Zoom Conference – 7:00pm

Meeting Attendees 

Members: Mike Hugo, Robert Case, Beverly Hugo, Barbara LeDuc, Larry Stoodt, Cesar Stewart-Morales, Adam Steiner, Mel Warshaw, Norma Shulman, Chris Lorant, Rosamond Hooper-Hamersley, Kurt Fusaris, Margareth Shepard, Kathie McCarthy, Tracey Bryant, Rep. Jack Patrick Lewis, Christopher Broyles, Jim Stockless, Jeanne Bullock, Mary Kate Feeney, Adam Freudberg, Doug Lawrence, Patrick Dunne, Thom Mahoney, Lori Bornstein, Cindy Rubin, Ohad Klopman, Ricky Finlay, Cheryl Tully Stoll, Parwez Wahid, Barbara Fontes, David Magnani, Caraline Levy, John Stefanini

Associate Members: Cheryl Gordon, Yvonne Spicer, Priscila Sousa, Tilia Jacobs, Andrew Machkasov, Isabella Petroni, Joel Winett, Rep. Maria Robinson, Audrey Hall

Guests: Rep. Danielle Gregoire, Quentin Palfrey, James Thrasher, Kate Donaghue, Ravi Simon, Melvin Poindexter, Vanessa Pendexter, Bijan Afshartous

• Welcome, Announcements and Updates – Chair Mike Hugo

• The chair reviewed the agenda and called the meeting to order at 7:03pm.

• Meet Attorney General Candidate Quentin Palfrey

• • The chair introduced Quentin Palfrey, candidate for Attorney General.
  • Candidate Palfrey introduced himself and shared why he is running for Attorney General. He presented his background and experience and asked for the support of our Committee.
  • There was a Q&A session following Mr. Palfrey’s presentation.

 

• Acceptance of Minutes of September & November Meetings – Rob Case, Secretary 

• Motion to accept the December 12, 2021 minutes by Tracey Bryant; seconded by Kathie McCarthy

• There was no discussion; motion approved unanimously. 

• Treasurer’s Report – Larry Stoodt, Treasurer  

• • • As of Dec 11th, the starting balance was $3,995.84; received interest of $0.17, received $15.00 in donations leaving us $4,011.01;we paid ActBlue $0.60, so we have an ending balance of $4,010.41
    • The FDC financial report has been filed with the OCPF.

• Motion to accept the report by Kathie McCarthy; seconded by Tracey Bryant.

• Motion approved unanimously. 

• Reports from Municipal Elected Officials (City Council, School Committee, Mayor)

• City Council:

• • • • Adam Steiner – next meeting on January 18th the City Council will reorganize and choose a chair and vice chair. 

• School Committee:

• • • • Priscilla Sousa – the School Committee reorganized at its meeting last week – the new officers are Priscila Sousa, Chair; Jessica Barnhill, Vice Chair; Ricky Finlay, Clerk. The goal for future is to have school committee meetings translated simultaneously into sign language, Spanish, and Portuguese. The newly seated school committee will begin to work on district goals for the new year. The School Committee will vote soon on the approval of the newly appointed Asst. Superintendent of DEI. Thank you to the outgoing chair, Adam Freudberg. Everything was left in great shape for her to pick right up where he left off.
      • Adam Freudberg – congratulations to the new officers and best wishes to Priscilla.

• Beverly Hugo –  there will be a budget workshop on Jan 12th for fiscal year 2023. Continuing Unit A negotiations and it looks like it will be settled soon.

• Ricky Finlay – Superintendent and the Mayor have paused sports and after school events for two weeks to try and contain the spread of COVID in the schools.

• Mayor Charlie Sisitsky:

• • Not present; no report. 

• Report from our House Delegation, – Rep. Jack P. Lewis, Rep. Maria Robinson, Rep. Carmine Gentile, Rep. Danielle Gregoire, Sen. Pres. Karen Spilka  

• Rep. Danielle Gregoire – the lull in the State House will be sending soon and before we know it the budget will be up in April; always interested to know any interests or priorities that are important to people going forward.

• • • Rep. Jack P. Lewis – the house is about to come out of recess and things are starting to pick up again; most bills will need to be voted out of committee by the first week of February. Please keep up your advocacy for bills you are following and supporting.

• Rep. Maria Robinson – there are some home rule petitions going on currently; and yes please keep in touch with anything you need. Maria’s Senate confirmation hearing is tentatively schedule for the end of the month, hope to have a more detailed progress report soon. 

• Subcommittee Reports, discussions, actions and votes:

• Bylaws – Mel Warshaw

• • • • No report

• Communications –Jim Hansen

• • • • No report

• Civics Education – Beverly Hugo

• • • • Subcommittee met and almost all members have agreed to volunteer to do outreach; analyzed the election of the League of Women Voters and hope to ensure ways they remain non-partisan; formulating long range plans for 2022; finalized the last draft of our anti-racism survey and voted unanimously to send it to the Legislative Subcommittee. Special thanks to Rozzy for all that she did. Miles Rappaport from Harvard’s’ Kennedy School of Government in support of Bill H788 for Universal Voting; Miles has accepted an offer to speak at one of their subcommittee meetings as long as the support for the bill passes our legislative subcommittee. 

