Town Council - Regular Meeting

Time being 6:00. I call the February 4th, 2026 town council meeting to order. Please have a moment of silence. Please stand for the pledge of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Note to residents, all citizens are welcome to attend public meetings in person. To view the live meeting remotely, citizens are encouraged to watch the live stream on Franklin Town Hall TV YouTube channel or live broadcast on channel 9 and Verizon 29. To listen to the meeting remotely, citizens may call in using the number 1 1929205 609. To participate in the meeting remotely, citizens may join the Zoom webinar using the information provided below. Meetings are recorded and archived by Franklin TV and Franklin Town Hall TV YouTube channel. and shown on Comcast channel 9 and Verizon channel 29. Any participants who wish to speak during the webinar must enter their full name and email address when joining the webinar. All participants will be automatically muted upon joining the webinar. In order to speak, participants will need to select the raise hand function to request to be unmuted. All speakers will be required to state their full name and street address before commenting. Announcements from the chair. This meeting is being recorded by Franklin TV and shown on Comcast channel 9 and Verizon channel 29. This meeting may be recorded by others. There was nobody remotely and upcoming town events. We do not have any citizens comments. Citizens are welcome to express their

view for up to three minutes on a matter that is not on the agenda. Compliance with chapter 38 section 20, the open meeting law. The council cannot engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during citizens comments. The council may ask the town administrator to review the matter. Nothing hearing shall prevent the town administrator from correcting a misstatement of fact. Saying that, do we have anybody in the audience? Paul,

thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Paul Griffith, Love Sonet Road. I'm the uh school committee chairman. Uh just here to give an update on uh past two meetings. Uh so we did have you we've had two meetings. Uh both focused on the budget. Uh just a lot of things I think we're going to be be able to move forward to you guys soon. Quick updates on that. Uh we approached this year as we have the past couple years from a zero balance budgeting approach. Basically from the ground up everything is is considered as needed instead of saying this is what our budget was previously and trying to add or kind of move around. So we really took from a groundup approach there. U educating roughly 4,300 students each year uh in the Franklin public schools. Uh and we do have a spending rate of roughly $19,000 uh per pupil. That includes actually, you know, all the contributions for the students. And this is in the bottom 23rd percentile for the entire state. That being said, we did vote on and approve a budget from the schools uh with a 2.5% increase to our overall operating budget coming in at $72 million. We'll be excited to discuss that more with you all in the future and also with the FINCOM. Uh and then we also had a separate meeting last night where we voted to move over our healthc care expenses into the centralized town healthcare budget line item of 910. Uh this is something we've actually talked about quite a bit. I know a couple of counselors that have uh been around, we've had these conversations and also members of the fincom where the schools have to this point been the only organization that have healthcare as part of our budget. Uh so this is something that actually in coordination uh between Lucas and Jamie, you know, thanks a lot Jamie for all the efforts there. uh we did move things over uh from our budget onto that singular line item so that now you're looking at whenever you see the line you know our line whenever you see our budget it is just our operating budget in the same exact way that every other organization in town is um you know it was it's been some really great and collaborative conversations kind of across the entire uh town as we've gone through this budget process and I really want to call out that that cooperative nature um I

know it's a lot there's lots of numbers flying around a lot of people involved but there's been there's been some really positive dial dialogue on that front. Uh we do have a hearing on February 10th. Uh so this would be next Tuesday. At that hearing, anyone is able to come, anyone's able to speak, anyone's able to ask questions. It's a little bit unique, especially for the school committee. It's one of the only ones that we have in a given year. Uh so we will be going through the budget line by line. That entire budget will be available as of Friday. So literally every line for everything that we spend, every every uh item that we've got is in there is going to be documented. It's a few hundred pages, some light reading for the weekend for anyone who's interested. Um, and again, I, you know, encourage anyone to to call in anyone either, you know, out in the audience or any of the counselors. And I do specifically want to call out, uh, as actually vice chair Callahan did, uh, at our last meeting, uh, that councelor Morangello, councelor Callaway, Trip, and councelor Griffith, we really appreciate you all coming in and being present for the budget discussion this past week. Uh, we did have an opportunity actually for for councelor Morangello to ask questions. Uh so we we're able to kind of get through and and directly address multiple things for him. So appreciate that and encourage all of you to continue to attend uh when you have opportunities. Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. Is there anybody else in council chambers? Just please state your name and that

Kimmy Chow for Barwood Road. I'm here on behalf of the council of aging. Just so that you guys know and especially because we have Mr. Franklin Ridge over there. Franklin Ridge is actually broken ground. They are having their firstformational session at the senior center um this Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 and it's going to be 2 hours because 1 hour is going to be a presentation. It actually goes down to 62. So people who may be working now may want to know about this. Franklin TV is also taping this um so that we can put it on rotation. This is a great time to find out more about Franklin Ridge. Number one. Number two, ask questions, which I think the number one question will be, if I sell my house, will I qualify to go into Franklin Ridge? [clears throat] And stay tuned. You may be able to find your answer at this meeting. And we just thank the town, the municipal trust, the feds, really the feds and the state in order to actually get the senior um complex.

The other thing is on last last time we had a town council meeting, someone had made a comment that um we don't need senior housing and I wanted to just um address that from my standpoint. I wanted to just let you know that one of the largest growing of the unhoused in the nation are seniors now. And a lot of times it's the senior female whose husband has died and they no longer can afford their house. Our senior center and also I've been at some of the other ones recently, Medway as well have seniors who are unhoused or are in the process of being unhoused. In addition, the Central Mass Housing Alliance actually has opened a senior seasonal support program in Luster in which someone who is pretty much first time they're being unhoused will be able to go there as a shelter and they will help them find a home. I'm also affiliated with Pathways to a Better Life, which is a temporary overnight warming shelter in Milford. On Tuesday, they had their first 70 year old female unhoused come for shelter in this code hate. So for people who believe that we don't need senior housing, we do. Thank you.

Thank you. That's for sure. Is there anybody else? Gino, just state your name and address.

Gino Kuchi one Tony Lane. Um, [clears throat] as president of the Quattro Aeroy Lodge of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, I just want to let you know briefly that uh we are celebrating our 100th anniversary this year and we have a number of events scheduled. First of all, I want to thank the Franklin Historical Museum for agreeing to host an exhibit uh celebrating our our hundredyear history. And that exhibit will be kicked off on April 12th with a presentation by author and historian Stephen Pulio. Uh he if if you're not familiar with him, he wrote a book called Dark Tide about the molasses spill in in uh in the North End. He also wrote a book called The Boston Italians and he's written books on the Civil War, World War II, the Irish famine. His most recent is the great abolitionist Charles Sumner. And uh so he will be available on April 12th at he'll be part of the second Sunday series that the museum has a host a speaker every every second Sunday and he will be available to sign autograph books and he'll have books books for sale. We also will conclude our our celebration with a a dinner in May, a pasta dinner. And um I will come back when we get closer to those event events and bring you more details. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Gina. Is there anybody else?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Bruce Kennedy, DPW director. I want to give you guys a update and the folks at home, we're pretty close to spending our snow budget this year. You might have noticed we had a pretty big one a couple weeks ago. Um, so we're couple hundred,000 short of our $1.4 million allocated budget, which is based on obviously averages through the years. Um the good thing is we do have a stabilization fund that uh was put together a couple years ago about $700,000 that if we go over um for fun facts that was the eighth largest storm that's fallen. I use the Boston area ever um since I've been in Franklin. We've done five of them. Uh the biggest being in uh 2003.

Yeah, you were there. You know, it's bigger than the blizzard. But anyways, um the last storm basically cost us $325,000. I mean, that's when you start thinking about budgets and where it goes and personnel. I mean, that's a substantial number that we have no control over. Um the good news I can say is the weather's looking pretty dry. Not a lot of big storms for the uh next couple of weeks. So, hopefully make through it. [laughter] And I will say doing this for a long time when it's this cold out and I know it's miserable cuz I can't stand it like I'm sure we all do, but the air doesn't hold a lot of moisture. So when it's cold, we're we're doing okay. So I just want to put out there so no one's surprised.

Thank you. Thank you. It doesn't melt and freeze at night and have black ice. I know. And there's a salt shortage now, too. Go figure. Everybody's getting it. But we're okay. We got enough down there, so we're good. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Paris. Is there anybody else out there? Zoom. Zoom. Nope. No one on Zoom. Nobody on Zoom. Okay, that was quick. All right. Next item on the agenda is uh approval of minutes. I will obtain a motion for the minutes on December 17th, 2025. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for December 17th, 2025.

Second. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passed. Okay. Proclamation and recognitions, we have none. Appointments, we have none. Public hearings, we have none. License transaction, none. We have none. Presentation and discussion. Discussion on 2026 27 town council town administrative goals. We'll start off with Jamie.

