Framingham Democratic Town Committee
Minutes of October 16, 2005
Held at Framingham Green from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.
Attendance
Members: Nancy Coville Wallace, Jerry Desilets, Donna Howland, Chris Lorant, Archie Lyon, Stephanie Mercandetti, Sarah Micciche, Valerie Mulvey, Phil Ottaviani, Joan Rastani, Norma Shulman, Alan Silver, Rochelle Sivan, Parwez Wahid
Guest speakers: Sam Kelley, Gerry Leone, Kate Thurmond
Guests: Chris Doherty, Mel Warshaw, Kirsten Steinbach (Framingham State College), Jake Oliveria (Framingham State College).
Treasurer’s report
|
Previous Balance |
1451.15 |
|
Dues received |
$95.00 |
|
Dividends |
$2.83 |
|
Other Income |
0 |
|
Net Income |
$97.83 |
|
Itemized Expenses |
0 |
|
Net Expenses |
0 |
|
Balance as of 10/16/05 |
$1548.98 |
There are 2 members who still owe dues for 2003-04, R. Black and Rev. Faith Tolson.
There are 18 paid regular members.
19 members owing dues for 2004-05: R. Berman, R. Black, R. Blum, C Cunningham, L Fields, E. Hopkins, R. Litter, D. Magnani, T. Mahoney, S. Mercandetti, S. Micciche, T. Micciche, C. Monzon, M Murphy, B Muto, P. Ottaviani, C. Ross, J. Stefanini, F. Tolson
There are 3 paid associate members.
Treasurer’s report was accepted.
There was a question on the status of A.J. Mulvey as Associate member. Donna Howland stated that all Associate members should have renewed as of May.
Minutes for the September meeting were accepted, no corrections needed.
PROGRAM:
Sam Kelley, candidate for Lt. Governor.
Dr. Kelley was introduced by Nancy Coville Wallace. Sam Kelley is from Cohasset. He served in the Clinton Administration in the area of health care and is a medical doctor for the Society For Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Dr. Kelley stated he is running for Lt. Governor because he believes in Massachusetts. He believes the people of this state have the right to quality health care and education. He believes in security for health care so that people are not uninsured or underinsured. He wants to see safety and security in schools and for labor to be able to organize and provide jobs. He believes in environmental security like clean air. As Lt. Governor, Dr. Kelley hopes to perform functions similar to Surgeon General, as there is no such official position in the state government.
Sam Kelley is originally from Kentucky where he grew up on a chicken farm. He recalled that he was given the duty of shoveling and quipped it was not dirt that he shoveled. When a Republican Senator once commented that such tasks prepared one for politics, Kelley joked that the Senator’s words helped to demonstrate the differences between the 2 major parties!
His experiences from farm life taught him the importance of providing for families. His family suffered a tragedy when their home was destroyed in a fire. His family rebuilt their home and from that he learned the importance of pulling together with courage.
He came to Massachusetts for education and attended medical school, specializing in child psychology. He was fortunate to work in the Clinton Administration where he worked with Hillary Clinton on health care issues. He also worked with former Congressman Jim McDermott. He returned to Boston and became Director for the Mass Society For Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Sam Kelley spoke of the state’s health care system that he described as broken, with a large number of uninsured and underinsured in the state. He believes there are viable ways to tackle the cost issues of health care with a universal health care approach. In general he felt that many people, himself included, felt tragedy fatigued since 9/11, the wars, then the tsunami and hurricanes during 2005. He spoke of the potential crisis that could arise from the bird-flu virus, currently in the news headlines. While the virus is not at the point of human-to-human contact, Dr. Kelley feels that we should be prepared for this potential crisis; he added that he is not confident that the current governor’s administration is prepared to handle such a crisis were it to arise.
Gerry Leone, candidate for Middlesex County District Attorney.