• Environmental/Climate Change – Larry Stoodt

• • • • Next meeting is 1/29 at 1pm
      • Need to map out plans for the next year for Framingham

• Legislative – Doug Lawrence

• • • •  Next meeting is Jan 13th at 7pm.
      • Going to discuss an act to make voting mandatory to increase turnout.
      • A number of climate action bills to discuss and possibility of local climate advocacy with City Council.
      • Discussing the Social Security double dip prohibition issue in regards to teacher’s retirement.

• Outreach – Parwez Wahid

• • • •  There hasn’t been a meeting but have reached out to some who might be interested in joining the Outreach Subcommittee.  The holidays have been busy for everyone but will pick everything back up and start having regular meetings again soon. For Communications Subcommittee we desperately need an admin for the FDC website.  Cindy Rubin volunteered and will meet with Jim, Parwez, and the Communications Subcommittee soon to discuss the details. 

• Programming – Rosamond Hooper-Hamersley & Cesar Stewart-Morales 

• (Discussion of Mission/Vision DRAFT Statement (Included in materials, please review)

• Motion to accept the Mission/Vision Statement as revised and presented by the Civics Ed subcommittee by Kathie McCarthy; seconded by Mel Warshaw.

• An amendment to delete the last sentence “We will be relentless in our pursuit of an enlightened and progressive agenda” in the Vision statement was made by Tracey Bryant; seconded by Cheryl Tully Stoll.

• • • • • • • Discussion held regarding concern of alienating moderate Democrats who may be nominated for office and them not wanting to work with the FDC because of including the term “enlightened, progressive agenda.”
            • Suggested to remove the last sentence containing the phrase term “enlightened, progressive agenda,” and to say we heed the Democratic principles at our core of our values and in our work.

• The motion to delete the entire sentence “We will be relentless in our pursuit of an enlightened and progressive agenda” failed.

• An amendment to remove the words “ an enlightened” and replace with “a progressive agenda” in the last sentence by Mel Warshaw; seconded by Kathie McCarthy.

• • • • • • • The term enlightened could be perceived as elitist and not sure if that’s where we want to go as a committee.
            • People who are looking to criticize us will use the term enlightened against us calling us elitist.

• A motion to call the question to remove “an enlightened” was called by Beverly Hugo; seconded by Cesar Stewart-Morales.

• The motion to call the question passed.

• The motion to remove the words “ an enlightened” and replace with “a progressive agenda” in the last sentence passed.

• Motion to call the question on the main motion as amended was made by Larry Stoodt; seconded by Beverly Hugo.

• The motion to call the question on the main motion passed.

• Motion to accept the Mission/Vision Statement as amended passed. There were two abstentions.  

• Candidate Forum – District 3 City Council Special Election

• Moderated by the Hon. Melvin Poindexter, MA Representative to Democratic National Committee 

• • • • Each Democratic District 3 candidate present was permitted a two-minute introduction and responded to the same question as their opponent.
      • A time limit of 3 minutes per candidate per question was permitted.
      • Each candidate was given a two-minute closing statement.
      • Candidates present included: Adam Steiner and Mary-Kate Feeney. 

• Vote for new members, Introductions of Prospective Associate Members

• • • Three Open Positions this month.
    • Nominated Associate Members include:
      • Audrey Hall
      • Yvonne Spicer
      • Priscila Sousa

• Motion to accept the three nominated associate members by acclimation as full members of the FDC by Larry Stoodt; seconded by Beverly Hugo.

• Motion approved unanimously. 

• Discussion of upcoming projects and scheduling.

• Motion to hold our February 2022 meeting on Feb 6th at 7pm and our remote caucus on Sat, Feb 12th at 1pm by Kathie McCarthy ; seconded by Larry Stoodt .

• Motion approved unanimously. 

• New Business, member announcements, general announcements for the good of the order.

• Kate Donaghue – making an exploratory announcement on running for State Rep for the new Worcester 19th District which includes a portion of Framingham. A full announcement will be made in the coming days.

• David Magnani – Republicans are doing everything they can to support voter suppression in the courts and in the legislatures of the swing states. If you are interested in working with the new group Together We Elect 2022 (formerly OC 2020) to focus the fight against voter suppression, please contact David Magnani, Beverly Hugo, or Mike Hugo.  We will be meeting with local MetroWest groups every two weeks and as a larger national group once a month.  

• • • The chair wished everyone a happy, healthy, and COVID free new year.
    • Remind voters in District 3 to vote in the election on Tuesday. 

• Adjourn

• Motion to adjourn by Kathie McCarthy; seconded by Chris Lorant.

• Motion approved unanimously.

• The meeting adjourned at 9:32pm.

 

Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Case
FDC, Secretary

 

Special Note: If you or a loved one are experiencing any issues that we can help with during this extraordinary time please contact the Chair or any Officer and we will do all we can to get services or meet any needs that we can for that person, we would be honored to render discreet aid to anyone in need, to the best of our abilities.

Next FDC Meeting Date: February 6th at 7:00 PM

FDC Caucus will be February 12th at 1:00pm