Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of October 14, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Nancy Coville Wallace, Gerard Desilets, Esther Hopkins, Beverly Hugo (new), Chris Lorant, Laura Medrano (new), Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Terene Micciche, Valerie Mulvey, Joan Rastani, Pamela Roberts (new), Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, John Stefanini, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid

 

Associate Members: Christopher Broyles, Bob Edwards, Claire Farragher, Dawn Harkness, Steve Joyce, Farooq Mirza

 

Guest Speaker: Michael Hugo

 

Business

1.        Treasurer’s Report from Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 9/9/07	1615.01
Dues Received	35.00
Dividends
Other Income:  Summer Picnic	155.00
Net Income	190.00
Itemized Expenses
Web-Site:	26.85
Committee to Elect Niki Tsongas	100.00
Net Expenses	126.85
Balance as of 10/14/07	1678.16

 

 

 

Dues as of October 13:

Ÿ          Members owing dues for 2006-07: 3 unpaid members; 34 paid. Paid up members: E. Aviza, B. Berman, R. Black, R. Blum, R. Cotton, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, P. Dunne, L. Fields, B. Haberman, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, R. Litter, C. Lorant,  T. Mahoney, K. McCarthy, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, T. Micciche, C. Monzon, V. Mulvey, B. Muto, P. Ottaviani, J. Rastani, C. Ross, N. Shulman, A. Silver, R. Sivan, J. Stefanini, C. Tully Stoll, P. Wahid

Ÿ          Members owing dues for 2007-08: 20 unpaid; 16 paid. Paid up Members: E. Aviza, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, C. Lorant, K. McCarthy, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, M. Murphy, J. Rastini, N. Shulman, A. Silber, R. Sivan, P. Wahid

Ÿ          Associate Members owing dues for 2006-07: 15 paid

Ÿ          Associate Members owing dues for 2007-08: 12 paid, 9 unpaid.  Paid up Associates: C. Boyles, R. Edwards, C. Farragher, D. Harkness, K. Harkness, G. Heng, B. Hugo, F. Mirza,  P. Richardson, P. Roberts, Laura Wells, George Wells

 

2.        Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Amended minutes from September 9 accepted.

3.        The results of the survey that Parwez sent out to all to choose the most convenient FDTC meeting day of the week: Sunday shall remain the day the FDTC convenes, by a considerable margin.

4.        Voting was held to fill the 4 vacancies on the FDTC. The nominees: Bob Edwards, Dawn Harkness, Beverly Hugo, Laura Medrano, Rep. Pam Richardson, Pam Roberts. The nominees who were present each gave a short speech, and Parwez read a letter from Rep. Pam Richardson, who couldn’t attend the meeting. The following were elected: Beverly Hugo, Laura Medrano, Pam Richardson, Pam Roberts.  Congratulations!

 

Announcements:

1.        Cheryl Tully Stoll announced the dedication of a Memorial Building hearing room in honor of state Rep. Deborah Blumer, on October 15.

2.        Parwez Wahid announced again the Pasta Dinner, taking place on November 4^th, an hour before the regular meeting, in the regular place. The special guest – Augustus Bickform from the DNC. The volunteers: Parwez Wahid, Sarah Michiche, Jerry Desilets, John Stefanini.

3.        The Holiday party will be on December 2.

4.        There will be training in the skills needed to create national change at the local level. It

5.        On the weekend of November 16 – 18 in Manchester, NH at the Radisson hotel there will training for campaigns and chapter building; and there will also be an opportunity to see some of the candidates. The cost is 45$ which includes some meals. For more information call 603-4548557.

 

Program: Our guest speaker was Michael Hugo, a personal friend of John Edwards for 15 years, who spoke about why we should support John Edwards’ candidacy:

Ÿ         John Edwards strived hard to achieve his goals as a senator and will do the same as a president.

Ÿ         He’s the most electable candidate

Ÿ         93% of the contributions to his campaign are in amounts under 100$

Ÿ         John Edwards’ actions match his words – his commitment to fighting poverty is such that he founded the University of North Carolina Poverty Law Center, and would spend much of his time there.

