FM #168 - Joint Budget Subcommittee Mtg 7/24/19 (audio)

FM #168

This internet radio show or podcast is number 168 in the series for Franklin Matters.

This recording shares the Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting held on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. The joint budget subcommittee is comprised of members of the Town Council, School Committee, and Finance Committee and is supported by members of the Town Administration as well as the School District Central Office.

Plans started for an override to be put before the voters for the FY 2021 budget at the meeting held in June meeting. This meeting picks up and provides some updates on events since the prior meeting. (Audio recording of the June meeting is linked below)

The Legislative Conference Committee has submitted their budget to the Governor who has 10 days to review, modify and approve the whole, or parts thereof. What went to the Governor is looking good for Franklin’s budget situation given the word from Senate President Spilka and Representative Roy. (Both their letters were share here earlier, links also provided below)

Town Administrator Jamie Hellen and School Superintendent Sara Ahern jointly authored a memo to the Governor regarding Franklin’s interest in the FY 2020 budget. (Copy attached)

Town Administrator Jamie Hellen also walked through an abridged version of the Five Year Fiscal Forecast for Franklin. (Copy attached)

There will be an open planning session on Sep 11 at the Senior Center at 6:30 PM. Additional details will be included as that announcement comes out.

Without further ado, here is the audio recording (approx 45 minutes).


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Additional References:
The Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting of June 2019
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2019/06/fm-167-joint-budget-subcommittee.html

Senate President Spilka letter
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2019/07/legislature-passes-balanced-budget-with.html

Representative Roy letter
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2019/07/this-consensus-fiscal-year-2020-budget.html

The joint memo to the Governor
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lNwBM3PwuDbx7D03ys_DPZouGOoVHqVZ/view?usp=sharing

The abridged 5 Year Fiscal Forecast
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FZiTDKj0sOVFi9tdcYLObOayEq8id8kN/view?usp=sharing


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

How can you help?

In particular, if you have an interest in real estate, zoning, or construction, I would like someone to help us by following the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, and or the Conservation Commission meetings. I’ll provide the guidance on note taking and sharing. You need to bring an inquisitive, open mind, and willingness to learn and share.

Overall:

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors.
• If you don't like this, please let me know.

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

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/
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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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes = search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters on iTunes

 

FM #167 - Joint Budget Subcommittee Meeting - June 19, 2019 (audio)

FM #167

This internet radio show or podcast is number 167 in the series for Franklin Matters.

This recording shares the Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting held on Wednesday, June 19, 2019. The joint budget subcommittee is comprised of members of the Town Council, School Committee, and Finance Committee and supported by members of the Town Administration as well as the School District Central Office.

Plans have started for an override to be put before the voters for the FY 2021 budget. The specific amount and details remain to be finalized. The timing of the override vote also remains to be determined.

My notes from the meeting
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2019/06/we-will-need-to-consider-override-on-fy.html

The one page handout with the projected deficits referred to
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2019/06/the-projected-budget-deficits-for.html

Agenda doc
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2019/06/joint-budget-subcommittee-meeting-june.html

Without further ado, here is the audio recording (approx 90 minutes).




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Additional References:
The prior Joint Budget Subcommittee meeting was held in Sep 2018
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2018/09/joint-budget-subcommittee-meeting-sep.html


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

How can you help?

In particular, if you have an interest in real estate, zoning, or construction, I would like someone to help us by following the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, and or the Conservation Commission meetings. I’ll provide the guidance on note taking and sharing. You need to bring an inquisitive, open mind, and willingness to learn and share.

Overall:

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don't like this, please let me know

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

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/
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!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes = search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters on iTunes

On this day: May 22, 2007 Franklin voted for the first operational override

On this day, twelve years ago, 8759 Franklin residents went to the old high school field house to cast their votes for an operational override. The vote was successful and historic. 

While Franklin has successful passed debt exclusions for several school buildings (including most recently for the new high school in 2012), this was the only operational override passed.

"The votes came in to pass the first operational budget override in Franklin's Prop 2 1/2 history.
The final tally was 5,028 for and 3,722 against with 9 blanks and 8,759 total votes cast."

https://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2007/05/vote-tally-override-52207.html

The override collection for the 2007 vote can be found here
https://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2007/04/franklin-override-collection.html

Yes, this was the beginning of Franklin Matters. The domain and new website came online in November 2007. Links to the prior posts on my personal blog are still valid in the archive where needed.