Yeah. So through you, Mr. Chairman. Uh my remarks are pretty short. Um just for the folks at home, there's a list provided in the packet um that reflects I think some of the issues from the last council that are on the front burner in addition to a handful of things I think this council has already talked about like the ad hoc charter subcommittee um and a few other items. So um this is really up to the council how you want to develop a list. Um, you know, I assume if you if you you know, get done with the list tonight, that's great. Um, but I think, um, you know, everybody should just be able to put out there what ideas they have and, um, you know, we'll try to work, uh, with you on whether some of these things are feasible, whether we have the bandwidth and the money for them, uh, whether we prospectively might or might not. Um, I I did invite some of the department heads that u might be impacted by some of these. So, if folks have questions, some of the department heads here to um, they answer questions. So um and that's it for a nutshell. I did include by the way and the the second item um on the agenda is not really an item. Um there was some conversation about a strategic planning exercise which is really more of a vision uh values and kind of uh purpose driven exercise. Um the town does not have to do this. Uh the town of Westford just did one. and the town of Rethm is actually presented their final report last night. Um, and so a lot of communities go through these exercises in times of division or differences of opinions. Um, obviously bandwidth and money is at a is at a premium. Some decisions are going to be have to be made in the next five years. We're obviously not going to be able to do a lot of stuff that the public wants us to do. Um and so a strategic planning exercise uh is something as you can see in the westward and rent the materials is something to try to elevate everybody up a little higher out of the weeds and out of the minutia and discuss a little bit more

comprehensively who are we as a community what is the identity what are our shared values um in talking to a lot of department heads yesterday we had a department heads meeting um and I'll tell you one of the uh consensus issues we talked about was um there is a lot more all of you and the school committee and the other boards in town. There's a lot more that everybody has in common in this community than does not. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Um but I also understand it can be timeconuming for three, four, five, six months. Um but it's really an exercise to try to bring the community together, bring the elected officials together, bring the staff together to try to find a common purpose um in times that are tough and challenging [snorts] that we're all going through whether nationally or locally. So, um, I didn't have that in here, just so you know, Mr. Chairman, as a separate discussion item. Folks can talk about it if they want. It was just there as illustrative examples of other communities that have just recently done it. It was just to share some materials. So, um, this is not something we have to do. Um, the council can decide to take that off. Um, but, um, the superintendent and I have talked about this for the last couple months. Um, we actually did interviews with a couple of consultants who do this, one of which did the Rentham um, project over the last several months. Um, and I will share that we both feel like if there was if there was the desire of the school committee and the council to do something like that, it could be it could be. We don't know for sure, but it could be something um, that could be an exercise to bring people together to realize that I think we all have a lot more in common than whatot. So, I just throw that out there as well. So appreciate the introduction and um and certainly however you want to proceed with the goals list it's up to the council.

So would you rather just go through the councils and you guys want to list your goals or do you want us to read the goals? Y uh through you Mr. Chairman I don't think there's a need to read them. I mean I think we've all kind of reviewed them. Yeah. [clears throat] I think in the write up and the preparation that Jamie prepared, there was discussion around we don't have to decide this tonight, right? No. Um,

and I take your point around the use of a consultants. I'd like to hear other counselor's comments. I mean, my my opinion is that it'd be nice to have, but I'm not so sure we can justify the cost of it or the time for it. Um, and I think the goals that were presented, some of them I would kind of view as I don't know that I'd call them goals, but certainly the jobs that need to get done and the tasks that need to happen to kind of run the town for the next year or two. I might favor some liaison group of the council um to to kind of get feedback from all of us to kind of build out something a little more comprehensive. We obviously can't discuss it in in in a large group in detail, but I think if we had the chance to kind of offer up our own thoughts on this and consolidate it, um work with Jamie and his team to kind of bring that together with the idea in mind that we'd all have a chance to review that, digest it, think about it, and be in a better position, say March 4th,

to kind of finalize on most, if not all, of what the direction should be. At least at least be able to put them together. you know, if we can get them done, we can get them done. I mean, in the past, we have put out a lot of goals and unfortunately, we couldn't do a lot of them either, right? You you know, unfortunately, uh I wish I could do them all. I pretty sure every counselor in here would want to do them all, too. And that's kind of behind my thought on that a little bit is as I look at that list, it's all good stuff. Um, but I think we need some fewer higher level overarching kinds of uh priorities, a good word for it,

like what we want to do with budget, what we want to do with economic development, what we want to do with communications,

what we want to do with I think I had one other maybe just governance in terms of you know uh potential charter. So I think we could benefit by the time of it. this is a good primer to get us thinking about what's been done and refine our thinking around what we want to do. But that would be my thought is to kind of take that approach. I I kind of agree with the uh the committee. That way we'd come back with I think a more general variety of knowing what you know what could go by and what couldn't go you know right whatever we can it's a longterm discussion not a long term but within the it's not a one night thing is that that's right that's my yeah [clears throat] I agree

I have to agree with Steve I think it'd be good if if we got input from everyone and that list could get synthesized and we could take take a look at it kind of narrow it and then we can, you know, work out of this. The one thing I would add to that, I I because I I I do agree with to your point, not on anything at all. Um, you know, and and there's a benefit to having a subset of of us working on it, but I'm

so in the news over the past week, you know, there's been some announcements of of uh things that are going to impact Franklin. Yeah. I mean, you know, Therma Fischer with their layoffs, Panera with with their layoffs. Um, and it just got me thinking about two things. Um, you know, one is just more our, you know, our uh our subcommittees and are we thinking about economic development and how do we about that? But also just, you know, taking a step back in our need to have discussions about our strategic goals. So uh you know we can do that a as a team and kind of you to your point these you what are our what are the princ what are our core principles what you know what are what are our our strategic goals what do we what do we want to make [cough and clears throat] sure that we are you know protecting preserving and aiming for

but then we also likely need to make that effective and impactful you know we'll all everyone's going to a couple things we're going to need it's going to need to be us and likely the school committee just be because of where how budgets get spent in this town um but We likely will need a third party to help us take those principles [clears throat] and you actually make an action plan like out of it. It's I I I wish I I I want us to be I would love for us to be able to do that without anyone else, but there are people who in theory are are should be experts at leading these types of conversations and helping us think about the things that we're otherwise missing. And I I worry if we try and do it all ourselves

going to slip away. We're going to slip away. Yeah. No, I agree with it. I agree. I

So there's an opportunity for us to maybe we can probably start thinking through what what the core principles are, but if we want to be successful, I mean, in the long run as as a council and just, you know, really supporting the town, we really do it's important for us to think longer term. What is what is our plan? What is our strategy? so that we're not we don't find ourselves in a position two years from now where you know we haven't made enough progress and everyone's realizing oh wait we need more money for DPW and police and fire and schools and you know and we need we we need to make a better plan you know at least be more transparent about our core goals our core principles and how we're going to look to accomplish them and and I I guess I'm saying I agree 100% with with the idea that there's no way we can line up on all the goals today.

No, I but you know and I also agree that we need to kind of pull you know make some decisions ourselves and we can we can get that conversation get that discussion started between ourselves and the school committee. But to make it impactful and make it effective, we're going to likely need some third party help, which I don't want to pay for. I don't know that anyone does. But I but I do think we want we want this town to be successful and this that may be what we require. Are you talking about having a facilitator? Yeah. Something like and and you know you may know better like others may know better than I who exactly could do that but I do know that there are folks who are trained in that regard.

Yeah. I don't What do you think Jamie? So couple this is great and I I I don't want to intervene actually but I will on this. Um so um Uh Lucas, I met with a there's two different consultants that are in the packet. To council Juka's point, there are trained facilitators. I think corporate agencies use these folks, too. Um

you wouldn't there was a capital account that was approved by the council for marketing, branding, and phasing. You got you the two of you remember that. And after the the marketing project got a little controversial, we basically postponed that. And I think councelor Deloro and councelor Cormier legend know that um if you were to do a third party, it wouldn't cost your operating budget any money and you wouldn't have to spend any more free cash. You would just use the excess of that account to draw that down with the remaining balance that's there and be able to use this. And quite frankly, given where we're at as a community, I think it'd be money much more well spent, especially with a new council and a new school committee. It's the middle of the decade. You kind of got five years outlook. you're going to get a five-year fiscal forecast next week. Um, if you were going to do something like this, now is definitely the time to do it. Um, if you do wait a couple years, you could still do it. But I think given the tenor in town around development and everything, I think the town really is at a crossroads on a lot of these issues. I just want to assure you it wouldn't cost the town any money. You wouldn't have to vote for any appropriations. Um, we could just draw down that account and pay for it. Um, Rentham was 15,000.

