FRAMINGHAM

Board remains at five selectmen

By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff Correspondent, 11/28/2001

he silent majority raised its voice at Special Town Meeting last night, dealing a conclusive defeat to a law that would have reduced the size of Framingham's Board of Selectmen from five to three.

''Debate is healthy,'' said Town Meeting member Audrey Hall. ''I just don't buy the notion that three people and fewer seats allows the cream of the crop to rise onto the board.''

She was one of many members who spoke passionately against the change, which was sponsored by a group of persistent critics of the board. Some opponents of the change, like Chuck Gerstein, frequently speak on the floor of Town Meeting. Others, like Laurie Jean Carroll, made rare speeches to oppose the measure.

''A board of five gives us a breadth of experience and voices,'' Carroll said. ''We can vote personalities in April.''

Shrinking the board to three members - its size before the Town Manager Act of 1996 expanded it to five - would ''grant too much power to too few people,'' she added.

After a fiery debate, in which speakers against the article outnumbered supporters by a 2-to-1 ratio, Town Meeting voted to defeat the change 59-39.

Sponsors of the article included neighborhood activist Frank Reilly and persistent Framingham administration critics Doug Freeman and Mal Schulze. Reilly, Freeman, and Larry Schmeidler, a leader of the citizens group Framingham Is My Back Yard, or FIMBY, argued to reduce the board's size, saying the change would shorten Board of Selectmen's meetings and make town government more efficient and responsive.

After the vote, Freeman said Town Meeting should have approved the change and sent it to the Legislature, which ultimately would have returned the proposal to Framingham's voters for final approval.

''Town Meeting was swayed by their sentimental attachment to the strong town manager act,'' Freeman said. ''It's regrettable that Town Meeting elected not to allow voters to make the decision.''

Representative Debby Blumer, a Framingham Democrat who would most likely have had to present the change on Beacon Hill if Town Meeting had approved it, sighed with relief when it failed. ''I didn't want to bring that one to the Legislature,'' she said.

For much of the last year, neighborhood activists and administration critics have locked horns with the selectmen and town manager over issues large and small, from what defines the appearance of a conflict of interest to the routes of new water pipes and the location of sewage pumping stations.

The proposal to shrink the board, according to its sponsors, was meant to channel Framingham residents' discontent with their political leadership.

''We felt we were not getting action,'' said Schmeidler, who with the umbrella group FIMBY helped push more than a dozen citizen's articles onto this November Special Town Meeting warrant. ''There's been a lot of discontent this year.''

Many of the Town Meeting members who struggled in 1996 with the question of whether Framingham should adopt a city form of government or remain a town hoped that the overwhelming support that year for a town form of government would put the structural debate to rest and allow officials to focus on other issues.

But, Blumer observed, internal politics have a way of captivating town activists.

''Framingham turns inward on itself instead of reaching out and moving forward,'' she said.

The selectmen themselves said little on the issue, except for board chairman John Kahn, who made brief comments He recalled that prior to 1996, the three-member Board of Selectmen had come under fire at times for secrecy and lack of accountability.

''The notion that less is more is contrary to common sense,'' Kahn said.

Town Meeting members appeared eager to end debate last night and dispatch the question of the board's size.

''It's been a rocky road,'' Hall said. ''There have been some personality conflicts. Maybe it's not as efficient as it could be, but [long debate] is healthy.''

Thanassis Cambanis can be reached at 508-820-4233 or

tcambanis@globe.com.

This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 11/28/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.