Mr. Leone resides in Hopkinton with his wife and children. (He mentioned his father-in-law is the former Boston College football coach, Jack Bicknell.) He had been a prosecutor in Framingham for several years in Middlesex County. Commenting on the 2006 elections he stressed the importance of having a governor who is focused on the state and its people, plus he mentioned the need to maintain the legacy of excellence of the State Attorney General and this in-turn would lead to having a strong candidate for Middlesex County District Attorney. Gerry Leone believes he is just that candidate.
As a prosecutor Mr. Leone spent 7-1/2 years in the Middlesex County DA office; what he described as his formative years. He believes his experience and service in that office under Tom Reilly and Martha Coakley positions him as the best candidate for the office of District Attorney. Over his career he has prosecuted criminals and worked long hours to keep people safe. He describes this as a passion, something that he does well and enjoys doing with dedication.
Mr. Leone began his career in the District Attorney’s office, then went on to the State Attorney General’s office to run the state-wide criminal bureau. He then went to the US Attorney’s office to run the anti-terrorism program.
He described his campaign not as a continuation of a political career, but as a continuation of a prosecutorial career. From 1991 to 1999 he ran the districts courts and the superior courts and the prevention model community based justice programs, also the juvenile justice program. He had been out of law school for just three years when he was made the chief of the Framingham region.
His position requires both prosecuting at the highest level and also building partnerships for prevention. Mr. Leone states he has been successful in both areas. His experiences on his father’s football team has taught him the importance of team-building, something that he takes pride in and describes as a strength. As a prosecutor he has been involved in cases seeking justice for people who have no voice.
To be the chief prosecutor of the County, Leone feels that one must have an in-depth knowledge on how to build a case. He believes his background in prosecution gives him this vital knowledge.
Gerry Leone described how he was given the assignment to build the first terrorism task force in the state following the 9/11 attacks. He mentioned the extreme trust and confidence shown by Tom Reilly and others when he was given this assignment.
Kate Thurmond, representative from the Deval Patrick for governor campaign
A physician by training, Dr. Thurmond was once considering entering international health care then opted to support the Presidential campaign of Wesley Clark in New Hampshire after which she made the complete switch to politics. She attended the meeting to share her thoughts on the gubernatorial campaign of Deval Patrick. She found Mr. Patrick to have strong qualifications for this office. Some of her early assignments in the campaign were to buildup presence in areas of the state where Democratic support tends to be sluggish.
She asked the DTC members to learn more about Patrick’ s campaign through the website, devalpatrick.com and to become more involved in the campaign.
BUSINESS:
Under some old business items, there was the filling of the Affirmative Action and Outreach Advisor position. The members present did not offer any nominations for this position. It was suggested that a nominating committee be formed to identify a candidate for the AAOA position. Archie Lyon expressed interest to serve on this nominating committee. Normal Shulman will approach the membership for 1 or 2 others to serve on the nominating committee.
Parwez Wahid mentioned the ARCHIVES page on the website that contains links to information that is no longer relevant, but worth keeping. He wants to add a section to the ARCHIVES that lists past DTC officers and the annual treasury reports. He is only familiar with the current and previous officers and would like to know if members can provide information of other past officers. Valerie Mulvey mentioned this information is available at the Town Clerk’s office.
There was some discussion on possible locations for the pancake breakfast event planned for the Spring of 2006.
Norma Shulman mentioned upcoming events for the area’s legislators:
Oct 26 – For Tom Sannicandro at the Aegean Restaurant
Oct 30 – For Debby Blumer at Nobscot Café
Nov 7 – For Karen Spilka at the Aegean Restaurant
Chris Lorant mentioned the Deval Patrick volunteers meetup on October 17th at Starbucks on Rt. 9 and Prospect. Also Chris is hosting a House Party for the Deval Patrick campaign on Oct 22nd. There will be a canvass for the Patrick campaign on Nov 6th in Framingham.
Donna Howland mentioned the forum on Town Government on October 17th in the Public Hearing room of the Memorial Building.
Archie Lyon presented a petition on redistricting. (It was mentioned that a guest speaker at the September meeting had also brought the same petition.)