Ÿ         He has many good ideas to return power to the people and to turn the country around:

Þ      Fighting lobbyists and special interests

Þ      Lowering the maximum contribution per cycle to 1000$

Þ      Having the government double the small amount contributions to somewhat level the playing field

Þ      Lower the price of drugs by prohibiting the advertising by the drug companies

Þ      Same day registration on Election day

Þ      Allowing felons to vote after their sentences are done

Þ      Reducing the troops level in Iraq by 40 = 50 thousand immediately, and afterwards bringing the rest home within 9 to 10 months

Next Meeting – November 4, 2007, after the 5:30 Pasta Dinner.

 

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · shellyis@gmail.com

 

Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of September 9, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Nancy Coville Wallace, Kathie McCarthy, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Joan Rastani, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Christopher Broyles, Bob Edwards, Claire Farragher, Beverly Hugo, Lloyd Kaye, Laura Medrano, Rep. Pam Richardson, Pamela Roberts

Guests: Alan Frankel

Guest Speaker: Major Peter Capuzzi

Business

• Treasurer’s Report from Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 6/10/07	1486.86
Dues Received	155.00
Dividends
Other Income:
Net Income	155.00
Itemized Expenses
Web-Site:	26.85
Net Expenses	26.85
Balance as of 9/9/07	1615.01

 

 

Dues as of June 9:

• Members owing dues for 2006-07: 3 unpaid members; 34 paid. Paid up members: E. Aviza, B. Berman, R. Black, R. Blum, R. Cotton, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, P. Dunne, L. Fields, B. Haberman, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, R. Litter, C. Lorant, T. Mahoney, K. McCarthy, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, T. Micciche, C. Monzon, V. Mulvey, B. Muto, P. Ottaviani, J. Rastani, C. Ross, N. Shulman, A. Silver, R. Sivan, J. Stefanini, C. Tully Stoll, P. Wahid
• Members owing dues for 2007-08: 22 unpaid; 15 paid. Paid up Members: E. Aviza, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, C. Lorant, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, M. Murphy, J. Rastini, N. Shulman, A. Silber, R. Sivan, P. Wahid
• Associate Members owing dues for 2006-07: 15 paid
• Associate Members owing dues for 2007-08: 11 paid, 7 unpaid.

• Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Minutes from June 10 accepted.
• Norma Shulman gave a report on the FDTC table at the Friday Concerts on the Green: 18 people filled out voter registration forms; and flyers with the Democratic candidates’ websites ans brochures with health insurance information were handed out. The Children’s Primary was a big success with 313 participants who voted for the Democratic candidates. The votes were tallied in the final concert and an article about it appeared in the Tab. Final results: Clinton, 141 (45%); Obama, 65 (20.8%); Edwards, 35 (11.2%); Biden, 15 (4.8%); Dodd, 13 (4.2%); Gravel, 11 (3.5%); Kucinich, 8 (2.6%); Richardson, 6 (1.9%); LaMagna, 2 (0.6%); other, 17.
• Former state Sen. David Magnani is resigning from the FDTC because of his new position as executive director of Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, a statewide organization recently created to support and promote the state’s 25,000 nonprofit groups. That job means he can no longer be publicly involved in partisan politics, so he is leaving the FDTC and resigning as area coordinator for Barak Obama. David Magnani invited any local non-profit to contact him. By the way – the Chief Operating Officer in Massachusetts Nonprofit Network is going to be our own Stephanie Mercandetti. Congratulations!
• Rosalie Cotton, living half of the year outside Framingham, is changing her status to Associate Member.
• There are now 4 vacancies in the FDTC. Any registered Democrat in Framingham is eligible to seek election to these four vacancies. Nominations will be taken from the floor of the meeting. A candidate must be nominated and seconded by a member of the Framingham DTC. If more than four candidates are nominated balloting will conducted, the top four vote recipients will be declared the winners.
• The state party has determined that this year’s caucus should be between the first Saturday of February and the following Sunday.
• There are members who can’t attend meetings during the weekends and so Parwez is sending out a survey to see if we can change the day of the week we have our meetings. The votes have to be in by September 30^th.