Just to clarify, it wouldn't cost the town any money that's not already allocated. That's not already allocated, right? But it wouldn't be somebody that did that, right? So, Rentham paid 15,000. I do think this would cost more because Rentham did not include the schools. So, if you just double that and Lucas and I have both talked about interviewing each principal, like getting into what they call, I think, the A team, they may call it something different like your department heads, right? The athletic director, technology director. Um and then obviously all of you and probably many of the other boards and committees. Uh but I just wanted to assure you on the finances it wouldn't it wouldn't impact the operating budget right now. Uh Jamie, just one question. You said we'd have to double it and we have that money. Yes.

Okay. I just just for for everybody to know that we do have that money. Does Yeah. I was just going to go right down the line. Do you want to skip me then? No. No. [laughter] Well, I'll be fast because I had two pages of notes and everyone just said exactly what I wanted to say. Um, which was I thought that the the um especially actually the random one. I thought that um vision the plan was wonderful. Um, and I think that's something really critical for us, but I was very worried about the money. I didn't want to

pull out 15 to $35,000 and tell the town, you know, hey, we're going to spend this on a consultant to come and talk to us about our goals. I wanted to see that be done in-house, but knowing that we have the money in the marketing and branding account already, which um as Jamie knows, I was already going to object to because I know that is one of the goals and I was going to say I feel like that is something we can scratch off the goals list already because that's going to be far too expensive and not something that's necessary for the next couple of years. But so knowing that we can repurpose that money repurposes for yeah something like this. Um I think that's I I would love to see us do that

because I think that we do need to bring in schools the other boards and committees for the town and finance. Yes. And get everyone aligned. Make sure that we have all the voices at the table um to figure out, you know, where it is what we want to go and build our goals off of that. So, my two pages of notes very quickly put and I'm done. No problem. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, I think we're we're we're words smithing a little bit here. I think council goals is a little bit different than long-term vision, long-term planning, long-term, you know, what we want for the town over the next five years. So, I think we have to be maybe a little bit careful how we talk about that stuff because Jamie's outlines here in the packet and we're already late because it's February, right? Normally, council goals would be set by now. So I already feel a little anxious that we don't have necessarily our direction for this year and more importantly our staff don't have the concrete direction that they need and deserve for this year. So I from my point having sat here for a few years now I think the council goals as outlined by the town administrator are a great place to start because it gives direction and it gives focus things can always be revisited but I do think the longer term plan with the consultants and looking at five-year fiscal forecast looking hearing from department heads involving the schools involving other committees is really kind of rolling our sleeves up and figuring out who are we as a community and where do we want to go. I think that's all really important and glad to hear we still have money in that marketing account to cover it because that will be I think a little bit more digestible for the public to be able to understand where this is getting paid for. I don't think we can do it ourselves. I think having a third party to lead that and and potentially sort of mitigate any conflicts, right? Or any like you know the this gets this stuff can get emotional and people can get

like you know protective of their space and protective of their stuff and having someone that's trained in how [clears throat] to deescalate those things and move things forward I think is really important. Um, so I would be in favor because we've set aside the time tonight to at least approve some goals for this council and the staff for now and uh with one of the objectives being the long-term plan and um I just don't want to see us kick the can more and more and more down the line about well we don't know what we want to do because I think that just leaves everybody in limbo. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Blank,

uh, Council Cormier Ledger said exactly what I wanted to say. We do need a set of goals that is short-term. When I say short-term, 26, whatever, whatever year we're in, I can't remember. Um, yeah, 26, the rest of 26 and and 27. So, I guess the only question I was have for you to, uh, Mr. Chairman, to Jamie, is is this list of three pages, is this too daunting a list for you and the staff? I guess because ultimately this is the list. This is is it too many things on this list? You made it. So

there are not there are not too many things on this list. And the reason why is I think to councelor Malloy's point some of this like the Beaver Street interceptor is not going to be things you're going to be dealing with until the closeout. So some of these are very very limited time but we have to finish the project under budget on time, right? So they are a big deal.

Um this is not a daunting list um that's here. Um, and I did that intentionally because this is the stuff that was on the burner. Um, also some of the stuff you all had mentioned that we agreed to. And then I figured tonight you guys would have a lot more input um, to share in there and notably on economic development and some of those issues. This has been a transitionary time where Mr. Tabern retired a year ago. Um, it took us six months to get Marina uh, on board. Amy Fidietti um did the economic development before and I did it as deputy town manager before her. So we really don't have anything on that. So it's an open discussion for that topic and I know there's some master plan elements in there but as written right here I don't think that this is a daunting list. And the last quick thing I'll say is obviously the finance section is mostly stuff that's just in process that we do. But as you'll as you probably have already figured out, if not you will, um, you know, a really solid half of your meetings at some point this year involve finance and probably a third to half of them will be all finance. Next week will be all finance. The actuarial and the uh, audit presentations is like almost an entire meeting, right? So when you add that up, that's already baked into your schedule. So, um, you know, I think that section probably will be more time than what's written here, but this is not a daunting list for us to accomplish.

Okay. Um, and to your point on the economic development stuff, I mean, there's everyone knows that's a kind of a passion. It's one of the reasons why I'm I'm sitting here is I want to try and find a way to do economic development. While there's not a lot here that I'm I'm I am confident that that subcommittee or liaison or whatever wherever we land will come out with much more detail, but as long as it's addressed. The only other thing I would say from a finance perspective is I would like there and and and I think this you said Jamie this year was the first year we did a six-year capital plan. I don't think we've ever is this the first year we did a six year.

We've done um yes and no. We do have a 10-year for facilities and there are like technology as a 10-year. Okay. But we did look out six years and we're trying to build that out to really have everybody have a 10ear. So we did take a step forward from a basic fiveyear. The charter requires the fiveyear by the way. Okay. So this is the first year we've done six and we hope next year it'll basically be look at a 10-year plan. Okay. I guess that that then you answered my question, which is I'd like that to be one of the goals that we get to a 10-year capital plan um by this time next year. I would like to have that be one of the goals. And again, it's it's it lands on your plate. [laughter] So, I just want to make sure that's actually their

Yeah, it lands on their plate. Yes, I understand that. We're not doing [laughter] they're doing it. I just just a shout out to the bleachers in the back. Yes. piece of those. But that's that'd be the only change I have to this list. But I I like [laughter] we have to have a list and this would be our list. So thank you. I'm all set. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, strategic planning is something I've been passionate about for a while. Been bugging Jamie for a while on it. I actually took a class in my intro to public administration class at Bridgewater. I had Dr. Luenberger. She made me make a strategic plan for my life. And so I actually had to uh I actually had to make a mission statement. I had to do a SWAT analysis on my p persona and uh it was actually very useful exercise and I it really helped me a lot. Um but it really is not something that's very simple. You really have to have someone external because you have a lot of blind spots to be able to do it. Uh so I'm full support of uh doing a strategic plan, but I also want to make sure we pass a set of goals tonight. I don't want to kick the can down the road. This is why we're here and it's already February. Uh so I'm just going to dive right into it. I did work on uh I did put out a ser unscientific poll for people. We had 150 responses. Um and just keep in mind you know I have to keep in count um you know both what's popular but also people might be underrepresented as well who might not have taken the time to fill out a poll because they're busy working two jobs etc etc. So the first job is in that vein is um I was wondering if we could uh get a fixed bus route for DATRA in addition to the uh current um on demand service. Um the other one I I mean the biggest thing I was hearing I think we had like um 89 people who talked about the the desire for sort of um more objectivity in the budget process. And so I have some language here. I did send it to Ted. Zoe has it. Um, but I'm just going to read it out loud. Um, starting in FY2028, TA recommended budget funding for uh, departments with 10 FTEEs or more shall be based on and justified by an objective data-driven budget narrative analysis, including how much services are used, cost per use, and efficiency ratios, what factors drive costs up or

down, what higher or lower funding would mean for service levels, why the funding level makes sense versus other major departments given overall all budget constraints and how Franklin's metric metrics compare to at least three comparable communities with a written rationale for selecting what what makes a community comparable that eliminates selection bias. I just think we already do a budget narrative. It's already there. Most of the stuff's already in there. I just want to make sure that when people read the budget narrative, they know why things are funded the way they are. And so I think this would go a long way to making people feel like there's tr more trust and transparency. It doesn't single out any department other than maybe the smaller ones because I don't think you know we start with you know 10 or more FTEES is is that and this is a negotiation so I'm willing to amend you know is that something that is amicable to you Jamie

or Mr. Uh, I can't It's okay. Call me Jamie. Um, I'd have to get the language. That was a lot. Um,

I mean, it's not a bad goal. I mean, we can add it on there and we can talk through the next couple years about what, you know, I will be honest. I'm trying to decipher what all that means. I mean, I think I think part of the inconvenient truth, if I can do my Al Gore skit for a moment, is is there's just like we can analyze this stuff until we then spend more money analyzing it than what we have in the coffers. I think as you'll see in my memo next week, and I think as you'll see in the, you know, 80% of our costs are pretty baked. You know, NATIC has 39 librarians, we have 13. um you know so I think if you're saying 10 or more I would argue you shouldn't have any FTE requirement. Okay.

