this climate than we have to leave". This is sad, we would like to stay. I feel that is a Mayor is elected, by the choice of the community we can choose someone who will provide a better path, or at least I hope. Town meeting works fine as a legislative body, when not being abused. It provides a fair balance of representation and allows all opinions to be heard and considered, even in those precincts where there are unfilled seats. Any major reduction in size to a small number of representatives will lose some of that airing of opinions and ideas. We get a lot of work done for free by volunteers, and any change will cost the town more in salaries and stipends. The benefits of a city council form are not at all clear to me. But the negatives of such a form are clear: Less review, less citizen involvement, less brain power, less use of willing volunteers and their experience. I think many voters were looking for different, sometimes opposing things when the charter commission was approved. Any final plan for a city form of government will be hard pressed to satisfy all or most of those voters. If there is an overwhelming need for a mayor, then I would suggest we just take our present form, remove the board of selectmen and add the mayor in their place and call it a city. Done. Simply switching this to a single full time role will solve a lot of the issues that have been raised. The legislative body should be as large as possible as in a town form of government. City elections are much more costly and allow for more influence from special interests. There is little citizen recourse in a mayor/council form of government and waiting until election time to theoretically vote someone out is unrealistic. Our current form of government may not be as efficient as a city form but leaves much less opportunity for corruption and influence and maximizes citizen participation which is extremely important to me. Town meeting's size and inefficiency has driven the people you want to serve our community away. Identifying the characteristics of well-run, fiscally sound, effective, efficient and transparent governments - which I believe Framingham aspires to be - requires more than a comparison of Framingham to other Commonwealth cities and towns, looking at relative populations sizes and diversity of the citizenry and their government models. There are very few cities in the Commonwealth that fit the above description.

Recognizing that this is a very difficult challenge for the Commission, I'm concerned with the brevity of this survey and specifically listing of just four structure options and eight traits will lead the Commission to posit that these are first, the only options and secondly, mutually exclusive of one another, rather than merely answers to a few questions. It's possible, for example, to have decision-making in an open and transparent manner, decisions made quickly and clear accountability. And it's probably possible to do that by tweaking the town meeting form of government. I'm amazed that town meeting wastes its members' time with parliamentary procedure questions when hiring a trained and certified parliamentarian would speed things up immeasurably by helping to deal with things like how to make a motion and what the order of motions is. I'm pleased to see that committees which have business on the agenda for town meeting are now required to be present to address questions, Why that was just recently implemented is baffling - it's truly common sense. So don't necessarily throw the baby (town meeting) out with the bath water...perhaps you will find that fewer town meeting members meeting for a shorter period of time is sufficient to improve the process greatly.

I strongly believe that the Framingham government, and especially the leadership in our school system, is broken. My hope is that it can be strengthened in this process. Continuing down the current path, in my opinion, will result in a bankrupt government and negatively impact the citizens of Framingham for decades to come. Holding on to obsolete and deteriorating buildings such as the Saxonville Athaneum and Stapleton school and even the Memorial building in a nod to history mean expensive renovation now and increased maintenance expense in the future, which it's clear from the capital budget projections is unsustainable without huge tax increases. Whatever form of government is proposed should be clearly accountable so that, for example, it's SOP, when a new building is put on line, such as the new library, there is a clear and planned maintenance schedule so buildings don't fall into such disrepair that the town needs to evict tenants as with the Danforth building.

Change is clearly needed and I voted in favor of the Charter Commission with the understanding that it would consider the current and future needs of Framingham citizens without regard to preconceived notions of the outcome. From a variety of sources that I read and people I've talked with, it appears that may not be the case. Recognizing that I have no in-depth understanding of the work of the Commission to date and cannot fairly judge whether that's the case or not, I share that with you intending it as a cautionary tale. Be sure that your work is transparent and clearly/frequently communicated so that speculation, rumor and innuendo don't override your messages and diminish the impact of your work.

