Meeting Attendees: All FDC members listed, those in BOLD were present
Members: Lori Bornstein, Christopher Broyles, Tracey Bryant, Jeanne Bullock, Jerry Desilets, Patrick Dunne, Mary Kate Feeney, Barbara Fontes, Adam Freudberg, Kurt Fusaris, Linda Fields, Danielle Gregoire, Audrey Hall, Jim Hansen , Brooke Harvey, Leslie White Harvey, Rosamond Hooper-Hamersley, Beverly Hugo, Mike Hugo, Shahid Khan, Ohad Klopman, William LaBarge Doug Lawrence, Barbara LeDuc, Caraline Levy, Chris Lorant, Jack Patrick Lewis, David Magnani, Thom Mahoney, Betty Muto, Kathie McCarthy, Amanda Northrup, Phil Ottaviani, , Cindy Rubin, Margareth Shepard, Norma Shulman, Ravi Simon, Priscila Sousa, Yvonne Spicer, Adam Steiner, John Stefanini, Cesar Stewart-Morales, Jim Stockless, Larry Stoodt, Cheryl Tully-Stoll, Parwez Wahid, Mel Warshaw
Associate Members: Rob Adamson, Kalee Balde, Maureen Dunne, Ricky Finlay, Karen Garafolo, David Gordon, Tilia Klebenov Jacobs, Andrew Machkasov, Isabella Petroni, Joan Rastani, Pamela Roberts, Brandon Ward, Joel Winett
Guests: Menakshi Verma Agrawal, Bijan Afshartous, Nanette Magnani, Bridgette Griffin
AGENDA
7:00 – 7:10 Welcome, initial announcements – Mike Hugo
7:10 – 7:40 Presentation by Framingham Families for Racial Equity in Education (FFREE) –Menakshi Verma Agrawal
7:40 – 7:43 Treasurer’s Report – Larry Stoodt
7:43 – 7:45 Acceptance of Minutes – Doug Lawrence
7:45 – 8:10 Reports from City Council, School Committee and Mayor
8:10 – 8:25 Report from our Legislative Delegation
8:25 – 8:40 November elections – What YOU can do here and elsewhere
8:40 – 8:55 Subcommittee discussions and upcoming actions for the year:
Bylaws – Mel Warshaw
Communications – Jim Hansen
Civic Education – Beverly Hugo
Environmental – Larry Stoodt
Legislative Subcommittee – Barbara LeDuc
Outreach – Parwez Wahid
Programming – Rosamond Hooper-Hamersley & Cesar Stewart-Morales
8:50 – 9:00 New Business, member announcements, general announcements for the good of the order
9:00 Adjourn
Meeting called to order at 7:04PM
Welcome, Announcements and Updates – Chair Mike Hugo (5 min)
Mike kicked off the meeting at 7:04.
Presentation by Framingham Families for Racial Equity in Education (FFREE) –Menakshi Verma Agrawal
Taking on structural racism, she sees it firsthand as she has 3 children in Framingham Public Schools. Lack of teachers of color in the district. Stated policy to not compromise qualifications for race. 4 major platforms:
- Curriculum and instruction is still very Euro-centric view
- Focus on professional development, hiring diverse and different staff
- Hiring and retention of teachers and administration of color
- Policy and Procedures – remove school resource officers (police) from the district
Applying for 501c3 status, and can use volunteers to help advance the agenda. Need board members, and people willing to attend School Committee and hold them accountable.
Treasurer’s Report – Larry Stoodt
Bank Balance 4661.21 on September 18th
+ $ 25.20 in dues paid
+ $54.55 cleared the bank from Sept
-$500.00 for the combined campaign office
$ 4131.86 is current bank balance which will be reported to the office of campaign finance
- Dues are $20 Member /$15 Associate. You can pay by Act Blue, or cash but check is preferred, to save the $0.79 Act Blue admin fee (to offset the cost of ActBlue, please increase your donation to $21.00)
- please mail your 2022 dues to Larry Stoodt at 615 Belknap Road, Framingham, MA 01701.
Vote to accept Treasurer’s Report: Moved by K. McCarthy, seconded by Rosamund Hooper-Hamersley to accept Treasurers Report, vote to accept was unanimous.
Acceptance of Prior Meeting Minutes – Doug Lawrence Doug read 1 correction to the list of FDC members at the heading of the minutes. Kathie McCarthy moved to accept the minutes, Parwez Wahid seconded, assent was unanimous.