Right. I would say I would say this year uh y'all are going to learn the budget hopefully really well

and you're going to be very hard to find a lot of dollars in there that don't have a stakeholder behind of it. Um like we frequently hear from the schools. I think I think before healthcare I mean with healthcare in their budget I think 88% of their budget is staff salaries. So at some point a majority of our budget's staff and I think we all know from different ways we've talked about it before that you hear from the police chief or whatever people feel underststaffed and overworked. So I I don't know how much an analysis on that is going to is going to I don't know what we're going to unearth but I don't think the goal is bad. I think you should include some sort of goal like that. Um, I would just that was a lot to to digest in one paragraph. So, I just if you send me the language I will what we can do is both on the Gatra route and on the budget. Just send me the language. I'll add it to the list and then when we come back on March 4th, we'll take a look at all that language and and just see how the group feels.

Okay. So, we're actually having a second meeting on March 4th. Well, I mean, there was no legislation for action tonight. I think some of you have different views on this, too. I think just getting a list of what you're hearing from the community, what your priorities are, I think is important. Um, you've got a whole budget meeting next week that's going to that's going to give you a very strong indication of what your bandwidth is. Setting goals tonight and then next week realizing that you have no money to do them is not going to be constructive. Um, I appreciate the support from everybody in strategic planning. I do think a third party will help. Um, but I I don't have a problem with that goal at Paul, I would just amend it to be to to do every department, not just the FTE.

That's I I was just trying to make it easier for you, but that actually is better. Well, the 10 FTEEs is like seven departments, right? Almost every department is under 10 FTEEs except for the big five or six, right? Schools, fire, police, DPW, facilities, library. Sorry, I think that's it. Oh, senior. No, you don't have 10 people. Um Ryan's got 400, but they're all work two hours a week. I don't know. Uh sorry. So I do have a few more. Yeah. Nobody that's like six departments. So I think um

it's fair if you if you're if you're willing to do you know the analysis and base their funding based on that analysis for the most part you know that's that I think would go a long way toward allaying people's concerns and feelings about you know different departments getting X or Z Y or Z. They know that this is this was done impartially and that that's why the money is going the way where it is at least in the and then the council could amend it. They could still amend it, but this is just for the TA recommended budget. And then finally, most of this is collective bargaining, right? So a lot of this stuff is contractual. I mean, there's only so much you can do. So, but anyways, I I think that that goal goes consistent with I think everybody's objectives on the budget this year is to try to dig in deep and see exactly what's going on.

I did have a few more things for you. Uh I mean a lot of these things on the survey were pulled from the master plan. Uh one of them was dedicating um CPA. We talked about the the new affordable housing development from the trust affordable housing trust. One of them is to allocate annual CPA contributions to that trust so we have more projects. CPA to what? Uh the affordable housing trust. Oh the trust.

Yeah. Um the next one is pursuing uh do d o eer climate leader designation. Uh composting was a really popular one. Um you there was a mo uh language in here for the goal around um uh strategy to prov prioritize and finance town infrastructure. And to the end of that it's says and open spacing and recreation I want to add with a specific emphasis on traffic calming measures y

improvement at key intersections annual accessibility off audits and ADA compliance improvements and some of that's federally required. Um, and the final thing, this is it, I promise. Um, I noticed we have a lot of plans that like, you know, we have the affordable housing plan, we have the strategic plan, the master plan, the mission, and I wanted to eventually maybe, you know, add in a mission values in the future. Not doesn't have to be this cycle, but but I I think we should have a 10-year cycle that so we know this in year one, we do this, year two, we do that, year three, and every 10 years it repeats. So, we don't get caught off guard. Oh my god, we have all these plans to do it once. Um, and I'd like to add to that. Oh, I realized why. I realized I had ADA twice, but ADA transition plan is one, housing production plan, facilities assessment, capital improvement, anything that's regularly occurring. Just putting it on a list and saying, "Okay, this is when it's due.

You're going to send me an email with I will. Thanks." That's it. That's all I yield. Okay. Are we true?

Thanks. Um, I agree with pretty much what was said down that side and I also agree with what was said down this side. So, um, I do think we need to set something like Ted said because everyone needs a direction otherwise we're all just sitting here twiddling our thumbs and next thing you know it's June and nothing's been accomplished. I don't have a problem with setting some of these goals as like a sixmonth type thing to get something set with direction, but I do think that we need to organize them in form of priorities. I also agree with having a liaison because I do believe with the amount of people I've spoken to, we all do want the same thing. We just all have different ideas of how to get there. And sometimes when you look at the ideas, the direction is actually the same direction, but the way one person is explaining it versus the other person, no one's stopping to listen truly to what's being said because they're so like, "No, this has to be the way."

I know I'm one of those people. I get very headstrong and I'll be the first to admit it. So I ask people, prove me wrong. If you can prove me wrong, I'll be absolutely no problem to say, okay. But I think having that middle person would be able to specify. My question would be my only two goals is to bring the town together honestly and make sure this budget is something that's going to be sustainable. That is what I care about. Um that is why I ran. If we did this type of a thing and we had a liaison come in, would there ever be an opportunity to have it as a public meeting where residents could come to the microphone and speak with the liaison present so the liaison can also hear what the residents have to say not just what was done in this survey because like I understand the survey but I also when I looked at the survey and I had asked when we were doing it some of the answers could be construed differently than how you did when you answered them. So, um I think it's important to also have people feel like they can come up to the microphone to that liaison and say, "This is what we want." Because that person could say, "Well, you know what? That's exactly what they're trying to do. You're just you're just looking at it in different aspects. if we really want to bring the town in, we should incorporate an open meeting to allow them to communicate

um with that person.

Yeah, I think uh through you, Mr. Chairman, I think I appreciate that, Council Tower trip. So yes, um if people are behind the strategic planning third party idea, you know, we could have them come in after you set your short-term goals, right? [cough] To constantly I think everybody's point if you have the two-year goals, you at least have a sketch, right? And while the community is going through a process for several months, we can still get some of these goals done. I mean, they're going to happen anyways just by the nature of meetings. Um there'll be a public portion to it. I'm giving you a very high level scenario. What they do is they do questionnaires to the department heads, some of the town boards like council and aging library, the school department principles. They'll do internal interviews for a while. Then they come in public and all of these strategic planning um meetings are generally done in public. Um and I'm sure there's a portion that we can bake in like one meeting or an hour a meeting over two meetings or whatever. We could put that in the contract to say the consultant will have a couple of public meetings. They may also do public meetings without any of you. They could do them two of them at night and there's no elected officials in the room. Um there so some of that is intended to get the town hall out of the way,

right? The politics, let's be real. Yeah.

Um, you know, the social media politics, the trolling and stuff, and they just go to another place like the library or the DPW facility room and they just invite residents in or other boards. So, there's a lot of flexibility in how we can do this. Um, it really is customizable, too. If you guys want to do several public sessions, absolutely. Obviously, the the price will go up, but I'm just saying we can do it in a variety of ways. Um, and if you want an intro to this and you really want to do this, I would recommend doing that in in the Feb in the March meeting when you do vote on your final list of goals and get an idea from the consultant how this process unfolds a little bit and and give him or them your feedback and say, "We we'd like you to do some sessions with the public without us. We'd like you to do one here and you guys can all chip in and and and they'll customize it pretty much." Um, Westford and Rentham did not use the same p consultant team and they didn't use the same process because their needs were different. So, um, and by complete coincidence, I appreciate councelor Griffith's acknowledgement of Rentham because that was the consultant group that the superintendent also had chosen. So, I think there was some synergy there. They're also local. They're local to this area. Um, and so they understand the geography. So, I was glad to hear that that one stuck out to you. So, and I think that we definitely should do it. And it's my personal opinion is that we do need to work it where residents are involved because if we really want to bridge this divide, then they have to be included. And if we want them to trust, they have to be included. If we just do it and then we make the decisions, they're going to felt like they weren't listened to or heard and we're going to be sitting exactly where we are now, next year, and the year after. So I think that we should definitely look and see how we can work that in.

Okay, great. Absolutely. And I yield.