While I value speed of decision making, please don't rush this process; doing so will likely result in a disillusioned group of voters who oppose the recommendations, leaving us to wait another 20 years before this bubbles up again. Help the citizens (me included!) to understand the differences, for example, between the four options above - for example, when you list a council and mayor to manage day-to-day - which of these positions would be paid, at what proposed compensation levels and what's the impact on the budget? Where does the buck stop? How would a council member or the mayor be removed? Who is responsible for governance and who is responsible for administration in this scenario? What authority do individual council members or the mayor have? What's the difference between a Mayor vs. a Manager in terms of the role and responsibilities? Please don't presume that citizens understand what is intended by using what appear to be common terms (council, Mayor, manager). The devil will be in the details in the end.

Please, too, use all available options to communicate with citizens, including the Metrowest Daily News, Framingham Source, Framingham Tab, Facebook, Twitter, The Framingham town website, FramBors and FramGov and others. Be proactive with your communication so at the end of the day, the Commission's work is found to encompass a comprehensive review and thoughtful deliberation on government structure options before deciding on the recommended course of action. You have the opportunity to make a true difference for Framingham. I appreciate your volunteering to serve in this role and wish you all the best. I'm proud to live in Framingham and hope to see it embrace its urban character by adapting to the size and pressures it has developed over time. A better, more efficient form of governance will bring about the changes that people are hoping for. More should be done for the Elderly, especially ones who have paid taxes for over 50 years and are veterans. I think it is important that there is a way to vote out any current government for a clean slate Citizen participation in government should be utilized and encouraged. As long as there are enough citizens willing to participate, as there generally is now, I don't think any significant change in government structure is warranted. Most problems and frustrations seem to come down to a few boards, and that is not an indication that a wholesale change in government is necessary. Turn Framingham into a City with a Mayor. Framingham would benefit from having a city title. We now live in a diverse community and the size of the community is larger than some cities. How can a small group meet the needs of the people? We have language differences, cultural differences and those cultivate different needs than Framingham of the past. We need to move forward with all of our community, not just the ones who have always done it. Framingham's government must place the residents ahead of businesses. Businesses can come and go and Framingham will not always win as locations for businesses. It makes no sense to make deals to keep a business here today only to see the business leave as soon as the benefit expires. Whatever form of government is selected, and we all know that you have eliminated several forms by limiting your selection to city governments, this government must have representatives for all areas of town but at the same time provide greater representation to areas that are more involved in government (this could be done by having council members by ward and additional members at large). The last thought I really hope this Charter Commission can get into their tiny minds is that whatever charter you ask the citizens to vote on should be one that they will actually pass. Your behavior so far leaves a lot to be desired and it looks like we are going to see another charter commission waste everyone's time. I am not sure why the current system is assumed to be broken. I would like the commission to clearly state what they see as the problems that make the town meeting / board of selectman / town manager structure not worthy of restructuring before writing off considering any form of town government (which is what I understand the commission has decided to do). It's time to become a city!!! You should also consider other town forms of government. Your decision not to do so was based on a survey with a tiny sample of residents. The survey should have been widely publicized, which it was not. The agenda of the people should prevail, not your personal agendas. I am concerned that too few government officials can be easily corrupted. I'd prefer more concentrated authority / responsibility to the voters with real accountability / transparency from elected representatives. We need more direct ability to influence decisions as citizens vs. the false sense that today's town meeting members are actually "representative" (vs. self-selected volunteers), and our selectctmen who are all "at large" and therefore also all out of reach and focus to most citizens, and a town manager who is accountable only to that amorphous Board of Selectmen. On major directional issues, I'd like to rely on who exactly is accountable to me as a resident / voter and can actually represent my interests to earn my votes -- i.e., elected legislative and executive elective "leaders" who I can directly vote in or out. I also agree with the propositions that School Committee should have separate governance from the overall Town/City, and that we need significant protections against "special interests," including but not limited to large businesses. I want someone to hold accountable for the out of control spending and mismanagement. Give me a Mayor that I can call or vote out of office. I have been a citizen of Framingham for 65 years. Framingham should deploy Lean Continuous Process Improvement methodologies on a phased basis, across our governmental, administrative and other processes, to eliminate wastes and improve the flow of processes with an eye towards the Voice of the Customer, ie, our Citizens. The names of town officials and employees who citizens feel are not doing a good job should be able to be used in complaints and ongoing discussions for improvement. Contact me @ [email protected] and I will arrange a pro-bono presentation on this process and how it can benefit the town. Citizens should have the most opportunities to vote on issues as possible. It takes forever for anything to get done in Framingham. We need a leader who can make those decisions and who will be held accountable by the voters. Turning Framingham into a city lead by a strong mayor is the