Sunday, November 3, 2013

Conversation with Andrew Bissanti - Town Council Candidate


Andrew Bissanti is up for his second term on the Town Council. His first two years went by quickly. Andy spent the time doing a lot of learning. He expects that he will be more active in this next Council assuming he is re-elected. We sat down recently to discuss the top questions facing Franklin.

Q - Now that the Master Plan has been approved, what do you think will happen to it?
The previous Master Plan sat on a shelf and was referenced from time to time but that was about it. There was a good team that worked on this plan. The skills and abilities in the room were impressive. I am all for this plan, it needs to work for us..The Master Plan was well presented by the team and should be good to work with.

Q - Do you think the Treasurer/Collector should be appointed or elected?
I think it should be appointed. Franklin is a $100 million dollar business. We need the expertise to manage the money properly. There should be a search committee. I expect that there will be some good candidates. If the individual is a Franklin resident, all the better. That should be our #1 option.

Q - What do you think of the non-binding question for mayor? Should we have one?
The first question is what kind of mayor? There are different kinds. We pretty much have the structure today, just change the name from Town Administrator to Mayor and that is one of the possibilities. We need to look at what we want. Where are the strengths, where are the weaknesses?

From this point the conversation turned to related matters. Andy feels there should be a joint session with the Planning Board and Town Council. There needs to be a better understanding of the “Special Permit” criteria. A lot of what has been set up was done years ago. Franklin needs to grow again. How do we do that? We should look at ‘net equity yield’. Andy says he hears of folks saying we can’t have more kids here. Look around you. We have good schools, look at all the youth programs, there are lots of families here. I don’t think it has to be growth without kids. We are a top community to raise a family. We can continue to be that and grow.


Related Links
The 2013 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/10/franklin-election-2013.html

The 2011 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/08/election-2011-summary.html

The 2009 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2009/10/2009-election-collection.html


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