Franklin failed to pass operational overrides in 2008 and 2010 and has not had a vote scheduled since that time. However, next year maybe an opportunity.

Franklin override collection for 2010 (FY 2011)
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2010/05/budget-override-collection-fy-2011.html

Franklin override info for 2008 (FY 2009) (not a single collection; I learned as I went along to do so)  https://www.franklinmatters.org/search?q=override%2C+2008

On this day: May 22, 2007 Franklin votes for first operational override

Election day - Nov 6 - past election vote totals

Per the Town Clerk's office, the registered voter totals as of Oct 17, 2018 (last day to be eligible for Nov 6)

as of 10/17/18
Precinct Number	Active	Inactive	Total
1	2463	136	2599
2	2782	214	2996
3	2663	227	2890
4	2971	163	3134
5	2939	147	3086
6	2423	252	2675
7	2863	124	2987
8	2870	99	2969
	21974	1362	23336

Major elections in 'recent' times for Franklin

Election	Total #	% of T
Franklin 2003	3232	18.3%
Presidential 2004	15480	83.2%
Franklin 2005	3119	17.2%
State 2006	11548	62.2%
Override 2007	8759	46.3%
Franklin 2007	3845	20.3%
Override 2008	7693	40.7%
Presidential 2008	16793	84.4%
Franklin 2009	3244	16.3%
Special 2010	13418	68.8%
Override 2010	7966	39.6%
State 2010	12829	63.8%
Franklin 2011	4517	22.6%
Franklin High School 2012	9971	48.6%
Presidential 2012	17546	83.4%
Franklin 2013	2527	12.0%
State 2014	12267	59.3%
Franklin Special 2014	217	1.0%
Franklin 2015	3844	18.6%
Presidential 2016	18433	86.3%
Franklin 2017	3916	17.3%

State 2018                                          ???         ???

Election day - Nov 6 - past election vote totals

Per Teresa Burr, we have already recorded 3,923 early votes for this election. That is more than the Franklin election in 2017 although by percent voters slightly less (16.4%)

The totals can be printed out from this file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SkiLIhY4JiSOwhvST2TDHZ-QnmrI75LT/view?usp=sharing

The Franklin Town Clerk page with additional information
http://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerk

Additional info can be found in the 2018 Election Collection
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2018/10/election-collection-2018.html

Election Information for Nov 2018

FM $144 - Finance Committee - Final Budget Hearing - FY 2019 (audio)

FM #144

This internet radio show or podcast is number 144 in the series for Franklin Matters.

This recording is of the Finance Committee final budget hearing for the FY 2019 budget review. The meeting was held on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. The meeting began at 6:00 PM.

The school budget, Police Dept, and Technology budgets were reviewed and discussed before the committee made its vote to recommend the budget as proposed to the Town Council. The Town Council budget hearings are scheduled for May 16 and 17. The budget is currently unbalanced and the Town Council will need to vote to use approx $1.4M of the debt stabilization account to balance the budget as required.

As mentioned at the beginning of the budget hearings, this is the proposed approach to address the budget shortfall this year, effectively buying some time for many new players in key roles. The FY 2020 budget will also be an issue and by this move (use of debt stabilization funds), there will need to be either an override discussion or significant cuts to the services.

The use of the revolving funds on the school budget side and the use of the debt stabilization funds on the Town side creates a hole that will require some serious discussion and action to resolve. There won’t be an opportunity to avoid the discussion next year.

The meeting itself runs about 39 minutes. My notes were captured via Twitter for this meeting and can be found at FranklinMatters.org/
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2018/04/finance-committee-recap-fy-2019-budget.html

Without further ado, here is the audio recording.

-------------

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

How can you help?

If you like this, please tell your friends and neighbors.

If you don't like this, please let me know.

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements.

Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/

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!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes = search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters on iTunes

The notes for the meeting can be found here

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2018/04/finance-committee-recap-fy-2019-budget.html

Franklin Residents/Taxpayers, you'll be tested on this

Aside from the budget, this is the single most important document that every Franklin resident and taxpayer should be familiar with. After the only operational override passed in 2007, there was another attempt in 2008 that failed. One of the outcomes of the failure was the establishment of the Long Range Financial Planning Committee. 