So I Yeah, I I was kind of a little bit all over the place on this as far as confused with it because I think in my opinion, we're mixing terms between goals and objectives. And what I see here is a is a lot of objectives. Objectives are short-term and measurable. goals, at least in in the way I've seen this done. Well, there's usually, you know, set a mission statement and then there's a a finite small set of goals which are high level. They're lofty, but they're kind of the north star. They're setting your direction on where you want to go. You want um fiscal put us on a path of fiscal stability. Okay. And then what are the objectives you can do say in year one to kind of get you onto that? And then we we develop those going down the path. But I think the first thing you have to do is we have to agree at least at a high level on what those core goals will be. So we talk about goals. I'm talking about something much more lofty. Um I you know talked to Caroline about you know where we potentially want to take the schools or how we want to see maybe we want to see schools improve over the next five years. Um you mentioned your basically two goals which are very high level right? Um, and so that's the way I see the exercise. And I I definitely agree with with working with a third party on the strategic plan uh for the town. But I I think, you know, we also let's get our language, I think, right, as far as, you know, what things are going to be goals and what things are objectives. And I absolutely believe that, you know, a lot of what you have here, you know, they definitely need to be done. These are um objectives that need to be done and those are like I said more short-term finite measurable but they should fit into what that overall goal is supposed you know is the north star now is how we're we're traveling. So that's that's my

No, I I I totally agree. Uh to be honest with you and council me allegedly just leaned over to me and said this is a lot less lot these go this list of goals is nothing compared to what we had before. And I think what we did before we throw all these goals out there and then it got just too much. You you know what I mean? It was just and then nothing got done. Pretty much a lot actually. Yeah. Well, we did we got a lot done, but it didn't look like we did because we had so much.

You know what I mean? So, so um but yeah. Uh so, Jamie, should we just should the councils email you with other goals or Yeah, I I think I I

I hope somebody brought one. I know my council blank bought the 10-year capital plan. Max had six or seven. Um, you know, you don't have to do it tonight. You can send me an email. I'll compile them into one document. I'll edit this uh draft that's already out there and then on March 4th, if you're amenable, we can invite in one of the consulting firms. We'll do this first, obviously. Um, but I can add them all in there. You can have a discussion and and whittle them down. I I um you know I I do think um what's here is digestible. Um but if there's other some if there's other goals that folks have I mean we we probably still will have some bandwidth to do some stuff. So if people have initiatives they want to try like you know Max a good example is

come up with more well I know you [laughter] but like the fixed bus route you know I mean we've had that vision for many years um of a 140 fixed bus route that's going from Franklin country club all the way to Gerellic back and forth stopping off I mean that's really where you're going to get a lot of yield from public transportation we've struggled to finance that right there's a cost to that we've been working with Gatra on that we've tried to find some solutions that's an excellent goal I think that was in the master plan as well. But to me, that's a great goal and objective and that's a great example, I think, of the stuff that, you know, I would ask all of you to send me or or comment tonight.

Um, you know, on some of that stuff you'd like to see. Um, and also I would the last thing I'll mention is there's going to be goals that come up in October, right? I mean, you guys know I mean there's just stuff that comes up that you don't see coming that we can't anticipate. um there's just going to be other things that will arrive and there's going to be other community priorities that will come to all of you too based on what's going on in DC or the state or or locally. Um I think we usually do a year check-in. Um so we'll do a midway report and I think that's where last year I think you guys dropped like about a dozen goals that were not affordable. We left them on but um

well that's what I was going to say but we dropped them but we for all intents and purposes. Yeah we we weren't able to finance them. Um I will say some of the climate stuff is going to be hard about a climate leader. We had that last year. Um you know a few of these are going to be challenging and I think we'll talk about that on March 4th. We I'll circle back with the team and see you know how much money does it take to become a DOER climate leader certificate. Right. Um, so so do you think you could get uh the the people to come in March 4th? I I'll I'll definitely call them. Yeah, I'll call them tomorrow and see and they can give you an idea of what this looks like and then the council can make a decision whether forward or not. And I'll invite the superintendent, too, to make sure he's here as well.

I think that would be very helpful. At least we'll know which uh direction, you know, if they they help us. I don't know how everybody else thinks, but um I think it'll define a lot of who you are now as a community. I think there's a lot of concerns about affordability. There's a lot of concerns about, you know, people moving to town, people leaving town. You know, I think there's a lot of that. And the last thing I'll really say on this is we're um we did meet with the school committee chairman this week uh with the superintendent and we did agree that uh when Desi comes here the state education agency on March 18th

uh the superintendent uh Chair Deloro Chair Griffith and I are going to try to figure out after that presentation maybe there's some other work we can do while the school committee is already here for that presentation. So maybe this maybe this flows kind of nicely for the next month or so while um while the team's put the budget together. Yeah, that was a great meeting. We it was we got a lot of conflict back there. Can I just ask one question? Sure. Um if we get the people to the leazison to come in and do a meeting and I know you said you're going to invite um superintendent. Can we also invite the school committee because they should also be part of that whole presentation and discussion because we're going to work together. We need to be starting at the beginning. That's right. To avoid opening.

That's right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They'll have to post. Yes. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. No, go ahead, Steve.

Steve Sherlock, 13 Magnolia Drive, community director, Franklin Mattis, Franklin Public Radio. Um, yes, to clarify because I did have that sidebar, having participated in the school committee meetings, it is their plan to have a meeting scheduled for March 18th. So there's no issue with open meeting law to have the joint meeting for the two of you. Secondly, I'd also remind you and I appreciate the terminology because terminology is key and if you think back on what a consultant would do, consultant as a liaison facilitator that's been done a number of times and thereby the open space planning had community input. A whole number of comments were put in that and they're still in the dock. master plan had the same thing. Whole bunch of community input is in that doc. The housing plan had a similar process. So to the extent that people are sitting here and not just you and saying we don't have a direction, we don't have a plan. The master plan is designed for 10 years. Housing production plan is designed for the future. We're not recognizing what's already been done. So the facilitator, I think, can start with those pieces. make it a quick and easy discussion to get to the prioritization and then add the finance layer because respectfully some things are going to be possible some things as much as we want gatra unless we get some money where's that going to come from right so I agree with the direction terminology is going to be key because the next thing you're going to do is going to have to be really engaging with the community because there's a number of folks saying master plan while it got a whole lot of input didn't get enough respectfully and in order to get away from the divide we need to get everybody together. So terminology is going to be key. How are you going to get people to

look at the goals and objectives that are already in the master plan, already in the housing dock, already in the other places to get together to go forward. That is your number one objective. I think that's why you got voted in to do this. And just a quick plug, we're here for TV and radio to help you do that. Thank [laughter] you. Thank you, Steve. That's one of my goals is communication. So, it's already good.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark Mini Kelly, 31 Longfellow Drive. Um, good evening, counselors. Um, I was thinking about the uh the facilitator and um and Jamie uh we have so many professionals here in Franklin. I wonder if we could do a quick reach out to the community. Maybe save a few tens of thousands of dollars. There might be somebody from our own community that would volunteer their time to facilitate a session uh an exercise like that. So, um it's just a suggestion to maybe avoid some spend even though it's available to us. Uh if we can get somebody from our own community to help facilitate that would be great. I also wanted to uh advocate for um that not the Gatra bus. Um I realize it was on the last session's agenda for a couple of years and didn't make much progress, but we've got we got a new team um this year. Uh I hate to I'd hate to remove things that we think are valuable because we think they're difficult. So uh the Gatra bus I would love to see that left on uh the agenda. I'd also love to see uh the climate leader community uh goal left on again as well. I know that was another one that was not achieved uh during the last session. Uh but I also believe it's valuable. uh it can it actually uh if Franklin were to achieve that status with the state, it would enable us to um vive for grants that that otherwise we would not be eligible to receive. So, uh I I think it's really worth uh trying again even though we weren't successful the first time around. Thank you.

Thank you. Um yeah, I the gastra thing is we I would love to love to get it, but I know that Money's really really tight in transportation. I mean, it's in the state. You know what I mean? [clears throat] From what I'm hearing, you know, could we realize could you use advertising dollars to raise money for the gatust for example? That would be a legal question. I don't know. Well, somebody has to then go do that work, right? I think I think behind every idea is, you know,

a lot of work. Not that we're I I just want to and I know Mark wasn't mentioning this, you know, we're not shy from doing things that are hard. In fact, we I think as an organization lean into the harder things. Um but I think as you'll see next week in the budget model, you know, there's some pretty some pretty there's some pretty hard choices coming up. Um and until that gets to a sustainable place, you know, there will be the grand ideas. We actually have made a lot of progress on the Gatra bus route, not from moving it to the place of being able to get the money to do it, but from realizing where we can't. And a lot of that in Gatra is subsidized, I think, to your point, from the state government. Um, so we'll have to see how the state budget comes out on this stuff, too. But,

um, you know, but that I I still love the long-term vision of it. I think it's still something that's very highly supported in the community. I think it would make a huge difference. I mean, everybody complains about traffic, but really if you had a bus route on 140 going back and forth for, you know, eight hours a day, errands, and a lot of things could get done, you know, um, but, you know, obviously that's a long-term goal, but eight years ago, we had long-term goals and we got them done. So, you got to start somewhere. So, I I agree with Mark on a lot of that. I just want to manage expectations a little bit. And I think next week, you'll you'll see why. Somebody that worked on buses for 24 years.

