Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of October 15 and 17, 2006
The minutes of both minutes are being combined as the second meeting was a continuation of the first.

Held at The Meadows from 7:00pm to 9:30pm.

Attendance October 15
Members

: Bob Berman, Randy Black, Rosalie Cotton, Nancy Coville Wallace, Gerard Desilets, Linda Fields, Bill Haberman, Esther Hopkins, Chris Lorant, Archie Lyon, David Magnani, Tom Mahoney, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Valerie Mulvey, Betty Muto, Joan Rastani, Chris Ross, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, John Stefanini, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid
Associate Members: Elsa Aviza, Susan Elwyn, Gerard Heng, Pam Roberts

Attendance October 17

Bob Berman, Randy Black, Nancy Coville Wallace, Gerard Desilets, Linda Fields, Donna Howland, Chris Lorant, Archie Lyon, David Magnani, Tom Mahoney, Kathie McCarthy, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Valerie Mulvey, Philip Ottaviani, Joan Rastani, Chris Ross, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, John Stefanini, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid
Associate Members: Elsa Aviza, Susan Elwyn, Gerry Heng, Steve Joyce (joined Oct. 17), Lloyd Kaye (joined Oct. 17), Laura Medrano (joined Oct. 17), Pamela Roberts
Guests on October 15 and / or October 17 (those that signed in):

Ralph Mero, Deborah Mero, Phil Jack, Adam Blumer, Tony Alencar, Carone Berman, Stan Berman, Mike Dineen, Phil Dinsky, Bill Dooling, David Finkelstein, Alan Frankel, Dennis Giombetti, Steve Grossman, Audrey Hall, Gwendolyn Holbrow, Helen Lemoine, Christine Long, Tom Manders, Larry Marsh, Susan Massad, Katie Murphy, Ilma Paixao, Chris Petrini, Wes Ritchie, Rep. Tom Sannicandro, Chris Sciaba, Adam Sisitsky, Charlie Sisitsky, Carol Spack, Sen. Karen Spilka, Pam Richardson
These were special meetings following the tragic and untimely death of the FDTC Co-Chair, our friend and leader, the State Representative Debby Blumer.

Remembering Debby Blumer
After a moment of silence in memory of Debby Blumer, people shared their memories, mentioning Debby‘s energy, inclusiveness and how she stuck to her principles no matter what. Adam Blumer, the youngest child of Debby, was gracious enough to attend our meeting, saying his mother would have wanted that. Adam talked about Debby’s tireless work to improve the community, the state and the country and that she had a strong moral compass which enabled her to take unpopular stances if she thought they were right. Adam mentioned Debby’s strong support for Deval Patrick’s campaign and urged everybody to volunteer and to amplify their efforts, to make 10 phone calls instead of one, as a fitting tribute to Debby’s memory.

Esther Hopkins submitted a motion to have the FDTC send the family a card, and it was passed.

On Tuesday Norma Shulman moved to donate 200$ in Debby’s name to a charity of the family’s choice. Motion was accepted.

Business
A lot of discussion took place about what to do about Debby Blumer’s seat in light of Secretary of State William Galvin’s ruling that votes for Debby Blumer would be thrown out and that no special election would take place, and the winner would be the one who got the most write-in votes. Joan Rastani moved to vote right then and there and choose the Democratic candidate, as the FDTC is an elected body and represents the Democrats in Framingham, so it was within our rights. There was a lot of discussion and the general feeling was that a special election would be the best and most-Democratic solution, and having a non-binding unofficial caucus the second most Democratic. Many favored running a candidate who would commit not to serve and so trigger a special election. John Stefanini moved to create a caucus committee who would arrange an unofficial caucus. At the end of Sunday’s meeting it was decided to convene on Tuesday to reach a decision, and Joan Rastani and John Stefanini tabled their motions.

On Tuesday Joan Rastani withdrew her motion. Norma Shulman entered a motion to to choose a person who would refuse to serve, this triggering a special election no earlier than 14 weeks after the certification of the election. The Senator Karen Spilka and her aide Mary Anne talked about the risks and chances of bringing about legislation to allow votes for Debby Blumer to be counted and to have a special election. One risk – even if the law got passed, the candidate with the most write-in votes would likely sue the state and we could find ourselves in limbo, without representation. John Stefanini moved to hold a caucus with slight variations on Tuesday’s motion and Alan Silver suggested an amendment to pursue the legislation avenue in parallel to holding the caucus. Norma’s “faux nominee” motion was rejected and John Stefanini’s motion was passed. Full text of motion follows:

1) Ask Representative Sanicandro, Senator Spilka and Governor Romney to immediately file and pass legislation to allow Massachusetts, like other states, to vote for a deceased person in order to allow sufficient time to conduct a special election according to state law and to pass this legislation no later than Monday, October 23, 2006;