The committee began with representatives from the Town Council (3), School Committee (2), and Finance Committee (2). In December 2010, it was reformed as a committee completely made up of 'citizens' - that is residents with no other direct board membership.

Vision The Long Range Finance Committee is a citizen advisory group tasked with helping citizens and Town officials better understand Franklin’s long-term financial outlook and the various courses of action available to secure Franklin’s financial future. 

Mission The Committee will achieve this vision by (i) evaluating and reporting on the Town’s five-year financial projection, (ii) assessing the nature and potential magnitude of the Town’s significant financial risks, particularly those that give rise to a structural deficit, and (iii) recommending steps to close the gap between future expected revenues and expenditures in an effort ultimately to achieve fiscal sustainability.

The Committee produced their final report in June 2012. Since that time, the Town Administrator has been updating the long range financial plan each year.

The current report was just posted to the Town of Franklin webpage and is copied here for your reading pleasure.

The introduction from Town Administrator Jeff Nutting:

"Each year we look into the crystal ball and try to project the long term fiscal health of the community. We look at trends over the last five years, adjust for one time issues or "bumps" in the road and then try to predict the fiscal future. Looking ahead a couple of years is not that difficult while projecting five years ahead is a "best guess' of what may affect local government beyond the "normal revenue and expenses" We do not know today how the economy, Federal and State budgets, changing demographics, growing population, unknown mandates, health care, etc. will affect our fiscal health in the future. 

We do know that: 

• Our population has increased from 29,738 in 2001 to over 34,000 in 2017 and it will continue to increase. Currently there are over 800 potential housing units under construction, in the "pipeline or proposed by developers with more to come. 

• Health care costs continue to be a concern. 

• Our unfunded retiree health insurance obligation is $93,000,000 (2015). 

• Our unfunded pension liability is $41,346,000 (2016). 

• The FY 18 School budgets will use one time revenues to balance the budget and beyond that they will have few reserves left. 

Franklin is in generally good financial shape today but we will continue to struggle to maintain high quality school and municipal services given the fiscal constraints that we operate under.

I believe we can continue a "level service" budget in fiscal year FY 18. The trend suggests that in FY 19 we will need to use school and town reserves to maintain services. 

Starting in FY 20 the forecast strongly suggests we will face service cuts and/or a tax increase. 

While many departments would like to add employees to better serve the citizens the available revenues leave very few options for expanding the work force with recurring revenues. 

In order to have trne fiscal stability there would need to be a great deal of change in Federal and Sate laws and regulations that drive up the cost of doing business. I do not see any political will to make major changes for the foreseeable future. 

We will continue to do are very best on behalf of all the citizens of Franklin to maintain a high quality of life while trying to control costs to the taxpayers."

Long Range Financial Planning Committee Meeting notes for their 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 sessions can be found in the meeting archive
http://www.franklinmatters.org/p/meeting-notes.html

The 5 year financial plan published in 2012
http://www.franklinma.gov/sites/franklinma/files/uploads/report.pdf

Information provided to candiates for the Town election in Nov 2011
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/01/franklin-ma-long-range-financial.html

road sign on Pleasant St is rather appropriate for this posting, the financial plan contains many hazards

Franklin Candidate for Town Council - Sean Slater

Sean Slater and I met recently via phone call to talk about his campaign for Town Council. This is the summary of our discussion.

FM - What is your Franklin story?

Slater – I am a first time candidate running for Town Council. I have an amazing wife Kerry and an adorable son, Devin. I have a deep commitment to my family and my Catholic faith. Kerry and I consider ourselves very fortunate to be living in a great town like Franklin. After searching for a house on the North Shore and in neighboring towns around Franklin we came to the conclusion that Franklin was the best choice. The small New England town charm and character combined with all Franklin has to offer convinced us that this is where we wanted to be. 

I want to work with people who want to keep Franklin one of the most sought after towns in the state to live in. The collective voice of the Franklin citizens is more important than anything else in terms of how Franklin’s future should be planned out. I am fiscally conservative when it comes to my own household spending. I think it is reasonable for the average Franklin resident to expect that same fiscal discipline from their town officials. 