That's true. You You're on the T. Yeah. So, all right. So, so we, so from what we have is everyone's going to email Jamie with the rest of the goals and then we'll go forward from there. Sure. You know, and then you got a couple weeks. So, you know, sometime before maybe school vacation. Um, do we want to talk about the subcommittee? Yeah, that's what I that's what I just want to say because I think we should. I think we should go ahead. That's and just email him individually. Do not copy everybody else. Right. I think we pretty much we pretty much all got that. So

So um put a small group together. I would say we put a small group together. That that's legal. Then you got to post a meeting. No, we do. How small? I mean I don't know. I'm just send an email. Just send me an email with what you want. Like it's just a quick email. Like just Max already did it. [laughter] Just All right. Why don't we do the Yeah. Then we have we have to post a meeting. Then you got to post a meeting. You got to point a subcommittee. It just becomes bureaucratic. Yeah. You know, and stuff like even if it's not If you want to start a subcommittee, you can vote to do it, but I I just think Well, I Yeah, I was just thinking we didn't have a It doesn't matter. We still have You have three people. You're going to have to do it.

Yeah, we still have to do it. So, Mr. Thank you. I know. I I already spoke, but I wanted to uh Mr. Sherlock and Mr. Minelli kind of stole exactly what I was thinking. I think it's very important, Jamie, that we tell the consultants that we have these plans already in place and we'd like to build on them, right? as opposed to starting from scratch. Like the

a ton of work, a ton of money has gone into those, community input has gone into those those documents are launching points, right? Um my other point that I think it'd be important to you, Jamie, is to say to your department heads that it's okay to dream a little, right? That it's okay to come to you with an idea even if right now we don't have the money, right? Because the last thing that we want, at least the last, I should say, the last thing that I want is for everybody to feel hopeless because that can get depressing quick. That's

right. Like people still need to feel like, okay, I I run this department. I've been here forever. I know this is needed. I still want to advocate for it. It might be on the dream list, but I want to still be able to put it out there and have it be in writing and have the community get behind it. We've talked about a community art center, for example, forever, ever since I moved here, right, 10 years ago. And we're not there yet. It's a dream. We have there's so many pieces that have to fall into place. But I would hate to lose that up here simply because the conversation is well, we don't have any money, right? Because then then I mean, you can always say that, right? We we could say that for the next 50 years and we would like never get any any dreams accomplished, right? They can't just be uh procedural u type stuff, right? So, I would encourage department heads to chime in and maybe send a few things to you. Um God knows Brutus has a long list. Yes, he does. Right. Um I think most of them do. And and I know and I know our our friends at the library have lists and our friends at the schools have lists and other like all of these groups are just like you know what if these things weren't barriers we'd love to do X. So I think that has to still be part of the conversation. So

I agree that's great. Thank you very much. No I I agree totally with council me when you throw everything at it. I because you want to walk in when I walk in into a meeting they for my budget and they say rarely that's what you want to hear because I throw everything at [laughter] well yeah but anyway so um so outside of that that's it right we're not the strategy planning and everything you're going to bring that in next month those are just there as examples you'll be working on that yep so we don't actually have to hear it these presentations March 4th, right? They're just examples. Okay.

So, that that that would be great. At least we'll know. You know, we'll get a better idea. You know what I mean? So, so I guess we're going to move to uh We're on nine already. Yeah. Legislation for action. Resolution 26-08, adoption of amendments to the procedures manuals of the Franklin Town Council. Clerk will read the resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Town of Franklin Resolution 26-08, the adoption of an amendment to the procedures manual of the Franklin Town Council. Whereas the Town Council of the Town of Franklin by resolution 25-82 adopted the procedures manual of the Franklin Town Council dated February 2nd, 2022. And whereas the town council now wishes to amend the procedures manual set amendments being set out in exhibit A attached hereto. Now therefore be it resolved that the town council of the town of Franklin hereby amends the procedure manual of the Franklin Town Council dated February 2nd 2022 by voting to adopt the amendments thereto set out in exhibit A and attached hereto the resolution. Do I have a

motion to approve resolution 2608? I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Discussion. Mr. Chairman, for clarification, I did receive via email some suggested edits, but those counselors would really need to present those as uh edits to a so it can be voted on to amend just so the procedure is clear to everybody. Okay. So that that's discussion now. So uh council blank. So I am one of those folks that uh proposing a slight change. Um there's really only a few changes we made to this document.

Um but the council meeting one I I'll read it. Um I don't know if you Well, I guess what I'm proposing is right now the current re the newer language that we're suggesting tonight is that the meetings will commence at 6:00. They'll end by 10 and it requires six counselors votes to to have it continue beyond that 10:00. What I'd like to propose for language in there is that um that the regular meetings may not begin earlier than 6 p 6 p.m. That gives us some they can start at 6:00. They can start at 6:30. They can start at 7:00. It's just not hard definition. It has to start at 6:00. So the meetings will begin no earlier than 6:00. take away the the the 10 p.m. I think what we were trying to achieve there is that meetings won't be longer than four hours. So what I'd like to propose is provide that the agend provided that an agenda item is not then under consideration meeting shall be not more than four hours at any one sitting

in case we change the time to 6:30.

Yeah. Right. So it's it we got four hours to do that conversation. And the other piece of it is that um if we're in the middle of an agenda item, we will finish that agenda item and just not be taking another one up after that. So when we get to 3 hours and 50 minutes, if we have an agenda item, we're we're making a determine is that sucker going to get done in 10 minutes or is it going to take longer? So um but re but I thought that was important to put that in there. And then the other thing was it did say a minimum of six counselors. I I think that's a little on the high side that has to be a super majority. I think it should just be a simple majority so that it's the language would be read otherwise unless otherwise voted by a majority vote of the council. So those are my kind of three changes is that again it would begin not earlier than six. It would last four hours as long as we're not in the middle of an agenda item and it would just be a simple majority to continue on after that four hours. Those are I can put that in exact language and put that as an amendment.

I second the amendment. So yeah, so he said so that he once that is amended and max [clears throat] second now there'd be discussion there be discussion on that discussion on the amendment everybody I have no objections I think it's good does anybody have any objections on that vote on the amendment so we have to vote on the amendment now and then go back to the councils for the other ones just take them one at a time we're taking them one at a time. All right. Have you got all heard the uh the amendment? Do you want to read it? Well, I would Yeah, it needs to give you the whole

Want me to read it to him? I was wondering how that works. So, he can read the exact language that I've proposed here. I've kind of words discussion. Operator, an operator will assist you. Okay. So, councelor LeBlanc amendment your your amendment is as follows. Yes. To page five uh section two under council meetings. Correct? Yes.

Uh regular meetings of the council shall be held in the council chamber municipal building at least once each month as voted by the council or as scheduled by the council chair. Regular meetings may not begin earlier than 6 pm except for in the case of an emergency. See also charter 2-5-1 provided that an agenda item is not then under consideration. Meetings shall be not more than 4 hours at any one sitting unless otherwise voted by a majority vote of the council. Special meetings shall commence at the time designated by the chair. Are you satisfied with that, council?

Okay. Are we going to vote on the amendment right now? Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Jamie, can I just send that to you? You read my mind. Okay. Is that what I was going to say? Um, other councils.

Oh, go ahead. No, I just wanted to say I appreciate the process and that we're trying to move up uh the the um uh counselor's comments and the TA comments to be able to respond to some of the people who might have concerns and citizens comments. I was concerned that previously people didn't feel heard at citizens comments and this is sort of a way of making them feel a little more heard. Um I think it's a good first step. We'll see how it works. You know, we might need more tweaks in a future in a future uh in a future term, but I think this is a good first step and I appreciate the the TA and our our great uh liaison for uh working on that. So, I appreciate it. Thank you.

I I agree with you um totally, Council Meal. I I think that's a it's a good first step. We'll see how it goes. Uh so, is there any other counselors? So right now we will vote on resolution 20 26 26-8 as amended as amended. All in favor? I I

opposed resolution February 4th executive session after all of the administrator report earliest one ever. Um, it's been a long time.

Well, as you saw with the reordered agenda, you know, hopefully I think councelor Mallay and I spoke a lot about hopefully council comments, TA reports, subcom, hopefully that stuff will be all done pretty quickly at the beginning of the agendas and if you can see legislation and all that stuff is really for the end. Um, first huge congratulations to Kim Carney uh on winning the 2025 USA Field Hockey Grow the Game Award. Uh, congratulations to Ryan. [applause] Just so you guys may not know this, but our recreation department essentially runs the field hockey program essentially for the state of Massachusetts. and Kim's passion for that and she's won numerous awards now on all this I think showcases just how incredible the staff is. Uh, also congratulations to I didn't do this and set it up because they were all here. Um, congratulations to uh Sarah Amaral, the senior center director on being selected to serve on the Massachusetts Council's on Aging Legislative Committee. So, we're going to do that.