2. Pam Roberts and Rochelle Sivan volunteered to help Parwez with the maintenance of the FDTC website – https://framinghamdems.org.

• Parwez Wahid, as a Democratic State Committee member is expected to raise 100$ for the campaign of Niki Tsongas, who won the primary in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, and the question was whether to use the FDTC funds for this purpose. Points from the debate:

• Alan Silver: Why donate money for this election and not for others? Reply: this is a special election and the State Committee does not want to lose the seat.
• Stephanie Mercandetti: Do we have to help the other DSC members raise their 100$ as well? Reply – No, because Parwez Wahid is the only active DSC member who resides in Framingham

Norma Shulman moved to donate the 100$ from the FDTC funds. Joan Rastani seconded the motion and it passed with 7 ayes.

11. Pam Roberts gave a report on the Issues committee which was created in May to draft policy papers to be presented to the FDTC. The 4 Issues committee members chose the following 4 topics to concentrate on, which they divided among themselves. They are looking for volunteers and interested parties to participate in the conversation, so if anyone (not just FDTC members) wants to help shape the papers, please contact me or any other Issues committee member.

• Foreign Policy: Lloyd Kaye
• Health Insurance: Cheryl Tully Stoll
• Economic Policy concentrating on jobs: Pam Roberts
• Environment / Energy: Rochelle Sivan

Announcements:

• Chris Ross is resigning as Membership and Outreach Officer, so a replacement is needed.
• Bob Edwards returned as an Associate Member. Welcome!
• There will be a Pasta Dinner, November 4^th, an hour before the regular meeting
• The Holiday party will be on December 2.
• Alan Frankel – Co-Chair of the Committee Advisory Board for Boston Progressive Talk Radio talked about the organization.

• Jeff Santos, the former local talk show host, is the head of the board.
• With the shutting down of Air America radio here last year, there is only Conservative talk radio in the Boston area. This is harmful, as this lets the Conservatives define the Democrats and their ideas.
• Howard Dean gave credit to progressive radio for the last victory in the elections. Immediately afterwards, progressive radio was taken off the airways here and in other communities.
• The group is working with Michael Dukakis, Scott Harshburger, Jim Roosevelt and others to find investors to buy a radio station.

4. Hospitality for next meeting – Elsa Avisa and Laura Medrano

Report from the Hill – Rep. Pam Richardson:

• Has filed 19 bills
• As the bill to prevent head injuries by mandating the use of helmets in soccer was stalled Pam Richardson has filed a bill to collect statistic on sport injuries in the state, to see which sports are dangerous and what steps can be taken to lower the risks.
• The bill to let municipalities join the GIC state health insurance won’t help Framingham, but will help other towns.
• Massachusetts’ incentives for the film industry is producing results
• There’s a bill to help prevent identity theft prevention.

Program: Our guest speaker was Major Peter Capuzzi, an ex-marine who has served more than 10 years in the Marines. Major Capuzzi returned from Iraq this April, and has been a civilian since August 1. He currently lives in Framingham and is Elsa Avisa‘s son-in-law. Some highlights:

• Peter Capuzzi enlisted in the Marines in his Senior year at Georgetown University when he attended officer training school, because he wanted to serve his country. He served in Kuwait and most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was in Afghanistan during the elections and commanded 250 marines and was in charge of a territory the size of several states. Then he was stationed in Haditha, Iraq, after the killing of the Iraqi noncombatants by marines had taken place.
• Major Capuzzi admitted the current situation in Iraq is not good and that many mistakes were made, but he said the situation looks very different from right there than from far away.

