Selectmen Candidates Discuss The Biggest Issues Facing The Town of Framingham

Selectman Jason Smith and Town Meeting member James (Jim) Pillsbury are the two names on the ballot for a 3-year term on the Framingham Board of Selectmen.

Smith is seeking his fourth term as a Selectman.

The town election is Tuesday, April 7.

Framingham Patch asked the two candidates a series of questions. The answers to each question will be published this week, as the candidates submitted them, today through Friday.

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Today’s question: What are 3 biggest issues facing the Town of Framingham? What can you do as a Selectmen to fix the problems?

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Pillsbury:

“The lack of leadership: Our Town will undergo huge changes in the next few years. We will be asking tax payers to cough up more in property tax from 2016 on. Our Town has it’s own issues and it’s the job of the BOS to set policy and direction for our Town’s future. The failure to lead by example by the BOS has led to law suits, racial indifference, environmental injustice for certain parts of Town, a high turnover rate in management, and a school system plagued with turnover and uncertainty. If elected, I will bring to the BOS a focus on what residents want in their BOS. I’ll present the reality of past mistakes and strongly encourage the other board members to renew all efforts to show real leadership and direction as the Town moves forward. Bottom line: admit when you’re wrong, learn from it and don’t make the same mistake again. Stand for the truth and have the conviction to defend it.

Spending beyond our revenue: The BOS is recommending spending more than we are getting in revenue. Although rolled out as level service funding, the budget is rising at a rate that will demand the maximum amount of tax levy for the foreseeable future, meaning property taxes will rise 2.5 % for many years to come. During that time we will replace Fuller with an override and will replace or rebuild a few major buildings in Town, increasing our long term debt to those who judge our credit worthiness to unacceptable levels. Now is the time to scale back major capital projects and only spend what we can afford to pay for. If elected, I will bring fervent pressure on eliminating wasteful spending, a complete inventory of all our purchases, ending sick time and overtime abuse, and require department heads not increase their budgets and look for efficiencies to spend less.

Communication between the residents and the Towns elected boards and employees: Residents of this Town want to have faith and trust in our Board of Selectman. Over the past few years residents have witnessed unacceptable responses from the BOS and other elected Boards to issues that should have been resolved long before reaching the BOS. The poor performance of elected officials and Town employees comes from the lack of accountability and maintaining the status quo at the BOS. None of them hold anyone accountable for any reason. Only when someone sues the Town or an employee is caught doing something wrong is the BOS motivated to take action. If elected, I will demand elected Board members as well as Town employees are held to a municipal standard code of conduct in dealing with our residents and visitors. Encouraging participation in our local government is a high priority for me. If elected, my first task will be to fix government access TV and demand that all taped government meetings be aired and put on servers so that all cable subscribers and internet users are able to see what goes on with their local government. ”

Smith: ”Framingham is a great community, but it has the ability to do so much more.

We need to continue our focus on improving our schools, stabilizing our finances and creating economic opportunity throughout our community.

While I am proud to serve as one of your Selectmen and of the things that we have accomplished to advance these and other issues by working together, I cannot do it alone and need the continued input and assistance of residents.

Over the past few years, we have responsibly balanced our budget, invested in long range planning and saved for a rainy day. We have limited tax increases to approximately one percent per year for the average residential taxpayer for the past three years. We have reduced our health insurance costs by 17 million dollars over the next five years and we now project our budget and revenue forecast five years ahead. All of this while providing additional funds for our schools and repairs for our roads. And we continue to advocate and work with our State Legislators for Framingham’s fair share of funding for our schools (Chapter 70) and road and bridge repairs (Chapter 90).

We have also made progress in growing our commercial tax base. We supported significant expansions and relocations for TJX, Jack’s Abby Brewing, Danforth Green, Genzyme, and others that have created more local jobs, increased local tax revenue for vital municipal services and improved our community. We have made our town more business friendly by expediting permitting, providing targeted tax incentives and responding to their concerns.

The Selectmen have hired a dynamic new Town Manager and many strong Division Heads and staff to manage the town’s affairs on a day to day basis. Residents should take time to introduce themselves to these managers and to share your ideas to achieve these and other goals.

As a member of the Board of Selectman, I will continue to keep open lines of communication with our residents and other elected officials to ensure we continue to move our wonderful town in the right direction.

If re-elected, I will continue my work in these and others areas in an effort to make our community a better place in which to live, learn, work and play.”