I believe our town officials should not lose sight of the fact that they are spending the public’s money. I am running for this seat so Devin can grow up in a community that is as safe and affordable tomorrow as it is today. I want the current generation of Franklin citizens to have peace of mind knowing that their children and grandchildren decide to stay in Franklin for the same reasons that we all chose to move here. 

I have worked in the financial services industry for over 22 years; specifically at State St Bank, Bank of America and Fidelity. I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Stonehill College. I have an MBA from the Sawyer School of Management. I am employed as a Senior Project Manager with Fidelity Investments responsible for coordinating and delivering multimillion dollar IT projects on-time and on-budget. While at Fidelity, I received my Six Sigma Black Belt certification in 2006 and my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2008.

FM - What do you see as a challenge for the position of Town Council?

Slater – I think the biggest challenge is the lack of transparency and the relentless pursuit of overdevelopment. 

The perception, right or wrong is that there is a groupthink mentality to how decisions are made and how public information is or is not shared with residents. There are too many unanimous votes on the Council. Let’s try to bring some critical thinking and fact based analysis into the Chambers. I want to know how the town is defining a “growth” strategy. I will not be a rubber stamp for every real estate development that comes across the desk but I will not vote down every proposal either. 

The accountability is on the interested party proving to me how this will benefit the entire Franklin community, not the selective few, in the short term and long term. Proposals need to be vetted with as much deep dive analysis as required in order for us, as Council members to make better informed decisions. Those proposals over a certain dollar amount should require another level of scrutiny. 

Any growth or five year investment plan regarding Franklin’s future needs to be balanced and conservative and requires full disclosure on how it will impact not only the industrial, commercial, residential portfolio mix but more importantly how that mix impacts the taxpayer’s wallet. 

I certainly understand the need to bring in more revenue, especially as a resident tax payer but we need to tap the breaks a little until unknowns becomes knowns. Trust, then verify. 

Traffic studies are great but they are almost irrelevant in the big picture. You need a comprehensive infrastructure analysis that deals with the demand and supply side. This needs to be done before any voting or fast tracking of decisions. Full disclosure on what the financial burden of the development will demand upon the existing town resources, this is your baseline. 

What is the demand on future or net new services? That gap between current state and future state is what needs to be solved for from a revenue as well as an expense perspective. You take that current state and the future state assessment, document and validate it and hold people accountable to it. 

This is not mind blowing stuff here, this is about transparency and accountability. I do not know if this is happening already or if all of the relevant decision makers are part of the process but we owe it to our residents to ensure that it is. Too many times, the most common knee jerk reaction is to identify a single source of revenue to solve for some or all of that gap; the residential taxpayer. 

Another significant challenge will be the $93M unfunded liability for Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). This is a non-pension guaranteed benefit entitlement. We are accounting for it, it is on the books and we are allocating dollars to it each year. What we need to be doing is solving for how we control the costs that are not only inevitable but will ultimately be unsustainable if we have to write that check someday. 

Those that have contributed and are entitled to that benefit should have peace of mind knowing that those dollars will be there when they need it. The taxpayers should equally have peace of mind knowing well in advance that we as a Council are accountable for coming up with solutions to reduce that tax burden, by reducing (not eliminating) those interest costs within the scope of our town charter and bylaws. 

I mention costs going up as inevitable because health care costs will move in one direction for the foreseeable future. It is like paying only the interest on a credit card or mortgage, the principal balance isn’t going anywhere but the total loan balance only gets bigger. 

We are limited on what we can do because of state regulations and reporting requirements but what we are not limited to is thinking outside the box. We should address this and not ignore it. We have to find a way to make this sustainable. If it needs to funded and fully on the books for 2028, according to the current accounting rules, it will be a big challenge to deal with.

FM - What do you bring to the position that would set you apart from the other candidates?

Slater – First thing I want to get on the record is that for me there is no conflict of interest in my motivation to run for this position. I am not looking to gain any political favors by getting elected. I am not looking to gain financially or grow my business from the votes that I would take on the town’s behalf. I am running with a clear understanding that my first priority is the resident of Franklin. I would not compromise my integrity in achieving that goal. 