Next Meeting – October 14, 2007

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · shellyis@gmail.com

Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of June 10, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Nancy Coville Wallace, Pat Dunne, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Terene Micciche, Valerie Mulvey, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Christopher Broyles, Kristin Harkness, Beverly Hugo, Lloyd Kaye, Farooq Mirza, Rep. Pam Richardson, Pamela Roberts

Guests: Phil Dinsky, Claire Farragher, Dawn Harkness

Guest Speaker: Lee Gartenberg

Business

• Treasurer’s Report from Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 5/06/07	1466.86
Dues Received	20.00
Dividends
Other Income:
Net Income	20.00
Itemized Expenses
Net Expenses
Balance as of 6/10/07	1486.86

 

 

Dues as of June 9:

• Members owing dues for 2006-07: 3 unpaid members; 34 paid. Paid up members: E. Aviza, B. Berman, R. Black, R. Blum, R. Cotton, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, P. Dunne, L. Fields, B. Haberman, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, R. Litter, C. Lorant, D. Magnani, T. Mahoney, K. McCarthy, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, T. Micciche, C. Monzon, V. Mulvey, B. Muto, P. Ottaviani, J. Rastani, C. Ross, N. Shulman, A. Silver, R. Sivan, J. Stefanini, C. Tully Stoll, P. Wahid
• Members owing dues for 2007-08: 26 unpaid; 11 paid. Paid up Members: E. Aviza, N. Coville Wallace, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, C. Lorant, S. Micciche, N. Shulman, A. Silber, R. Sivan, P. Wahid
• Associate Members owing dues for 2006-07: 15 paid
• Associate Members owing dues for 2007-08: 6 paid, 10 unpaid.

• Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Minutes from May 7 accepted.
• Impressions from the Convention:

• It was noted that there was no real discussion about the pros and cons of the resolutions that were voted on, and barely any time was given for debate.
• There was a lack of handicapped parking

4. The proposed FDTC meeting schedule was voted on, and was accepted with one amendment – the October meeting will be on October 14 instead of the 7^th.
5. Parwez discussed putting the 35 members of the FDTC on the ballot for the primary election. There are more people interested than the number of available slots. Valerie Mulvey suggested checking if any members are approaching 20 years of membership. Members of twenty years or more are eligible to become members for life, and are not counted as part of the DTC allowed 35 allotment.
6. There was a discussion about how appropriate it for an announcement about a fundraiser for Nikki Tsongas, one of the candidates running for the fifth Congressional district, to have been sent to the FDTC mailing list, although it was clear from the email that no endorsement was being given. Points made:

• The FDTC mailing list is a valuable commodity to candidates
• The FDTC cannot be seen as endorsing one or another primary candidate
• Framingham residents can’t vote for the 5^th district.
• John Walsh, the Mass. Party chair, thinks that as long as there’s a uniform, known policy, it’s OK to send out information.

The following motion proposed by Alan Silver was passed with 10 ayes and 2 opposed: The FDTC will distribute primary campaign information only in the case where the primary is in a Framingham district, and in that case all Democratic candidates for the primary will be informed about the policy so that nobody will get an unfair advantage.

7. A request was made for volunteers to man the FDTC tent at the Friday Concerts on the Green.
8. A letter was read from Donna Howland, who sadly is resigning from the FDTC because of a move to North Hampton.

Announcements:

• Rev. Faith C. Tolson is changing her status from a full member to an associate member, because of lack of time.
• Hospitality for next meeting – Pam Richardson and Claire Farragher.

Program:

Lee Gartenberg, the Director Of Inmate Legal Services for the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, talked about sentencing and CORI Reform. Brief Summary:

Mandatory sentencing is widely seen now as a mistake, as it doesn’t take into consideration the individual’s circumstances, and it overrides judges’ discretion. There are also unintended consequences. For example, the statue against selling drugs in the vicinity of even closed schools has a disproportional effect on minorities who tend to live in more urban and dense neighborhoods where almost every street is close to a school. Mandatory sentencing prevents effective rehabilitation methods such as parole and work release programs. It’s also expensive – it costs 40,000$ a year to lock somebody up and only 5000 – 10000$ for work release programs.

CORI (Criminal record information) needs reform because:

• It includes court appearances even if the defendant is found innocent
• It isn’t accurate – the name matching algorithm is not exact, and wrong results aren‘t infrequent.

