The Mayor and her texts

 I'm sure by now our readers have heard about the text messages from The Mayor and the COO during a council meeting. She said said that they (council) were A- holes and disgusting,  the COO played along. If you've ever watched a complete council meeting, you may have thought the same about them as the Mayor put in a text.

All this comes from a FIOA request by the Source and to be honest, I've watched the show and couldn't see why Susan picked that meeting to request texts between the Mayor and COO.  You can view the show at http://207.172.210.8:5002/CablecastPublicSite/show/2105?channel=1, 

 go to the Mayor's report close to the end to see the interaction between "the short one" and the COO. I'm not a fan of Thatcher but understand and respect his varied municipal and military experience. I also think he could squash the short one like a bug.

Also, the Mayor called out a few councilors, Long and Case. But the funniest text was about "The short one". Now were not supposed to pick on any body type, but most people know who that is, and make no mistake, is the smallest antagonistic one on the council. He's always polite, but argumentative and arrogant. But not in person. 

Right from the start, the old timers who thought John would be Mayor, disliked the fact that a black women, with zero municipal experience got elected. The hard feelings were apparent at the start and continued at almost every opportunity to stand against her. Judy Grove lead the charge, along with "The Short One", Cheryl Stoll, with back-up vocals from Dennis, Charlie and Mike. 

 So my suggestion is to ban texting (like we did at Town Meetings not that it stopped anyone), but now, texts are public documents if your in a public meeting. 

So today the Mayor issued a press release 

On Friday, a local, politically motivated blog posted text messages between the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and me during a City Council meeting. The blog asked me for a statement. I chose not to provide one because the blog entry was meant to embarrass me, and any statement would be subject to the whims and political goals of the blog and its advocates. Instead, I prefer to own my narrative.

At the outset, I want to apologize to the City Council and Framingham residents for my comments on what I thought was a private text exchange.  I also believe it is important to share some of the context with you, which was absent, and what led me to make these remarks.

 A significant part of the texting between the COO and I was a reaction to one Councilor’s criticism of professional City staff, which was inaccurate and unfair. The Councilor in question levied claims against an employee that were patently false. All City employees are going above and beyond to maintain the level of service residents expect while ensuring that Framingham residents stay safe. I feel the need to defend employees against unfounded and false criticism and reserve the right to be disgusted by such inaccuracies. Any boss would do the same for his or her employees if claims were incorrect.

The attempts to publicly embarrass City employees is disgraceful and is something that started with some members of the Council elected prior to the current one and continue now. I have asked the Chair to use his leadership and share concerns about professional staff privately so those concerns can be dealt with appropriately. The public bullying the Council perpetuates comes down to political theater and lacks credibility. This is not leadership.

Additionally, I was reacting to what appeared as a lack of support from other Councilors who did not try to defend our employees. That is frustrating, but it only lasts for a moment, and I move on. However, I use every ounce of this frustration to motivate me to protect Framingham and our employees further.