2) Establish a seven person committee appointed by the Chair, all of whom shall be registered Democrats from the district, including three members of the committee, one member of the Blumer family and three others, to organize, convene and publicize a Democratic caucus/forum amongst all registered Democrats interested in serving as state representative from the sixth Middlesex District to determine the Democratic candidate with a majority of support amongst Democratic caucus attendees, including the authority to:

• spend up to $600 to complete its charge;
• solicit written responses from candidates on the major issues facing this disrict and our state;
• publicize nomination through a mailing to every good-voting Democratic household in the district;
• Said forum shall be held at the Cameron Middle School on Sunday, October 22, at 4:30 p.m. All candidate choosing to participate shall be asked if they will abide by the vote of the caucus and support the winner of said straw poll. All caucus attendees will be requested to support the winner of said caucus.

3) Members of the Democratic town committee agree to support the winner of said caucus.

The members of the 7 person committee:

• Parwez Wahid
• Nancy Coville Wallace
• Cheryl Tully Stoll
• Adam Blumer
• Mike Dineen
• Steve Joyce
• Helen Lemoine

Next Regular Meeting – November 12

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · [email protected]

Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of September 17, 2006

Held at Framingham Green from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

Attendance

Members: Debby Blumer, Nancy Coville Wallace, Gerry Desilets, Linda Fields, Bill Haberman, Donna Howland, Tom Mahoney, Joan Rastani, Norma Shulman, Rochelle Sivan, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Elsa Aviza, Pam Roberts

Special Guest speaker: Michael Sullivan former mayor of Cambridge and candidate for Middlesex County Clerk of Magistrate.

Guests: Wes Ritchie, Edward Sullivan, Jenn Dever

Treasurer’s Report

Cash on Hand as of 06/11/06	1648.60
Dues Received	75.00
Dividends	3.62
Other Income	0
Net Income	78.62
Itemized Expenses
N. Shulman Flag Day Expenses	171.84
N. Shulman Web Charges 01/06 – 05/06	44.75
N. Shulman Web Charges 06/06	8.95
Net Expenses	225.54
Balance as of 09/17/06	1501.68

One member owing dues for 2005 – 2006.

Sixteen members with paid dues for 2006 – 2007.:

Twenty-one members owing dues for 2006 – 2007.

Seven associate members for 2006 – 07.

Paid Members:

D. Blumer, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, L. Fields, W. Haberman, D. Howland, R. Litter, C. Lorant, D. Magnani, T. Mahoney, M. Murphy, J. Rastani, N. Shulman, A. Silver, R. Sivan, C. Tully Stoll, P. Wahid

Business

1. Minutes for the June meeting were accepted
2. Bill Haberman presented the results of the biennial review of the DTC’s financial records performed by the Finance Audit Committee consisting of : Nancy Coville-Wallace, Bill Haberman, Donna Howland, Alan Silber: The audit found that the previous treasurer, Donna Howland had done an excellent job – everything was in order and there was an exact match to the bank account figures. The audit was accepted.
3. Norma Shulman gave a report of the information table she set up for the FDTC on Flag Day and during the Friday night Concerts on the Green. Four of the nights were rained out; a handful of people wrote their names on the sign-up sheet; and Tim Murray the candidate for Lieutenant Governor made an appearance one evening. Norma suggested creating a leaflet or brochure promoting the FDTC and obtaining a tent for future events.
4. The motion from the previous meeting to authorize a Victory 06 donation with a cap of $500, was rescinded in favor of a new motion: To donate 200$ to the Metrowest Alliance with the provision that the FDTC officers can raise the amount up to 500$ without a new vote taking place. The new motion was accepted.

Program

Norma Shulman spoke for Mike Firestone from the Victory 06 program, who couldn’t attend in person. Norma described the new office on route 9 east, 280 Worcestor Rd., with 5 phone lines for phone banking and the canvassing and festive opening scheduled to take place on September 30, and the debate-watching party taking place at Senator‘s Karen Spilka’s house on September 25th.

Special Guest Speaker:

Michael Sullivan urged everyone to remember go to the bottom of the ballot where his position was listed and to vote for him. He described the duties of the clerk: scheduling the important trials and presenting a human face at the courthouse. Then Michael introduced his uncle, Edward Sullivan, who has served as Middlesex County Clerk for 48 years(!), and who was the first elected Democrat for the job. Michael Sullivan also spoke about the importance of Victory 06 and electing a Democratic Governor responsive to the needs of the towns and cities. He brought up a story of Governor Romney presenting the budget to the mayors and town managers and the press with much fanfare when Sullivan was the mayor of Cambridge. Michael Sullivan had checked the budget figures and saw that they didn’t add up. He told this to Romney, who simply arranged his hair and walked out without answering him. Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey wordlessly followed Romney out of the room. In the end, a much lower level official responded that they knew the budget was wrong but that corrections would be forthcoming shortly. And that was the Romney / Healey administration in a nutshell – all style, no substance.