• The burden is on the individual to prove himself innocent even in the case of mistaken identity.

• The information should be more limited in time, and not so widely available.

Next Meeting – September 9, 2007

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · shellyis@gmail.com

Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of May 6, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Bill Haberman, Donna Howland, Chris Lorant, Kathie McCarthy, Sarah Micciche, Terene Micciche, Joan Rastani, Chris Ross, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Kristin Harkness, Gerry Heng, Beverly Hugo, Lloyd Kaye, Farooq Mirza, Pamela Roberts

Guests: Christopher Broyles, Phil Dinsky, Bill Dooling, Claire Farragher, Julia Shannon, Sen. Karen Spilka

 

Business

• Treasurer’s Report (Sarah Micciche on behalf of Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 4/1/07	1182.89
Dues Received	290.00
Dividends	2.28
Other Income – March Breakfast	132.00
Net Income	424.28
Itemized Expenses
Postage; Web Site	40.31
Fram. Green Tenants Assoc.	100.00
Net Expenses	140.31
Balance as of 5/6/07	1466.86

 

Dues as of March 6:

• Members owing dues for 2006-07: 3 unpaid members; 34 paid. Paid up members: E. Aviza, B. Berman, R. Black, R. Blum, R. Cotton, N. Coville Wallace, G. Desilets, P. Dunne, L. Fields, B. Haberman, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, R. Litter, C. Lorant, D. Magnani, T. Mahoney, K. McCarthy, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, T. Micciche, C. Monzon, V. Mulvey, B. Muto, P. Ottaviani, J. Rastani, C. Ross, N. Shulman, A. Silver, R. Sivan, J. Stefanini, C. Tully Stoll, P. Wahid
• Members owing dues for 2007-08: 27 unpaid; 10 paid. Paid up Members: E. Aviza, N. Coville Wallace, E. Hopkins, D. Howland, S. Khan, C. Lorant, S. Micciche, N. Shulman, R. Sivan, P. Wahid
• Associate Members owing dues for 2006-07: 15 paid, 10 unpaid
• Associate Members owing dues for 2007-08: 6 paid, 10 unpaid. Paid up assoc. members: G. Heng, B. Hugo, P. Richardson, P. Roberts, G. Wells, L. Wells

• Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Minutes from April 1 accepted.
• Convention Briefing by Bill Dooling:

• You are allowed to bring a guest to the convention. The guest doesn’t have to be a Democrat and the guest can be under 18. The guests won’t be able to sit with the delegates.
• Gov. Deval Patrick will be the keynote speaker, and afterwards there will be grassroots workshops.
• Senator John Kerry is having a post-convention reception.

4. Pam Roberts talked about the Sudbury DTC who created a policy paper, and suggested that the Framingham DTC do the same. Pam promised to send out the Sudbury Policy paper. A lot of discussion ensued. Some of the points that were raised:

• We’d have to take care not to usurp the State Committee, either by sticking to local issues or by concentrating on issues not addressed by the State.
• Cheryl Tully Stoll cautioned that local Framingham topics can be very controversial and that we must take care not to saddle our representatives or potential candidates with baggage that could harm them in future elections. Bill Haberman concurred.
• Gerry Heng proposed a local topic – the tolls that only Metrowest drivers are forced to pay.
• Lloyd Kaye and Alan Silver talked about the need to raise awareness of the FDTC, and the need for outreach and better promotion.
• Bill made a motion to create an Issues Committee to propose issues, and bring them to the committee where sub-committees could be formed to handle each topic separately, and to have one topic discussed and voted on per meeting.
• Cheryl proposed an amendment to have the Issues Committee in addition, create a Mission statement in marketing language for outreach purposes describing who the FDTC is and what we’re about.

The motion passed. The Issues Committee volunteer members are: Pam Roberts, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Lloyd Kaye and Rochelle Sivan.