last and ony hope for the salvation of Framingham. If this doesn't happen, I'm selling my business after 20+ years and moving out of this mess. The management of the finances of the FPS and the municipal side should be merged. Many efficiencies (not hurting the students) would "found" over time if that simple change would be adopted. NO Not too crazy about this survey. All of those things are very important, and the ranking seemed inane. We need to streamline government with SMART people, not the same old, same old windbags. LISTEN more, talk less. We are a town. Hiring a full time council and mayor can only increase taxes...significantly. Fix town meeting but no city for Framingham...ever. I favor a strong City Manager, a City Council and a Mayor. Want strong mayor as there is no accountability now with watered down structure and Town Meeting The current structure is archaic, time consuming, redundant and sometimes embarrassing. Allowing a constant flow of people who have no knowledge about, items and events that impact the masses is such a waste of time and eventually money. I am deeply concerned about the bias towards becoming a city. Become a city or scrap the process should not be the only option. Take the time to look at ways to improve the town form of government or I believe you have failed before you begin. I need more education on the various possible structures but know that our current form of government is not working i.e. it is not efficient. I'm wary about one person being in power, however. Also with the citizens being able to bring things directly to the voters option above - that seems like that would need parameters as that could get out of control. Informed and decisive leadership should be a priority. Each precinct does not necessarily need "equal" representation. The people of the town need to have confidence that the elected representatives have the best interest of all the people at heart. Provision should be made for accountability and avenues for recall in case this is necessary, but it should be a judicious process and not one that can be easily put into action due to the expense.Citizens should be able to participate on committees and boards, but positions that require in-depth commitment should be appointed or require a training period, for instance on the planning or zoning boards. Currently TM members training seems optional and often The level of ignorance is embarrassing . Civility should be a priority in all dealings with employees and the public. The current form of Town Meeting seems dominated by special interests and often ruled by emotion and decisions based on partial or mis information. You hear the same faulty statements year to year. We have grown too large and most citizens do not know the town meeting members they elect. Often the town meeting member is selected on the basis of less than 10 votes or even NO votes-- self selected or hand selected. Attendance seems spotty and granted the process is cumbersome but they are supposed to be governing us. Ithis form of government no longer seems to be efficient or fair.When a decision is based on incorrect information or. Decisions made in the absence of many representatives there can be long-lasting impact. The town should not be for or against any faction. We need leaders who can compromise and act for the benefit of everyone, whether that concerns education , veterans, senior citizens, those who are concerned with the environment or trash pick up or beautification or whatever. Everyone needs to know that they are heard and that there is a plan of action. The current form of government does not inspire my confidence. I believe change is necessary. Sometimes we need to advance it by baby steps; Other times giant steps are necessary. That is for the committee to assess. Please remember that there is a large silent majority. Your surveys should be designed by professional survey writers because the wording of this survey was not clear. There was a bias which will skew data. There should be at least one paper mailing to all residents. Many of the younger families are unaware of what is happening because they do not subscribe to the local newspapers and are unaware or have no time to keep checking the existing digital sources of information. I have lived here 37 years and many of my long time neighbors and friends are persistently unaware of the issues and current ways of dealing with them. Anything would be better than our current inefficient town meeting format. Roads are a mess, schools are a mess, the downtown area is shameful. Needle park open and ready for business. Clean it up! SMOC, Wayside and Advocates run the downtown and it shows. The commuter rail station is disgusting. Should be a big draw for people working in the city instead, its crumbling and neglected. How many more years before someone figures out how to get it right? Preferences given to undocumented immigrants who utilize our town services, schools for free. Police covering up thefts within their own department. No transparency or accountability. Framingham going in the wrong direction!!!! no One thing that is striking about Framingham today is the huge amount of very qualified citizen volunteer activity in elected and appointed positions (Board of Selectmen, School Committee, Planning Board, ZBA, Town Meeting, Charter Commission, etc.). That is a tremendous benefit to the community in so many respects. A high level of this volunteerism needs to be maintained no matter what form of government is adopted. I think our British pre-and post American Revolution immigrants---coming from southeast England towns and cities---bringing with them the names of most most Massachusetts and American national towns and cities---remembered well the power abuses and cruelty of the English kings and the wealthy class---and their own lack of personal power to control government in an orderly, fair, and class-independent way. So they created the New England Town Meeting---open to every town resident or elected representatives of them all---with the power of the purse to control their own tax rates---town departments to get things done---and elected Selectmen who appointed a town manager trained in government operations to manage overall department operations. The town meeting orderly processes of government encourage citizens to serve on the School committee--- Library committee---do all sorts of unpaid volunteer work projects for all of us. I don't want to see all these good things replaced with tax-paid city mayor and 9 councilors---(0.5 councilor per precinct instead of 12 TMM's)---and staffs---replacing unpaid citizen committees and individuals!

