Town Councilor Morrongiello: Resident Survey Goals vs. Adopted Outcomes

Submitted by Town Councilor Max Morrongiello

As Goes Franklin ... a look at Franklin’s voting habits - Nov 3, 2024 at 1:15 PM

As Goes Franklin ... a look at Franklin’s voting habits over the last 140 years…

Keyed up about the election? Learn about how and why Franklin has voted for presidents going back to the time of the Civil War! 

Local history educator, Jayson Joyce, has been delving into archives and histories to learn about Franklin’s voting habits going back to the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln (yes, he carried Franklin), with lots of other interesting bits about how the town has voted right up to the 2020 election. 

Also look for some other bits of museum ephemera and visuals relating to our political past, on exhibit until Thanksgiving ... 

Museum is open 1-4 with the presentation starting at 1:15. 

The Event is Free. 

As Goes Franklin ... a look at Franklin’s voting habits - Nov 3, 2024 at 1:15 PM

Franklin (MA) Elections Voter Turnout History: from 2003 - 2023

The chart depicting the voter count and percent for the elections from 2003 through 2023 

Franklin (MA) Elections Voter Turnout History: from 2003 - 2023

The table of info most recently from Town Clerk Nancy Danello (and prior Town Clerks) (PDF) ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PEhv7D0uIHBxGyE42JQpVuoTEZLeibXF/view?usp=drive_link

2023 Year In Review Quiz Results or "Survey says ..."

Thanks to the 40+ folks who participated in the 2023 Year In Review Quiz. The results showed a great range and hence there is plenty of opportunity to do better next time around.

At the end of the results presentation, there is an opportunity to answer: 

What question(s) should have been asked?

Slide deck available here ->   https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19ydCQtfhUX9RpzZiBAe6omTTYcrNteoSZUUwfmKkDlg/edit?usp=drive_link

or PDF here -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q_aOsoXrwTcyVfIHrBfJxZuXjzq5Ew9-/view?usp=drive_link

One key way to do better next time is to make sure you subscribe to the daily newsletter. Only one email a day keep you informed on what is happening in Franklin.  Subscribe -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html

2023 Year In Review Quiz Results or "Survey says ..."

Override & debt exclusion info in the archives

Now that the "O" word (override) has been mentioned, there is a bunch of information in these  archives that may be useful to provide the historical perspective. 

Long time readers may recall that Franklin Matters came to be during the 2007 override and the domain officially was born in Nov 2007. 

The 2007 Override is noteworthy as it is the only successful override Franklin has passed in its history to date. It passed because there was unified support across the Town Council and School Committee. The succeeding overrides (2008 & 2010) failed because that unity did not exist. Some naysayers among the Council and School Committee created enough doubt and discord that success was unattainable. 

There also was a special ballot question on the State election of 2014 to provide $1.5 million to fund road maintenance that failed significantly. As it was a Sate election, Franklin turned out at 59% (normal for State elections) and 8289 voters said No, 3583 said Yes. https://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/10/ballot-question-5-dedicated-override-to.html

Coming out of the 2008 override failure there was recognition that a long term financial plan needed to be developed. A committee was created and began work on that in early 2010. The Financial Planning Committee changed to the Long Range Planning Committee. The first report they produced is now what we see each year when the Town Administrator publishes their 5 year outlook.

The Joint Budget Committee is the current working group to help with these long range and financial planning matters. They have not met frequently enough so we find ourselves now in a position where some folks understand the situation and many do not. The Joint Budget should meet more frequently (at least quarterly, in my view) rather than the annual meeting they have had in recent years.

The archive has links to collect the information pasted for each of the elections. 

• Franklin Override - 2007
• Franklin Override - 2008
• Franklin Override - 2010

There is also a spreadsheet with the specific ballot question history for both the debt exclusions (i.e. schools) and override votes. 

• Franklin Override - Debt Exclusion Vote History

Some of the links break as the Town and School pages were updated twice since then (and neither upgrade maintained link integrity). 

If you find a link that might be valuable for your research, let me know, I might have the individual document in my own archives and can find and update the link accordingly.

Additional archive links can be found in the Key Link tab https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/important-links.html

Lincoln St road work during Aug 2014

Town of Franklin: Official Results - MA State Primary - 09/06/22

Official results for the MA state primary held Tuesday, Sep 6, 2022 for the Town of Franklin have been certified by Town Clerk Nancy Danello.

The PDF of the Official results can be found online -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y9IoUmhymrgGmJxtp98G4K7k81aFLFkb/view?usp=sharing

Or on the Town of Franklin page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/news/certified_state_primary_results_9-6-2022.pdf

Town of Franklin: Official Results - MA State Primary - 09/06/22

Economic Development Subcommittee meeting runs out of time to review the details MAPC shared - 04/06/22 (audio)

FM #768 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 768 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the audio recording of the Economic Development Subcommittee meeting held on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 in the Council Chambers.  

MAPC presented a summary of the survey results which were quickly cobbled together as the survey had closed April 1. They also presented three scenarios for dealing with the MBTA community initiative and the meeting ran out of time to fully explore these ideas. (Town Council was scheduled to begin at 7 PM).

Copies of the presentation documents will be shared when available. The MAPC web page still touts completing the survey by April 1. 

The recording of the meeting runs about an hour and 15 minutes.  

Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-768-economic-development-subcmte-mtg-04-06-22

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Meeting agenda doc -> 

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/agendas/2022-04-06_edc_agenda_2.pdf 

My notes captured via Twitter during the portion of the meeting I attended (approx. 10-15 mins late due to coverage of the Board of Health meeting upstairs) 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jMCegUZ6abWjrXrR-FSS81XrXRIq1D1y/view?usp=sharing 

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

 

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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1 of the slides shared during the meeting; copy of presentation to be shared when available