Mayor's Corner: 'Navigating Changes Can Be Challenging'

FRAMINGHAM, MA—It's our first installment on Framingham Patch of the "Mayor's Corner," in which Mayor Yvonne Spicer fields a question from the community, or us, on a variety of subjects. If it concerns the mayor, or she might have an opinion on it, fire away. Email your questions for the mayor to charlene.arsenault@patch.com. You can be anonymous.

Q: What has been the most complicated and/or most surprising thing about being the mayor so far?

Spicer: Being a new mayor in a city that is in the midst of a transition of governance is complicated. The Charter has provided a blue print for how we move forward as a community and what our city will encompass. Navigating through these changes can be challenging, some sections of the charter provide specific detailed information regarding the processes, while other areas are left to interpretation. We are making strides each and every day, we are thoughtfully moving forward and making sure that we are progressing in the best interest of the community. Change is not easy, it does not happen overnight but we will get there together.

One of the biggest surprises about being a mayor has been the amount of paperwork that requires my signature. Each and every day there is a small mountain of paperwork that requires my signature for projects to move forward, payroll to be processed, accounting forms, human resources forms. I am beginning to develop a callous on my hand from all of the paper work. All jokes aside, each morning I wake up I am excited to see what the day will bring and I am excited to go to work for Framingham!