Town meeting needs to be more efficient, so Charter meeting should look at other towns with representative town meetings for comparison as part of the process. School Committee is now not functioning to offer confidence in oversight for education and budget operations and goals. Town manager is excellent and points need for a professional to offer leadership in what ever form of government emerges. We also need stronger advocacy with State on proper funding of Framingham needs - education in particular. Fiscal responsibility is important, to attract new residents the school system should be among the best in the state - more emphasis needs to be placed on the quality of the teaching and less on administration and this speaks to the importance of the elected school board. The Mayor MUST always be the chair of the school committee, and have the power to veto. There must be two to three residential RE taxpayers on the negotiation team that discusses union contracts & pay raise to city workers & their requests. (presently negotiations are discussed between town mgmt. and town unions, NO taxpayer input?). City Clerk should be appointed for three years, re-appointed on going. A city Finance Committee of nine (9) must approve all financial items, especially Capital projects, Mayor & City council may veto. City must have an independent Financial Auditor and an Inspector General, that reports to the City Council on regular audits performed on City divisions. # of City Council members must represent all areas of town, with two to three "open" City councilpersons. No party affiliation needed in elections.. City "Home-rule" should be considered and advised to State level( in line with State/Federal laws) (Don't need the State overseeing our decisions, wisdom on city matters) Town meeting government is fine. No need for 5 Selectmen. Three is enough. I feel town meeting is no longer effective. I supported/voted for Framingham as city 20 years ago. This town is too big and with a transient population. (in some areas). I have issues with the "Townies" and their agendas. I always have. Its time to have a Mayor make this person accountable. Board of Selectman, Town Manager have NEVER been effective and Town meeting should be done away with.

Framingham also needs to have more activities for the children and students in this town, along with other activities for adults to bring people together. The town is so big that no one really knows their neighbors. So you think being a city that can't be done? wrong - even if we are a city we can bring people in the town together. It's time for change and it's LONG OVERDUE. town is to big poor decisions being made time to become a CITY The mayor should not be the chair of the School Committee. I think an important option is to explore ways to improve the current form of town government. I get the sense that it is not being done, and some of the current charter council members are looking for a paid town position. In other words, it may be self serving for some, but not all. I think the current council members should be required to disqualify themselves for running for any elected position, otherwise it's an obvious conflict of interest. We need a strong Mayor that in the very least sits and has a vote on the School C. Gets invited to sit with the Governor's Mayors Meetings. We need to take our municipality back from a strong Town Manager form of government. We need a Mayor to lead the City on a day to day basis and be the leader in the void of leadership between Newton and Worcester on RT 9 and the Mass Pike. We need a Mayor to take economic advantage of the two exits and entrances we have on the Mass Pike, Rt 9 going through the entire City, and all the traffic going through down town.!! These comments are just a few reasons we need a strong Mayor Smaller town meeting (fewer members), Cambridge would be a good model for Framingham. Their voting method distributes council seats across a diverse communities, and the council chooses the mayor. To my knowledge there is no long range comprehensive master plan for the town that can provide guidance to town leadership in making responsive and informed decisions. In addition, it is noteworthy that there were few, if any, Charter Commission candidates from several town areas.The socio-economic demographics of Framingham must be taken into account, if this exercise is to be successful. Framingham's population is much too large for Town Meeting members - they are ineffective - we need strong leadership for such a diverse town and someone who is decisive Not in favor of a strong mayor position because of concentration of power. Prefer city manager role without residency requirement to increase pool of qualified executive candidates. Open to council replacing town meeting as legislative body. Mayor or city manager must have very limited governance of schools. Detailed school budget and operations must be managed by education professionals and not well-intentioned but inexperienced elected officials. This questionnaire like the makeup of your commission appears too narrowly focused toward a city form of government. I would like the commission to look at variations of town meeting that exists in other towns. How can we improve our present form of government before we give control to a few? I voted in favor of having this commission but, am extremely disappointed in what appears to be a rather biased forgone end result.....city. Decisions should be made rapidly but should be based on established requirements, not personal preferences. 