5. The hospitality committee for the next meeting – Beverly Hugo and Farooq Mirza.

 

Announcements:

• Parwez is having a barbecue on June 30 from 2 – 5. Rain date July 10. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray may attend. A committee was formed – Sarah Micciche, Chris Lorant, Elsa Aviza.
• Norma and Elsa bought a canopy for the FDTC.
• Parwez talked about the upcoming Flag Day where we can make use of the new canopy. Parwez urged all FDTC members to participate and man the FDTC booth, not just the “usual suspects”.

 

Program – From the Candidates’ Campaigns

1. Julia Shannon, the New England Field Coordinator for Barack Obama said that the campaign would kick off in NE on May 19, with a rally in Manchester, NH with Sen. Obama, and afterwards canvassing. On June 9 there’s going to be a national canvassing day. They’re going to open offices in Manchester and Concord, and the campaign is going to rely heavily on the grassroots. If anyone is interested in volunteering or getting on the email list, please contact Julia at jshannon@barackobama.com, or call her cell phone 603-7034358.

• Sen. Karen Spilka spoke for the Hillary Clinton campaign. (Rep. Pam Richardson is also a supporter.) Karen looked at all the candidates and chose Sen. Clinton because she thought her the strongest – Hillary is intelligent, experienced and the best prepared, ready to take over and start the job on day one. Sen. Clinton, ever since graduating from Yales Law School, has always been a strong advocate for women and children and families. She contributed all of the proceeds from her best-selling book “It takes a Village” to charities, attempted to bring health care to all, proposed linking the minimum wage to Congressional salaries and has been instrumental in getting children health insurance. The campaign has an office in Boston, tel 617-3675785, www.hillaryclinton.com, and our own Mike Firestone is part of the campaign in NH. Sen. Clinton’s husband, Pres. Bill Clinton, will be in Massachusetts in June.
• Beverly Hugo spoke unofficially for John Edwards, who is a personal friend of her husband. Sen. John Edwards is very electible, and can defeat any of the Republican candidates according to polls. He voted for the No Child Left Behind bill sponsored among others by Sen. Kennedy but it was supposed to be 40% funded. In actuality the funding has fluctuated but has never been at the 40% level. If elected, John Edwards will raise the level of funding in increments until it reaches the level of 40%. If anyone is interested in helping with the campaign, Beverley can direct them to the campaign leaders from Massachusetts.

 

Report from the Hill – Sen. Karen Spilka:

· The House budget is done, and May 16 is the date for the Senate Ways & Means budget to be released. The Senate debates its budget the week of May 21-25.

· Sen. Spilka submitted a bill along with Senate majority Leader Fred Berry to enable adoptees increased access to their birth certificates. It has passed the Senate and is now in the House.

· Sen. Spilka and Rep. Richardson are on the Commission for After School and along with Rep Sannicandro, are hosting a Public Hearing of the Commission in Framingham on May 29 in the late afternoon —once they have a location, they will forward it.

· It’s going to be a very rough year budget-wise. In April the revenue was 150 million dollars less than expected. However, some things improved. Framingham used to get a third of what Franklin gets for each student, even though the average Framingham student is more costly. In 2 years of reform now the ratio is up to one half. Next year, Framingham is getting a significant increase from this year in Chapter 70, School Aid – a $3.3 million increase over fiscal year 07.

· Sen. Spilka is trying to create a Metrowest-only Metropolitan Planning Organization District, instead of the current situation, where Framingham is part of the Boston MPO and its needs get lost.

Next Meeting – June 10, 2007

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · shellyis@gmail.com

Framingham Democratic Town Committee

Minutes of April 1, 2007

Attendance

Members: Elsa Aviza, Nancy Coville Wallace, Esther Hopkins, Donna Howland, Shahid Khan, Chris Lorant, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Terene Micciche, Joan Rastani, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Parwez Wahid

Associate Members: Gerry Heng, Beverly Hugo, Laura Medrano, Pamela Roberts

Guests: Laura Wells, George Wells, Shirley Rovezzi, Amar Sewsankar, Kate Donaghue, Donna Kramer Merrit, Rep. Pam Richardson

Business

• Treasurer’s Report (Nancy Coville-Wallace):

