FM #1247 - Town Council Quarterbacking - 07/18/24

This session shares my conversation with Town Council Chair Tom Mercer. The Council met on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 for the first meeting of the Fiscal Year 2025. We met Thursday morning to recap the 3 hour session. 

We look to focus on 

• ok, what just happened? 
• What does it mean for Franklin residents and taxpayers?

Topics for this session:

• A  number of citizens’ comments accounted for approx. 30 minutes of the meeting before the Council began its business.
• The zoning change for the parcel on King St while forwarded to second reading by a 5-4 vote was roundly defeated by an 8-0-1 (1 absent) vote.
• The override and budget discussion resulted in two actions. 
• One - consensus to begin with a Joint Budget series of meetings to work on determining the future (assuming yes, when?), and getting consensus among the 3 committees (Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee) on an amount for an earlier spring vote.
• Two - the Council did vote to take $1M from the debt stabilization account to provide for additional funding for the School budget. The School Committee will vote to accept the funding at their next scheduled August meeting (Aug 13). (After this vote Cormier-Leger left the session)
• A set of 3 bylaws to change downtown commercial zoning to bring the Town into compliance with the MBTA regulations were approved and moved to second reading. The second reading will be a Council meeting in August.
• The zoning change for the mill store property on Union St was approved and moved to second reading (also at a meeting in August)
• The Council also voted to approve the land swap deal with the state. This work started approx. 11 years ago and finally getting to the changing of the deeds stage to complete. This will set up for future renovation & enhancements to the Beaver St recycling Center.
• Resolution 24-49: Acceptance of Gifts - Veterans’ Service Department ($700), Senior Center ($381), Franklin Public Library ($500)

The recording runs about 29 minutes, so let’s listen to my conversation with Tom.

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The Franklin TV video of the 3 hour session can be found ->  https://www.youtube.com/live/dvI5kTzZqP0?si=Od24AGR5njNiF99I&t=67 

Agenda document for this session: 

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/tc_agenda_july_17_2024.pdf 

My notes as captured during the session can be found in one PDF

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rUWE6iK-G1T7xnVsjgXiGj2-l2P9S9Kg/view?usp=drive_link 

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The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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