What I bring to the table is 22 years of problem solving expertise in the private sector. I am bringing a relentless effort to improve the transparency which is suspect as of today. I am dedicated to ensure that I and my fellow Councilors are proactively engaged in really keeping our community more informed, not just on votes and decisions, but on the overall process leading up to those votes and decisions. I am by default, trained to understand, reject and revise budget items that look questionable at best and completely unreasonable at worst. 

At my current job I demand accountability from people I work with and they demand the same of me. I do not have the luxury of throwing money at a problem to solve for it. I will not get into the override debate here because I could write endlessly on that topic. Know this, to ask the Franklin resident for more taxes in the form of an override is to insult their intelligence. The inconsistent and sky is falling override rhetoric would not change whether we had a $113M budget or a $213M budget. 

On transparency, we need to do better than allowing 3 minutes for residents to express their concerns. Right now it does not do anything to inspire confidence when meetings are a one way conversation after a three minute allowance. We can do better than that. The Town Council does abide by the open meeting law, lead time rule or whatever we call it next month, which is 48 hours but we as TC, accountable to about 33,000 residents should aspire to a higher standard. 

For “special business” or something that has a sweeping impact to the community, those notifications should be done with significantly more lead time notice. I know we are not able to force people to show up but what I am talking about is engaging the public well beyond the Town Council meetings. The citizens need to have a Town Hall style format or at least a forum where there is a more collaborative model with the Town Council. The TC still drives the meeting, agenda and the majority of content in order to keep the meetings efficient but the opportunity for the collective citizen voice to engage requires a reset. I think that open collaboration is vital to getting where we need to be. 

One of the other things that I would suggest; our names should be attached to everything we vote on and posted publicly. Reading 9-0 or 8-1 really provides no insight into who is doing what. We should have our names on each of the votes. It builds trust, period. It will allow citizens to focus on who to engage, who to compliment, who to voice concerns with during meetings or in informal interactions. 

The voters have a pretty clear choice to make with the 14 of us. With the level of engagement between us the last three weeks, it should be clear by now where I stand on issues that I introduced or issues that were introduced to me. I have no problem speaking my mind on anything. 

What I will do is bring a taxpayer focused mindset to the Council. I will bring an objective and common sense approach to every decision I make on the resident’s behalf. I will not accept something as validated based on assumptions. 

Lastly, I will reinforce that crazy idea that fiscal discipline is not optional when the dollars are coming from the taxpayer’s wallet. I will work closely and reasonably with fellow Town Councilors in keeping Franklin a town we will always be proud of calling home. 

I humbly ask for your vote on 11/3.

If you have any follow up questions for Sean, you can contact him via email at seanp.slater_pmp@yahoo.com



Noteworthy: This information is intended to help the Franklin voters when we all head to the ballot box on November 3rd. The interview candidates have had an opportunity to review the text before publishing to ensure the accuracy of our discussion.

Franklin Voter Turnout 2003 - 2014

Franklin could set a record with the turnout in the Special Election on Dec 16th.

What is the special election for?
The election will present one candidate (and opportunity for write-ins) to fill the one vacant seat on the Town Council. Former councilor Robert Dellorco is the only certified candidate for the election.

Given the circumstances and timing for this election I would predict Franklin would not get more than 10% voter turnout. I hope you all prove me wrong but this is why I say this.

Voting in our local election is really the one time we, the Franklin voters, have the most direct control over our own destiny. There are always 'party influences', we can't avoid them but the Town Council candidates (as well as other candidates for Franklin elected positions), do not run on a party affiliation.

They are all independent candidates. They are our neighbors. They are volunteers. They do not get paid for what they do to run our government on our behalf.

The people who we chose are the ones who vote for about $100 million dollar budget. This funds our road repairs (what there is of the program), school budget, etc. They set the trash and recycling rates. They set the tax rate that we all pay. These are the local services we use directly or indirectly every day.

So please consider marking the date - Dec 16th - on your calendar. If you can't make it to the high school to vote, you can get an absentee ballot from the Town Clerk.

There really is no legitimate reason not to vote. Even if in this case it is only for one candidate.

Please get out and vote!

Color code:

• Franklin local elections in RED
• Presidential elections in LIGHT BLUE
• State elections in GREEN
• Franklin overrides in YELLOW
• The Special Election is in PURPLE (Scott Brown for Kerry's seat)

My general rule, developed from the chart above, has that when there is a Presidential election Franklin turns out about 80% of the voters. The State elections get about 60%. Franklin override votes (operational or school building related) get about 40%. The local Franklin election gets only 20%.

