a proposed ordinance
City Council Seeks Input on Appointments Ordinance
Framingham MA—The Framingham City Council is seeking public input on a proposed ordinance regulating the processes for publicizing and filling Board, Committee, Commission, Council and specific employee positions within City government.
The ordinance fills in the gaps where the 2017 Home Rule Charter did not provide sufficient guidance to assure that a strong and diverse group of potential candidates was encouraged to apply to serve the City of Framingham.
The draft policy can be located on the City Council News and Announcements page located at: https://www.framinghamma.gov/
Residents are encouraged to submit their comments and feedback to the City Council administrator via email or hard copy delivered to City Hall. The email address is: jgalliardt@framinghamma.gov . If responding by email, please use “Appointments Ordinance” as your subject line.
For those who are following, the question has come up regarding Task Forces and their purpose and make up. From what I have learned, and is clearly stated in the Charter, the Mayor is the only person to appoint a Task Force. I asked City Solicitor Chris Petrini on camera and he side stepped the answer.
It appears the Mayor just let the Council (Giombetti) do what ever he wanted and appoint a Task Force for the marijuana shops and Immigration.
Then comes a law suit from Deb Butler who challenges the appointment process for a spot on the Veterans Council. The proposed ordinance sets up rules for appointing member's of the community to various committees.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 10:55 AM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Rules are a good thing but it does appear that the Mayor does not make anyone obey the rules. My reading of a lot of things in the charter is that if the council does something, and she does not respond in a timely way (usually 30 days or less) then whatever the council proposes stands. So too late do do anything about the existing task forces as that 30 day window has passed and I suspect that has set the precedence for allowing the district council to continue doing this. They mayor once again just lets things go because she is not paying attention. Time to look for a new mayor
So the district council is writing new rules for the city government? Will this have to be approved by the voters or anyone else or do they just get to do this?
Is this a problem Jim? Something in particular we should be paying attention to?
This is just another example of the mayor and councilors fighting over who can do what. Why are they even talking about this when there are so many critical issues, like increased taxes, increased water and sewer bills, Nobscot, Eastleigh Farms, downtown Framingham, the school budget, moving the Health Dept. to Callahan, to name a few things they should be talking about. This is what they choose to do with their time instead of dealing with all these important issues. Not a single one of them deserves to be reelected, and the mayor should be fired for failure to do what she is paid to do.
this all started a few weeks ago when I asked about the Saxonville Task Force. It was a surprise to hear that there was one, according to Pam Richardson and who told the council, the Mayor picked some people, along with Pam to sit on this Task Force. I had heard of the Nobscot Task Force, also with Pam.
So I finally asked everyone, who can put together a TASK force and what do they do, etc. NI even asked Chris Petrini on camera, about who appoints a Task Force and he really didn't answer.
So fast forward to yesterday when we get a notice from the Council Chair, that there are now guidelines for appointments to boards, committees, commissions, councils and employee positions stipulated in Framingham's home rule charter where city council approval is needed.
Long name of an ordinance.
The council has developed their own regs, separate from the Mayor as I see it. The Mayor can appoint a Task Force, without council approval, (a good thing for the most part), they don't follow open meeting laws, keep no records and don't have to publish meeting schedules and the meetings can be in the day time.
It appears to me that the Council is defining the Mayor's job.
We already have a system to apply for positions. While some parts of this ordinance
may help fight discrimination, I don't get why the Council needs an ordinance.
Why would these groups be able to meet outside the open meeting law regulations?
After speaking with M Cannon I got a better understanding of what and the why's on this this proposed ordinance. I was to quick to judge it's intent. . As many know, the process itself is in question. Deb Butler's law suite has shown how the process to appoint had structural errors. The Mayor can pick anyone she wants with no council approval for any type of Ad-hock, task force or study committee, etc. This new ordinance calls for rules for the Mayor and Council to live by in approving applicant's to boards and commissions under the charter.
The ordinance would help eliminate discrimination of all types, they added the word "qualifications" or "disqualifying" which is warranted. This also makes the Mayor more accountable to the process of recruiting candidates, needing approval from the council. The Mayor can pick anyone she wants to do any type of advisory group she wants without council approval. Those advisory groups do not have to abide by public records, meeting notices and they can meet during the day and not be televised.
All sounds good except for the fact they don't have to abide by public records and meeting notices. Why would we want to have any type of committee that is not held accountable? Makes no sense to me
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