[applause]

Uh, I was going to give the snow and ice report, but the DPW director beat me to the punch. So, I'm glad that he took the hit for that, so I don't have to mention it again. Um, and, uh, good news also, our communications director, uh, we just did make a hire and someone accepted the position. So, they'll be starting on February 23rd. Um, before everybody tries to dump every idea they've ever had on her, [clears throat] uh, we'll introduce her at a meeting probably in March. Um and then assuming there's some communications liaison at some point appointed um we'll try to bring that together. But um I know uh she's extremely excited to be joining us. Uh she is not as excited as Julie and I are excited to have her. And then um uh and then finally uh a bit of sad news. I think as everybody's heard Thermoffisher uh is closing their plant u down here in Franklin. They still have a handful of other sites uh in um in Massachusetts. Um, same thing with Panera Bread. Um, this is on the heels of uh, Cold Chain Technologies uh, before you all were on the council. I announced that last fall. So, um, I just so everybody knows and I mentioned this to the council, but I reach out to all of those firms uh, when they send us the announcement. We set up a kind of a exit interview debrief to try to understand if there's anything locally. I do include our state legislative delegation in those offers just because oftentimes there's tax agreements or there's other things with the state that maybe could have been done with mass development or an economic development agency. Um and uh they have reached out back and we will be meeting with thermoffisher uh in a few weeks. So I will report back to the board if there's anything that we can be doing here as economic development is a big priority. Um, you know, so far, um, the message has been from the interviews I have done with, uh, Cold Chain and others that there really was nothing locally that could be done. A big part of it was the lost of the, uh, NIH grants. Um, so I think you're starting to maybe see an impact of some of the federal cuts. Um, and obviously the cost of living here is extraordinarily

expensive. So I think businesses are just doing what businesses do where they just have to reorganize and reshuffle, repurpose. Um, and so, uh, I'll report back to the board, uh, or the council at some point after we have that call. But we do try to set up times to talk with every business that has that situation and just make sure that it wasn't something that the state or local government couldn't do. And I think that's important to um, just to assure all of you, but really the community that any rumors that are out there that people manufacture, you know, oh, it's because of this or that and this and that. We want to hear straight from the company. and I'm very gracious for them um all taking our phone calls and setting up meetings with us to talk to us openly about um about their situation. So um and that's it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. Subcommittee ad hoc committees, we don't have any right now. Future agenda ite uh agenda items. Council Mallaloy. Uh nothing for tonight, sir.

Council, nothing. Council Griffin. Um, I have something. I'm not entirely sure if this is a future agenda item or just something I'd like the council to um take into consideration, but there is a bill right now in state legislature um bill H4297 to provide an extra additional percentage of um chapter 70 funding to towns specifically designated for arts education. And um I would like to see the council write a letter to right now it's going um it's being sent to the house ways and means committee but I think that we should write a letter supporting that um that to receive an additional percentage of chapter 70 funding um which again would be um specifically earmarked for arts education. I'd like to see us do that.

Where do I sign? [applause] Yeah, we should send it. So we'd send that to Jeff. Yep. Yeah, we have for the formal letters I can share that we have to the bill language and stuff like that. That's a great idea. Council of blank. Nothing. Council just gave you all seven of them but no for the future. But uh I um I actually would like to build off of would it be more effective to send a letter or actually a resolution that's voted on by the council? [snorts] I think it's probably the same, but if y'all if if if if you and council if you want if you want us to do a resolution, it's pretty easy.

Um you could probably do it next week. Um or do it in early March. Um either either way is fine. Would be be enough time for to be vote.

Well, I would say this, if you did a resolution and there were dissenting votes, that's not as effective as a letter, but I mean it depends on how everybody feels about, you know, advocating on that stuff. Um, you know, I mean, traditionally the council has not done a tremendous amount of advocacy with Beacon Hill. They've done some u, but if the council wants to do more of that, um, you know, um, it can be productive. Um, but it can also be counterproductive. So, you have to, I think, choose your battles carefully. But I think hopefully on this one there's consensus agreement. I'm pretty sure councel I'll confer with councelor Berth and and the best steps either way I think as long as we get our name up there right is

that's the important is the main thing you know um pretty sure representative Royy's going to fight for that anyway but so that it max yes um nothing at this time except that I agree with councel Griffith um and I think that we should tag team with school committee when it comes to Beacon Hill because we're all fighting for the same thing. So, uniform front always is the best way to enter any type of battle. That's it. Actually, it might be kind of an interesting thing. We're having a joint meeting, right? Could we actually have a resolution by the joint meeting?

Yeah, I did invite the legislative delegation to because the state agency was here. So for protocol I I invited them made sure that they were they were coming that night. So yeah I would I would support putting it on the agenda for the joint pretty that that's a good idea. It seems pretty pretty especially if they're there if they come you know. So but yeah that would not be a bad idea at all. that. Okay.

Uh I would just be the another vote in support of getting any additional help from the state for arts education and arts programming in town for our kids is is a win. And I would definitely support uh a joint meeting in in March because I think it's powerful if we do it all together as long as we can between now and then make sure that everybody is on the same page so we all know that we're a unified front that night and nobody's going to stick out and you know unfortunately sandbag the thing you know because that would be that wouldn't be good. But I don't have any additional agenda items Mr. Chairman. Uh, no additional agenda items for me.

Okay. Uh, nothing for me. Um, so let's go to council comments. Council Malloy. Uh, none tonight, sir. You go. There's something I I was You were in heavy thought there and I was like, what's going on? [laughter] There there is a topic that I that I will probably bring up next time. Okay. You know that that's that's that's on my mind. Just it's more more broader as you were just in heavy thought. That's [laughter] No, we're good for tonight. Elizabeth,

I have a few. Um, so first thing I'd like to say is that um I know there's been a lot of um concern in the community about the um traffic on Lincoln Street around um school pickup es especially and um I just wanted to mention that the administration the school administration is um working on this that an email went out to Lincoln Street families yesterday maybe about um and no longer queuing for pickup until 2:20 as of right now. Like I picked up my child at 1:45 or 1:35 the other day for an appointment and people were already lining up um even though school isn't let out till 2:45. So I just wanted to um first of all I wanted to thank the Franklin Police Department who is supporting this. they're going to be there um making sure that people are not lining up too early and and blocking the traffic on Lincoln Street. And then I also want to thank the um school administration for um pivoting and and making a um some changes to to keep Lincoln Street safe there. So, wanted to mention that. Oh, and then I wanted to ask, you know, for parents um to, you know, help and, you know, kind of I want want their buy in and and willingness to wait on lining up um to make sure that we do keep those roads clear and safe. So, that's one thing. Um, another thing I wanted to mention is that today is World Cancer Day and I just wanted to send from the town council like our love and support to our Franklin cancer warriors and survivors and remind our residents and everyone um to get your, you know, keep up with your recommended screenings and talk to your doctors about health concerns. Um, something we should always be keeping in mind, but as

today is cancer world cancer day, I wanted to mention it again. Um, a couple other things is Franklin Fire Department's hosting a stop thebleleed workshop on recognizing and controlling sphere bleeds um to help save lives. That's two days from today on the the 18th. Um, Franklin Rec Department is looking for teenagers who want to be leaders in training for their summer camp programs, which is kind of neat. Um, Franklin Food Pantry is collecting through this uh through the 8th. They're collecting soup donations for their annual super bowl challenge against the way food pantry. So if you have soup donations, you can bring them to the pantry or you can send things through their Amazon wish list. Um and the last thing I wanted to mention is that Scott Mason's Franklin and Miniature exhibit is still on display. It was supposed to end um a couple days ago, but they pushed it out. So I think it's um through the 15th. So if you haven't seen that yet, it's at the historical museum. So wanted to just mention that too. And that's

that actually the traffic thing actually came up at the meeting that we had with the superintendent chair Paul Griffin and there is going to be a plan in place to try to get rid of that. Um council blank

uh just a couple things. One um I know we when someone wants to uh put a sign up they have to go in front of the design review commission. Um, but I also think we have to find a way to um I can't uh I can't think of the word I'm thinking of right now unfortunately, but um when that also that if a sign's up that um that a sign comes down when appropriate. For example, in downtown there's a sign on the building that for a mortgage company that hasn't been in that building for ages. So, if we're going to hold people accountable about the what they put on the sign when they're not in business, the sign should come down. I mean, let's that company hasn't been there for for years. So, I'd like to see us enforce those regulations in that regard as well. Um, but the bigger thing is next week, obviously, we're going to talk about the budget. So, I just wanted to take a few minutes to put I guess my stake in the sand before we had that conversation. Um um I what I do for a living is very financially driven. Um I have a finance background. So I look at things also at a very I do go down the the deep rabbit holes but at when it comes to budgets sometimes you have to stay at the high level. So, I'm just going to outline what my expectations are for the budget um and kind of just rattle those off right now. So, from an operating expense standpoint for the operating departments, I'm expecting that all the contractual salaries are no more than 2 and a half% next year. I'm expecting the non-contractual salaries to be no more than 1% than they were over this year.

