Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Live reporting - Charter Revision Updates

Steve Whalen, Shannon Zollo

categorize at a high level some substantive changes
redline copy of charter provided to Council for review

Charter is the Town's governing document
4-5 major recommendations
Citizens committee had made recommendations, those were considered in this review

1 - appointed Treasurer (elected today)
allow the Administrator to appoint, for efficiency and skills

2 - appoint Constable, Board of Health, Board of Assessor positions (elected today)
there are likely highly qualified individuals who could serve but do not want to run an election campaign in order to serve in these roles.

Q - Mason - Would you include the Town Clerk in the appointed slots or maintain it as an elected position?
A - Zollo - We will make no recommendation on this position, there was discussion but no consensus so with no recommendation for change, it would remain an elected position.
A - Whalen - I approached this by not considering the current people in any position, I would make this an appointed position

3 - We chose not to recommend staggered terms, if the Town is willing to go through the hassle of setting it up, there are benefits to go forward that way. Both Zollo and Whalen feel the same on this item. There is no compelling reason for recommending this.

Clarification - Mason - purpose of this evening is to hear the report recommendation. There will be a public workshop and public hearing on these so all will have a chance to get their say on these matters.

4 - Administrative changes - clean up for more efficiency
allow new Council to have a week between the election and their first meeting
Council should have an ability to re-organize with a term if it had the 2/3 votes to do so
Administrator is currently not allowed to chair subcommittees, should be allowed to do so if appropriate
add recommendation of a temporary Town Administrator to cover for an unexpected absence or to find an appropriate replacement

5 - language to be removed from Charter covering the removal of employees. these items are already superseded by existing bargaining agreements or employee policies

Q - Pfeffer - Were any considerations from the prior report not addressed in this set of recommendations?

Q - Pfeffer - What of the recommendation to change the number of meetings per month?
A - This is a recommendation to meet a minimum of once vs. the requirement today of being required to meet twice.

Nutting - If you'd like to get this on the November ballot, we'd need to move this along.
Mason - let's set the workshop for February, the public hearing in March

Nutting - the home rule charter changes would be submitted to the legislature, they would act upon it and either send it back for revision or approval. The piece that is not included in this document yet is a transition plan, for example, moving to an appointed Treasurer when would the appointment take effect and the election process stop. Hoe rule petitions are pretty routine.



Live reporting - Town Council - Jan 20, 2010

Attending: Jones, Whalen, Mason, Pfeffer, McGann, Zollo, Powderly
Missing: Kelly, Vallee

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - DECEMBER 16, 2009
motion to aprove, passed 7-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS - none

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS
Citizenship Awards for Boy Scouts
(List to be added later)

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none

E. APPOINTMENTS

  • Public Land Use Committee  (Jeff Livingstone)  motion to approve appointment, passed 7-0
  • Finance Committee  (Christopher Quinn)  motion to approve appointment, passed 7-0
F. HEARINGS - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS - none



Election Notes

in Franklin, 13,418 of 19,700 registered voters voted, or 68 percent
 http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x485625319/Area-voters-went-for-Brown

"It has not stopped all day,” said Franklin Town Clerk Deborah Pellegri, who is overseeing all precincts voting at the high school’s gym. Totals so far are “more than our town election and the primary.”

The town reached 5,696 votes as of 1 p.m.  Franklin totaled 3,950 votes in the December Primary Election.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x745466847/Local-polls-see-high-volume-today

http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x745467697/Behind-the-scenes-with-Brown

Franklin
Scott Brown (R) - 8,828
Martha Coakley (D) - 4,470
Joseph Kennedy (I) - 110
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x201791284/Town-by-town-U-S-Senate-election-results

Franklin, MA: Kindergarten registration

Hold the dates to register for kindergarten:


February 1st, 3rd, and 7th
4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Horace Mann Middle School – Cafeteria
224 Oak Street, Franklin, MA


All the details on the forms required and how to obtain them to have them filled out before arriving at registration can be found in the flyer here:

Franklin, MA - Kindergarten Registration

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the document.


Franklin, MA

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Remember to Vote!

Today is the special election to fill the US Senate seat formerly held by Sen Ted Kennedy.

If your household is anything like mine, you have been inundated with mailings and phone calls from both parties. You'll probably be glad the election is over.

So do us all a favor and get out and vote!

Don't pay attention to the polls, the only poll that counts is the one at Franklin High School when you mark your ballot and turn it it to be counted. Your vote does count.

Franklin Town Clerk Deborah Pellegri said throughout the day Friday, people stood in line at her office for absentee ballots.

"We are very very busy," said Pellegri. "I think turnout will be very good, it's an important position. There's been a lot of publicity and that will draw people in. There's an interest."
 Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here


If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call the Town Clerk's office 508-520-4900
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_News/I0151975B

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/index



SlideShare presentations

Many of the presentations from either the Town Council or School Committee meetings, I post to SlideShare.net in order to help share them with you here on Franklin Matters. I received an email from SlideShare looking back on the account activity I had during 2009.

It is always exciting to bring in a new year. Taking a look back, here's a quick summary of your year on SlideShare, in 2009.

In 2009, you uploaded 29 presentations and got:
  • 9197 views
  • 317.14 average views per presentation
  • 1 favorite
  • 1 follower 
    Your most popular presentation was:
Life Long Learning - made by Pandora Carlucci at the School Committee meeting on January 27, 2009. You can view that presentation on SlideShare here:
http://www.slideshare.net/shersteve/franklin-ma-life-long-learning-program-presentation

Other presentations on SlideShare in the order of popularity can be found here
http://www.slideshare.net/shersteve/presentations?order=popular

Thanks to all the presenter for creating and sharing these presentations. I can only take a little bit of credit for posting them here to increase the sharing.


Photos Added

Three photos were added to the 'live reported' posts for the School Committee meeting Tuesday Jan 12th. The photos are also collected here to save you having to go back to see each one separately.

1 - A view of some of the crowd that filled the Council Chambers Tuesday evening:



Live reporting - School Committee Mtg

Those recognized for participating in the war memorial find raising effort:








3 - Sue Streeter and Mark Berthiume presented the grants to the Franklin High School and Annie Sullivan Middle School Best Buddy chapters:



http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-best-buddies.html