Cash on Hand as of 1/21/07	1241.91
Dues Received	70.00
Dividends
Other Income – State Committee
Net Income	1311.91
Itemized Expenses
Norma Shulman; Web Page	44.75
Parwez Wahid Caucus Printing	33.27
CVC Charge	1.00
Net Expenses	79.02
Balance as of 3/11/07	1232.89

 

• Minutes (Rochelle Sivan): Minutes from March 11 accepted.
• Programming Committee was formed. The members: Sarah Micciche, Laura Medrano, Elsa Avis, Pam Roberts.
• A motion was passed to donate 100$ to the Green’s Tenants’ Association.
• Laura reported the success of the March breakfast meeting, where 391$ was raised.
• Norma and Elsa reported on their investigations into buying a canopy for the FDTC for events like Flag Day. The options range from getting an old canopy from the town (if the town replaces its old canopies) to buying a new one for prices ranging from 69$ to more than 200$. They suggested waiting a month or so in hope the prices come down.
• Parwez is considering holding an Independence Day barbecue on June 30 or July 11, to which Lt. Governor Tim Murray would be invited.
• Nancy announced that membership dues for 2007 – 2008 are due.
• The hospitality committee for the next meeting – Pam Roberts and Beverly Hugo.

Announcements:

• Gerald Heng talked about the organization Universal Health Care Education fund which has an office in Boston and is advocating for national health care, in the model of Germany or Canada. Illegal immigrants especially have a big problem obtaining health care, because of their language problems, unfamiliarity with the system, and their lack of time to attend to their health. He discussed the many flaws of the Massachusetts plan – the deductibles are too onerous for low income residents, and the 30,000$ a year income level threshold which you have to be under to get state aid in buying insurance is ridiculously low. Our Democratic values mandate finding a better, more inclusive solution. In May they’ll have another meeting on this.
• Kate Donaghue, representative of the Middlesex and Worcestor Democratic Coalition, member of the Democratic state committee, member of the Deval Patrick committee, member of the Jamie Eldridge for Congress Campaign:

• Thanked the FDTC for the donation to the brunch, and the attendance of several members
• Announced the Hudson Town meeting with Deval Patrick on April 25, Comedy night on April 19 hosted by the Maynard DTC

• Invited people to go to the website www.devalpatrick.com

• Jamie Eldridge is running for the 5^th congressional district. He was a coordinator for the Deval Patrick campaign, has been very active doing grass roots work, and Kate highly recommends him as a candidate. She is asking for Framingham volunteers – it‘s right next door!

Guest Speaker – Donna Kramer Merritt

Donna Kramer Merritt is from the Climate project, an organization dedicated to fighting global warming, headed by Vice President Al Gore, and she’s also an associate publisher of Body & Soul magazine, a subsidiary of Martha Stewart’s Living. She gave a video presentation about global warming. Some points:

• She was inspired by the movie “Inconvenient Truth” to volunteer for the Climate Project. After being accepted, she went through several months of training, with 150 others, including Cameron Diaz (and Al Gore).
• No credible scientists remain who refute the fact of global warming and humanity’s part in it.
• The anticipated rise of the seas, even in the best case scenarios, will put parts of Boston under water.
• There are actions we all can take to make a difference – go to www.theclimateproject.org.
• She’s available to give presentations to organizations, civic groups, etc., so if you’re interested, please contact her at donnam@bodyandsoulmag.com.

Special Guest – Amar Sewsankar

Amar played a song from his anti-war CD that he composed himself about peace.

Report from the Hill – Rep. Pam Richardson

• Rep. Richardson talked about the overrun in the school expenses, caused because of the unexpected arrival of 84 children this year. There is a circuit-breaker that funnels funds, but this didn’t trigger it. It costs Framingham 8000$ a year to educate the average student, and 4 times that much for special needs. Next year Framingham will get more funds, but this year we’re facing “heinous” cuts in the words of Norma Shulman. She urged everyone to attend the School Committee meeting taking place that week.

 

Next Meeting – May 6, 2007

Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · shellyis@gmail.com