The turnout is directly related to the amount of campaign funds expended for the election.


The results of each of the elections since 2007 can be found here:

• Franklin Election - 2007
• Franklin Election - 2009
• Franklin Election - 2010
• Franklin Election - 2011
• Franklin Election - 2012
• Franklin Election - 2013
• Franklin Election - 2014

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

Feel free to check the math. The results are all from the official publications by the Franklin Town Clerk, While I have been very careful in transferring where necessary from her paper to a spreadsheet a mistake may occur. I usually double check and cross check the numbers but I do not claim to be perfect.

Looking back to get ahead

April vacation brought a quiet week on the news front within Franklin. This was a good thing in a way as the Boston Marathon bombing and hunt for the suspects has dominated the attention. With the second suspect in custody after a long day, the rain has come, perhaps to help the cleansing process. We can begin to return to the new 'normal', whatever that will be, it will be different.

In lieu of sending you to any of the news on the marathon bombers, let's take a few minutes to look back into the archives. What was happening on April 20th last year and each year prior that this site has been sharing news on Franklin matters?

In 2012
The FY 2013 budget documents were published
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/04/franklin-ma-fy-2013-budget-documents.html

In 2011
The fire investigation of the old Masonic Temple was reported on
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/04/well-investigate-as-long-as-it-takes.html

In 2010
Photos of the raised garden beds that were installed at the Senior Center, ECDC and Charter School for Earth Day (yes, these were installed and a year later the Community Garden opened).
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2010/04/franklin-ma-raised-garden-beds-in.html

In 2009
The MDN reported on information from the Town Council meeting the week before. The MDN reporter at the time was Joyce Kelly and we have had several others since then. I guess even though the reporters change the newspaper process has not.
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2009/04/we-can-only-spend-what-we-have.html

In 2008
The answer to the "Where in Franklin?" picture was revealed.
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2008/04/where-in-franklin-answer-44.html

Can't go back any further as this site actually started in Nov 2007. If I was publishing anything on Franklin in April of 2007, it was on my personal webpage Steve's 2 Cents. Checking there I actually skipped posting on Apr 20 but did post the Override Collection on Apr 18. This collection had all the information for the override vote in 2007 which remains as the only operational override Franklin has successfully passed.
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2007/04/franklin-override-collection.html

The April showers today will bring the green grass and May flowers.

spring flowers

Thanks for visiting. Consider subscribing to receive updates via email. Follow us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.

If you like what we are doing share this with your friends and neighbors. If you don't like something, let me know. Only with this of feedback can the information sharing process be improved.

If you have good news to share, please send it along. Good news includes announcements on upcoming events, fund raising efforts, etc.

Current readership statistics

Occasionally I am asked, what is the readership for Franklin Matters? This is not something I focus on. The numbers tend to be quite dependent upon a variety of factors beyond my control. I prefer to focus on providing good content and letting the rest happen.

You have helped in this area. You have found what you wanted here. Usually spending a good bit of time reading here. And over time (as shown by the charts below) have continued to spread the word about what you find here.

You have four options to follow what matters in Franklin

1. the daily update via email
2. the weekly update via email
3. visit the website regularly
4. follow us on Facebook

You can sign up for the each email listing or follow us on Facebook here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html


And as I frequently have said on the audio version:

• If you like what you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors.
• If you don't like what you find here, please let me know. It is through this feedback process that I can continue to provide good content that meets your needs.

Note: 
This website was "born" in November 2007. Right after the election. All posts on the Franklin election and the override (earlier in May) were to my personal website - Steve's 2 Cents.

The readership for Jan-Feb-Mar of this year already exceeds all of the first full year 2008!

Year			Page Loads	Unique Visits	First Time Visits	Returning Visits
2012			23,029	17,566	14,433	3,133
2011			67,814	48,020	37,004	11,016
2010			63,307	42,461	31,121	11,340
2009			41,845	28,131	20,016	8,115
2008			22,574	15,243	9,730	5,513
2007			1,816	1,085	511	574

Note: 2012 covers only Jan-Feb-Mar