New England's Largest Town Wants to Become a City

Framingham, MA - They tried it in 1997, and before that in 1993, and again in 2013, but in 2016, Framingham might actually pull it off.

The 68,000-resident-strong Massachusetts municipality is poised to forsake the title, making its fourth attempt in three decades to switch up its governing structure from town to city.

Proponents with the advocacy group Framingham First are making the push with unprecedented funding -- more than $60,000 in donations to the cause, mostly from local businesses -- and most believe the charter question will pass.

Past Attempts

Framingham First has already succeeded in collecting the more than 5,500 signatures needed to get the question on the town’s ballot this Tuesday: Shall a commission be elected to frame a charter for Framingham?

That’s only step one, but the previous effort didn’t even get that far. Citizens for a Better Framingham fell some 1,000 signatures short of the ballot thresh-hold, according to former town Selectman Dennis Cardiff.

Cardiff co-chaired the ill-fated effort, which mobilized in 2012 and ultimately threw in the towel in early 2014. Now he serves as treasurer for pro-city Framingham First, and is running for one of nine seats on the charter commission.

Should Framingham First succeed at the ballot Tuesday, there is still a long road ahead. The charter commission must parse the different forms a city government could take.

The town is currently run by a Town Manager, a five-member elected Board of Selectmen and a Town Meeting. Residents elect 12 Town Meeting members for each of the town’s 18 precincts. Dozens of those seats currently sit vacant and, in the upcoming Town Meeting election, two precincts have no candidates running. Every would-be Town Meeting member is running unopposed.

A city charter would abolish the town meeting system, institute a city council, and likely a mayor. There are six different forms of city government under Massachusetts law, and multiple permutations within them.

Even if the charter commission gets created and drafts up a charter for one of those forms, there's no guarantee voters will support it.

The 1997 battle between Town 2000 and Vote City is proof.

The two campaigns successfully collected the signatures to put the charter question on the ballot in 1996, and 63 percent of voters endorsed the creation of a commission.

But when it came time to vote on that commission’s proposal one year later, the Vote City movement got trounced. Voters rejected the proposed city government structure by a resounding 68 percent.

Ray Salemi led the Vote City charge and attributed his group’s loss to the fact that voters, on the whole, were satisfied with city services and taxes at the time.

Although he’s sitting out this latest charter battle, Salemi sees a strong chance for success from Framingham First. Whereas Vote City was what he called an “insurgent group,” he sees more of the town establishment among the “Firsters.”

Even so, “They’ll need a good case to get people to vote ‘yes,'" Salemi said.

Two Sides Make Their Case

The core of Framingham First's message is this: the current government structure, particularly its Town Meeting, is inefficient and unwieldy for a town of Framingham's size and complexity. A streamlined city structure will address problems more rapidly and effectively; it will make Framingham more business-friendly.

Joel Winnett, a former town moderator, is among those running for the charter commission on a platform that is not explicitly pro-city. He supports reducing the Town Meeting's size, but not eliminating it. He has opined in multiple media outlets that a charter commission must consider the most effective form of government, not rush into the process with a city structure in mind.

The ongoing campaign has exposed larger rifts between competing ideologies. Some in the heavily Democratic town eye Framingham First members and its predominantly business backers with skepticism that no amount of inclusive rhetoric can temper. In an Access Framingham interview, Winett summarized those worries.

"I am definitely concerned when I hear and read about corporations supporting candidates," he said, suggesting there's an implication that candidates will do favors for businesses who support them.

Cardiff has heard this critique at Framginham First-hosted town halls, and dismisses it, noting that many campaigns for sitting Selectman or Town Meeting members have been backed by those same businesses. He also notes they are local, Framingham-based companies-- not faceless corporations, as they are sometimes portrayed.

The 2013 Citizens for a Better Framingham attempt drew criticism for being secretive and insular. Although many of its members overlap, Framingham First is working hard to dispel that impression as it get its message out.

A former Selectman and state representative turned lawyer and lobbyist, John Stefanini said Framingham First has been careful to put forward a positive message, and to avoid pointing fingers and stooping to petty politics or personal attacks. Its flyers and social media presence repeat that Framingham is a great community they want to make better.

“People want to believe in something bigger than themselves,” Stefanini said.

Others worry that high-minded rhetoric hasn’t been borne out in practice.

"It has been much more of a marketing campaign than a fact-based campaign," said Audrey Hall, a Town Meeting member and host of The Audrey Hall Show on Access Framingham.

Hall said she isn't wedded to a town government structure, but does want a form of government weighted toward heavy public input, transparency and a strong system of checks and balances.

She worries Framingham First's campaign puts the onus for too many town problems on the governmental structure.

"All the woes of the town can be fixed with a city structure? It's very misleading," she said.

Business Backing

The local business support that has raised eyebrows in the community has given Framingham First the firepower to get its case out to the public.

As of publication, the campaign has raised more than $61,000, with some 75 percent coming from business donations. The largest donations are in excess of $10,000.

It takes no more than a few minutes of conversation with business owners to feel their frustration.

"The business community is angry, I can tell you that," said Nick Kanieff, owner of Auto Bright Car Wash and an executive committee member of the Framigham Business Association.

Kanieff concedes things have gotten better since a pro-business planning board came in. Before that, he recalls a three-year battle for a liquor license and a year-long fight against proposed signage regulations.

Now, what bugs businesses is Framingham’s Town Meeting, the 216-seat branch of town government whose duties include voting on motions to change town and zoning bylaws.

"Ultimately, at the end of the day, [the planning board's] hands are tied, because any big change has to go through Town Meeting," Kanieff said.

He and other business leaders claim Framingham's slow-moving politics make it unfriendly to new businesses coming in and motivate others to move out. Christine Long, who helms the town planning board, calls it "patchwork zoning."

Her board has done what it can, she said, but Framingham's zoning bylaws need wholesale change.

"They are so old, so antiquated, so anti-development," she said. "This government promotes delays and uncertainty. Delays and uncertainty are a planner's nightmare."

Businesses say they feel the pinch, but Salemi's question remains: If most people believe the schools are nice and see their trash gets collected on time, then can Framingham First successfully motivate the average resident to the polls?

What then?

Armed with thousands of dollars, Framingham First is blanketing the city in mailers, yard signs and phone calls. It has spent $36,578 on the effort so far, according to public filings.

Cardiff is optimistic that forcing the issue to the top of voters’ minds will ensure a high turnout Tuesday, hopefully as many as 6,000 to 10,000, or roughly 14 percent of the population.

Both supporters and detractors of a possible government transformation believe the ballot measure creating a charter commission will indeed pass.

The question on everyone's mind: If it does pass, who will shape the proposal that results? Voters decide Tuesday not only to take up the question, but who will consider it.

The nine-member commission currently has 26 candidates, many from well-funded Framingham First and endorsed by the Framingham Business Association. Most “Firsters” aren’t advocating for a specific form of city government, just that a charter commission put forward a city option.

If and when a proposal emerges, voters will consider the question roughly one year from now, in the spring 2017 election.

>> Photo courtesy Doug Kerr on Flickr via Creative Commons