Framingham Democratic Town Committee
Minutes of September 18, 2005
Held at Framingham Green from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.
Attendance
Members: Debby Blumer, Rosalie Cotton, Pat Dunne, Bill Haberman, Esther Hopkins, Donna Howland, Chris Lorant, Archie Lyon, Stephanie Mercandetti, Valerie Mulvey, Norma Shulman, Rochelle Sivan, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid
Associate Members: Pam Roberts, Steve Robinson
Guest speakers: Dr. John McDonough, David Jordan, Steve Hershell
Guests: Alan Frankel, A.J. Mulvey, Alex Moorash (Fram. State College), Kirsten Stienbach (Fram. State College)
Other elected officials: Rep. Tom Sannicandro, Rep. Peter Koutoujian
Treasurer’s report
|
Previous Balance |
$1408.72 |
|
Dues received |
$40.00 |
|
Dividends |
$2.43 |
|
Other Income |
0 |
|
Net Income |
$42.43 |
|
Itemized Expenses |
0 |
|
(Check #410 has not cleared) |
($55.00) |
|
Net Expenses |
0 |
|
Balance as of 9/18/05 |
$1451.15 after check 410 |
There are 2 members who still owe dues for 2003-04, R. Black and Rev. Faith Tolson.
Members owing dues for 2004-05
There are 2 paid associate members.
For clarification the dues were explained as: $20 for Regular Members and $15 for Associate Members.
Treasurer’s report was accepted.
There was a question as to whether Associate members could become Regular members by paying the additional $5. Norma Shulman explained that Regular members are elected every four years on the Presidential Primary ballot. The Committee fills vacancies that occur between the election cycle. (Thus an Associate member interested in Regular membership would have to wait for the next election period or until a vacancy occurred.)
Minutes for the June meeting had two corrections, (1) to the attendance and (2) listing the announcements. The minutes were accepted with the corrections.
The Committee acknowledged State Representative Peter Koutoujian who was in attendance. Debby Blumer mentioned that Representative Koutoujian is a candidate for Middlesex County District Attorney in the 2006 elections.
PROGRAM:
Debby Blumer introduced Dr. John McDonough, Executive Director of Health Care for All. He described the legislative initiative he is undertaking towards health care reform in the state. He called this the Third Wave of health care reform, the previous being in 1988 and 1996. McDonough shared some statistics on how the number of uninsured in the state has risen by some 200,000 while health care premiums have increased by double digits.
He mentioned the discussion at the State House concerning health care reform. He felt this discussion has been mired in jargon and windy talk, making it difficult to get a good grasp on what issues are being debated. Dr. McDonough took a few minutes to clarify some of the discussion that is taking place at the State House.
He stated the most pressing issue with health care is access, particularly for those who are uninsured to soon to become uninsured. Also there are issues of inadequate coverage with huge deductible fees. The situation is placing a burden on individuals and also on businesses, municipal and state governments that provide health coverage to employees.
There are 3 major reform initiative plans currently under consideration:
- Commonwealth Care – a plan put forward by the Governor that requires everyone to buy health care coverage. Anyone failing to buy coverage would be penalized by the state.
- Senate President Travaglini has introduced a plan to lower the rate of uninsured by 50% over two years.
- ACT campaign, put together by a coalition of consumer groups, interfaith groups, labor organizations, and business leaders among others.
Dr. McDonough talked in detail about the 3rd major plan stating that it would save on premiums, expand quality coverage and help small businesses provide coverage to employees. Part of the plan looks to address its costs by increasing cigarette tax. Also the plan creates an assessment on employers who are not providing coverage to their workers. At present employers spend about 15% of payroll for health coverage. Smaller employers who presently do not provide coverage could pay 5% under this assessment.
His organization is pursuing this plan through a ballot initiative because the initiative process will provide legislators with help needed to move the health care reform process forwarded. The ballot initiative would demonstrate the public support for this reform.
Dr. McDonough encouraged all persons interested in this reform effort to get involved. David Jordan, who had accompanied John McDonough circulated a petition to support the reform initiatives that McDonough spoke of. They are looking to collect 200,000 signatures to support the ballot initiative.
Steve Hershell of Common Cause, presented a petition to revise the practices of redistricting known as Gerrymandering. He described the practice as detrimental to democracy as it lends to candidates picking voters rather than voters picking candidates.
He stated that because of redistricting neighborhoods are fractured, potential challengers are cut out of districts, and minorities are underrepresented. The redistricting is often conducted secretively by a few legislative leaders.
Common Cause is proposing what it calls the Fair Districts Initiative Petition that would call for legislators to place a redistricting reform constitutional amendment on the ballot for 2008.
To advance this effort Steve mentioned that Framingham area volunteers are needed. Petitions can be downloaded from www.MassFairDistricts.org. The Common Cause organization’s website is: commoncause.org/ma.
BUSINESS:
There was interest to have a joint program (with the area’s Democratic Committees) for the 2006 gubernatorial candidates. The MNW Alliance has actually planned an event with Deval Patrick on September 27 and will have another one with Tom Reilly on October 25.
The 2006 Democratic Town Caucus has been scheduled for February 5, 2006 with a snow-date of February 12. This fits into the caucus window established by the State Committee. February 5 is the date of next year’s Super Bowl, however the caucus is expected to end well before the start of the game (6:18pm kickoff).
Donna Howland mentioned a program on October 27, an education forum on how Town Government works. It will be in the Public Hearing Room of the Memorial Building.
Volunteers are also needed for outreach efforts. This would be called the Membership Committee that would work with the still vacant Affirmative Action and Outreach Advisor position.
Norma Shulman read the proposed program schedule for 2005-06 as prepared by the Program Committee (this scheduled is subject to change):
October 16, 2005
Candidates for Lt. Governor
Sam Kelley & Tim Murray
November 13,2005
Candidate for Attorney General, Martha Coakley
January 22, 2005
Candidate for Secretary of State, Cameron Kerry
February 5, 2006
Caucuses for Democratic State Convention Delegate Selection
SNOW DATE: February 12, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006 (9AM)
Pancake Breakfast with Framingham Town Election Candidates
April 9, 2006
Federal and State Legislative Briefing with Cong. Markey, Sen. Spilka, Reps. Blumer and Sannicandro
May 21, 2006
Community Supper with Democratic Primary Candidates
June 3, 2006
Democratic State Convention
June 11, 2006
Post-Convention Wrap-Up and Discussion of 2006 Ballot Questions
Saturday, July 29th (2PM)
Summer Cookout at Debby Blumer’s Home