This is everything based upon fiscal year 2026 approved budget. I'm expecting all expenses to be equal to or less than they were in budgeted for this year. However, if there are expenses that would go over that, I would like a justification and the rationale for those expenses to be above what they were this year. This expectation is not just for the town. This expectation is the same for the schools. I did listen to the schools meeting last week. Uh I did see that uh as was pointed out they came in at 2 and a half% but if they start following these guidelines actually would technically come in probably less than 2 and a half%. So that my expectation is the school would follow the same uh premise as well with their budget for I also would like to see in the budget restoration of these programs andor services, two paramedics, two police officers, a senior center nurse, library hours returning on Sunday, and that the TA office is fully staffed. There are we just talked about our goals and one person two people that are sitting over there cannot do it all. I know there's a lot of rhetoric or complaints about having paying this much or that much but to run a company that's $150 million. It can't be run by two people at the top and all of these people. It requires a lot more. So I I do believe that that needs to be staffed. I do feel that we need to have a position from a full well I'll say a full-time but I'll take a part-time economic development. We have three companies moving out. It's about marketing. We need to fill those buildings. We need to build. We need to do a lot of things in town. We need to continue to develop downtown. All of that requires a focus and right now

there is not a focus on that. And the last two things uh at least to add, I want to add trash pickup to the fields, which councelor Cormier Ledger may love that. And I want to make sure we return summer help hours to the DPW. So those are the things I'm going to be looking for next week, whether they're in there or not. Now, people are going to say, "You just added a whole bunch to the budget." Uh that is true. there there will be one-time funds or that that are tied to our free cash and that's how I'm going to propose closing the gap with those dollars is with those onetime funds and the only other thing I'll point out is um is does relate to the school and that was and they took a step for that this past yes or yesterday and they we've talked about it is obviously transferring the health insurance over to the town. It just makes looking at their budget a little bit simpler. And I would like to actually move the technology department out of that so that every single supporting um um department is technically sitting on the on the school side. So maintenance and facilities and all that stuff is already on the town side. Technology should be there, too. So I'd like to see the technology uh department taken out of schools and put back onto the town side. So those are the things I'm going to be looking for next week. And I just felt I'm gonna put my stake in the sand now and you all can move off of that stake as you wish. So I put my I my I'm in the my stakes in the ground. And with that I'm done. Thank you.

Uh thank you council. You actually took a couple of mine, but that's good. Well, I like steak, especially with some seasoning and some barbecue sauce. Um but uh no I actually just had a question regarding um the just random question regarding the um uh the issue at Lincoln Street. Um is there a prohibition of students like high school students uh this kind of unrelated high school students using the Gatra bus? Like if they wanted after school if they were after school did an after school activity could they take Gatra home? I don't uh Well, it's on a fixed route so I think No, no, no. the the ride share, isn't it? It's a good question. I don't know

because I just thought if people are, you know, worried about having to pick up their kids, I I don't know what the rules are for minors. I don't think I don't think it's going to discriminate against anybody. I just I think logistically it's going to be hard given how frequently the bus comes, how impatient people are um and then trying to find where the spot is because one of the struggles we've had with Gatra is pickup spots, right? So, um, but I'll look into it and we'll we'll just people or parents, you know, are looking to avoid the the mess. I don't want to have like all I don't want to shift everyone on the yellow bus to a gap bus. That wouldn't make sense. But I just think if it's another option for after school hours that, you know, maybe that's something that parents could consider. I I really I don't know the answer that I'll get that for you. It's a great question.

Um, [clears throat] and uh I just want to thank all the employees who are doing their hard work. Uh, I actually got to uh ride in the plow with Brutus. Uh, I got to take a little tour of the DPW and that was a fun experience and I got to learn a lot about what they do and uh and I know it's really hard work, you know, working those late hours, especially during a football game. So, uh, I I want to tell everyone know that I appreciate what they do and uh, [cough and clears throat] with that I'll yield. Always looking for drivers, Max. That's right. double time on Sunday. [laughter]

Um, honestly, I don't have really anything at this time. I'm just anxious to start moving forward with the liaison and getting into the budget and um start looking at the numbers. That's about it.

Well, you know, I have stuff, Mr. Chairman. So, uh, but thank you. Uh, great job, DPW. great job uh to [snorts] all of our staff really for for getting us through um some tough winter weeks. Um want to quickly shout out and say congratulations to all the staff, crew, and the actors over at Franklin Performing Arts uh for a fantastic production of Steel Magnolia. I was able to uh take Mama Sei over there to see that as a special Christmas present and it did not uh it did not disappoint. The waterworks were in full effect. So, thank you to everybody that made that happen. Um thank you to uh shout out to our friends over at the school committee. I know that they're juggling a ton. Um and the online comments uh particularly through Facebook have not been all that kind as of late. Um dealing with the busing issue at the schools uh dealing with some pretty sensitive bullying issues um that they're tackling. I was really proud of the school committee members that stepped up online. There was one thread, I don't know if anybody caught it. There was 180 comments in and it turned out the child didn't even attend uh Franklin Public School. They attend the charter school. Um but I was really proud of the school committee members that chimed in, offered their help, offered to work with our superintendent to reach out to the school because at the end of the day, it's a child that's in need and it's a family that's struggling and we should do whatever we can to help them. Um, I had a great meeting. Um, you know, trying to trying to better understand some of the school committee concerns and issues. Um, as I always have, getting together for coffee is way better than just pontificating on Facebook. So, um, thank you to, uh,

school committee member Ree. We had a great coffee. One of the things we talked about was expanding the afterchool program in the buildings. And I know that that's not our purview, but I'm putting it out there to the universe, hoping our school committee friends are looking. This is nothing against um the solutions group. Their license capacity is just too small. They can't service the needs of our town. They opened up, I believe it was yesterday, and again within 24 hours completely sold out and parents complaining wondering, you know, what are my options? So, and that's a revenue possibility, right? As we look at these buildings are sitting empty. We know we have kids that need them. We know what will fulfill a need for parents that are working to know their kids are staying in the building and having safe care. We just got to look at that as a town. And I would offer whatever support we can as a council to the school committee to look at that program, look at those contracts. Um, many, many, many cities and towns throughout Massachusetts use their schools after hours for programming through maybe it's a contract with the Y or it's a contract through another provider and they actually uh make a few bucks to help cover custodians and help cover insurance and help cover some other things. So, um, hope that we can continue those conversations and and be supportive. Um, happy birthday to my son Jaden. Daddy, sorry that he's not home to celebrate with you tonight, but uh you know, council council work was needed. We'll celebrate this weekend. Um and finally, uh best wishes on a safe recovery to Drake May. It's very discouraging to hear that he's still on injured reserve and now questionable for the big game on Sunday. So do everything that you can uh to make that poor man

well and uh go Pats. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's a boy. He's fine. [laughter] I know. I really He's on an injured reserve, but he is questionable in this old shoulder. Yeah. I just um want to just really really quickly speak on behalf of uh three former Franklin residents. Those would be Tai Law. Yeah. Tom Brady and Vince Wilfork. Yeah. And just say go pass.

Yeah. That is it. Go Pat. Um, no, just a shout out to DBW. I know they did a great job. And the the way I know they did a great job is because my son was supposed to fly back to Tampa Sunday night when it was uh when it was snowing out and of course his plane got cancelled. So, he needed a ride home. So he had to take my car because I was at the airport and he drove from the airport home and he said the best roads were the town of Franklin. He went through the back road. So give a shout out to the DPW. They did a good job. So outside of that, um, Coats again, I can't believe we're there, but we're there. We're there.

Good luck and the town of Franklin wishes you the best. So um with that we do have a reason for executive session. So um uh

the read the executive session is for consideration of the purchase and exchange lease or value of real property because an open meeting uh may have a detrimental effect on the negotiation position of a public body. Former Davis there elementary school former part uh Parameter Elementary School other properties potential available for the town purchase acquisition and we will not be coming back.

You need to you need to declare you need to say I so declare as far position I so declare executive session what you say right and then we will not be returning close enough. Yeah. And we [laughter] and we not and we will not be returning. Right. Right. There's going to be a motion based on [laughter] anywhere. Yeah. Second. All in favor? I roll call. Roll call. Roll call. Oh boy. Hi. Okay. Hi. Councelor Malloy. I. Councelor Rejuku. Hi. Councelor Griffith. Hi. Councelor Blank. Hi. Councelor Marangello. Hi. Councelor Callaway Trip.

Hi. Myself. Yes. Vice Chair. Yes.