1. Preference should be given to Town residents for town positions.2. Town government should be transparent. 3. Elected officials should be held accountable. 4. Town vision and priorities should be established and published. These should include public safety , police, fire, education and economic development. 5. Residents should be tapped on a pro bono basis for their expertise. 6. Town image overhaul should be one of the goals. 7 Town should adopt a 2025 vision, to coincide with the 325 the anniversary. 8. Consideration should be given to the Blue Ribbon Committee recommendations. We are happy with a town government with a manager. We don't want a city We need a master plan that keeps our town headed to be a city of the future. This requires visionary leadership who understand how to deploy technology- the connected city. There is a lack of transparency today. With an elected council and/or mayor, more decisions would be made public and residents would be more informed. Accountability is important. I am concerned that a mayoral race would be a popularity contest and we would lose the expertise of a town professional. I have lived in Framingham for 30 years and feel it is time that a community of our size be better represented at a state level. We should have a mayor that has the governor's ear and be able to get more funding for various projects and showcase our many positive attributes in a broader way. I am very disappointed in the planning boards actions that lead to Herb Changers abandoning his proposed dealership venture. For years I have seen board member after board member assume a paternalistic role which becomes fully subjective. Regardless of the "Form" of government that we adopt, all of our Boards and Managers need to following established business standards and stop micro managing every proposal that is presented. It will take 10 years of objection actions to overcome and reverse the impression that Framingham is a tough place to do business. Personally, I don't want to live in a city. If a city form of government will move Framingham toward looking more like a city, I don't want it. Our roads are already saturated with traffic; any further residential or business development will only make that situation worse and reduce quality of life for all Framingham residents. I understand wanting the government to be more responsive so that we don't "miss opportunities", but opportunities for what? Do these opportunities improve life for the many or only for a few? Speed tends to run over the bigger picture and the interests of those who are less connected and slower to speak up for themselves. America's culture right now strongly favors the agenda of those who have a lot of money to spend. I don't want Framingham to be like that. Let's be a community first. I've heard that Framingham is missing out because we don't have a mayor to represent us to the state. Why not have the selectmen appoint someone to represent us? Can't we separate "representative" from "head of government"? Structure should be based on a city form I want to see the Charter Commission fairly evaluate all forms of Government and then choose the right one for Framingham. It's strange that you are asking the public for their opinion yet it appears from the May 23 meeting, that you've pretty much decided that it's going to be a council and with the fact that you've already eliminated the idea of looking at town meeting. This survey is also not particularly well thought out. Unsure and no preference are two different things. Also, right, wrong or unsure leaves little wiggle room for people to select an answer that is true to their feelings. Different structures can function well depending on set operating policies, and, ultimately, management practices. I have seen both Council-Mayor and Council-Manager forms of government work really well and not so well. But I do think that Framingham is too big to be governed effectively and efficiently by the Town Meeting form of government. Council form of government is preferred for me IF thoughtful and transparent decision making is promoted by administration. Structure should be on the same lines as Boston - Mayor and Council - with Mayor making the final decision. Town Meeting in its current state is ineffective. Many seats go unfilled. In my precinct there are three openings. And there are two current TMM's whose attendance at this year's TM was zero percent. If Representative Town Meeting ends up being our form of government, the numbers need to change. 12 members per precinct is too high. While town meeting seems to be ineffective at times, please do not rush to get rid f it just for the sake of getting rid of it.