Report from our City Council representatives
Adam Steiner – City Council is meeting Oct 25th. Please start paying attention to City Council as serious local issues are being debated and ordinances enacted that will set the course of the city for many years. For example, Development in Framingham – we are overly influenced by the real estate industry. Affordable Housing requirement increase from 10% to 14% was passed and would have gone to mayor. But amendments were brought in, forcing another delay for a public hearing, leaving an opening for projects under the old rules. The Nobscot project arising has also been disturbing. As national politics winds down, please shift attention back to local City issues. The on-street pan handling ordinance ate up a lot of time, and the final bill may be so watered down that it will be ineffective. Open positions in the administration is an issue, city capacity to get things done is declining. Some councilors may prefer the positions to remain open. City Hall morale is very low.
Report from School Committee
Priscilla Sousa, Chair – Recently met and discussed equity/antiracist training. Will be executed in tandem with issues in the district. Keep a diverse student population thriving requires an intentional effort on restorative justice. We are navigating teacher, driver shortages. Teachers that look like the student population are important. We are going to MASC and are coming back to speaking about our work on DEI.
Beverly Hugo – Our annual MASC conf of school comm members statewide will be attended by all Framingham School Board members, Nov 2-5th. Second part of equity training will take place at the conference. We are pushing that every school include financial literacy in the curriculum. Climate subcommittee will look at solar canopies, reduced paper use, clean enery and offshore wind. Also back the Fair Share Amendment to add
William LaBarge – Strong endorsement of Question 1, with great fortune that has come to rich folks, they can certainly contribute to a better world by investing in infrastructure and schools.
State Legislature
Jack Patrick Lewis – Bills filed every session relating to police in schools and diversity among teachers. Please look and back these bills. Trying to offer local option not to have police in schools. Legislators are seeking bills to be files 4 Jan 2023. Now is the time to bring great ideas forward. No formal session until January. Some things may get done in informal session but the process and outcomes are hard to project. Ballot initiatives #1 and #4 are key to get a “Yes” to help reinforce to legislature acting on issues like these in the future. For instance, if FSA does not pass, Corp Minimum Tax will be very difficult to pass.
Elections – Introduced by Mike Hugo
Coordinated Campaign office at 68 South Street. A depot for campaign materials, Parwez has been instrumental in helping organize. Secured by a lock box, Mike and Norma can provide access combination as needed.
Norma Shulman driveway remains the true nerve center of Framingham Dems. The coordinated campaign has Norma full time launching canvases. Norma has a few signs at home but shirts, buttons etc are at the office.
Norma sees us canvassing for Q1/Q4, going to NH etc. Meaningful out of town work BUT almost NO FDC members are helping with our local coordinated campaign. Set aside 2 hours to sign up to canvas, she has turf and literature for you. The coordinated campaign is about electing the TEAM that will get things done. We need to vote the democrat straight ticket and pass the initiatives.
Willie and Priscilla are in neighborhood of the office and offered to help at the office.
Kurt Fusaris
Q1 Fair Share Amendment – canvasses and weekly phone banks are under way.
Recommended site “Blue Tent” to help key races around the country.
Subcommittee Reports, discussions, actions, and votes:
Committee Reports: Un-minuted committees were SKIPPED in interest of time
Bylaws – Mel Warshaw (Ch. Emeritus) is being reformed
Communications – Jim Hansen
Everything going reasonably smoothly, no need for lengthy update, difficult to get committee quorum.
Civics Education – Beverly Hugo
Outreach – Parwez Wahid
Sen Becca Rausch – district changed and in a tough race. Motion to spend $250 on her campaign from FDC funds. Second by Adam Steiner.She is one of the most progressive senators. Her district is now much more red and she is vulnerable. Vote was unanimous to make the contribution.
Outreach – can we get volunteers or FDC recruits from campaign workers? If you meet someone new, invite them to get active ith FDC
Environmental/Climate Change – Larry Stoodt
Legislative – Barbara LeDuc is serving as convener. Will be developing new list of legislation to consider.
Programming – Rosamond Hooper-Hamersley & Cesar Stewart-Morales
MetroWest Blue and Beyond – Dave Magnani
This Wednesday 19th’s Zoom call for our last MetroWest Blue and Beyond event before the Midterms -This one will be for Arizona Dems for GOTV efforts primarily targeted to low-propensity voters.
https://forms.gle/5HGfRtJvXK6rH3766.
Updates from the Chair – M. Hugo
TogetherWeElect.org is a great site. Check off “get started” The site will provide coaching on how to start supporting campaigns (eg. Phone banking). A great “how to” site. Calendar of 4-5 items/events you can get involved in every single day.
Adjourned at 8:47pm – moved by K. McCarthy , seconded by M. Warshaw , passed by acclamation.
Respectfully Submitted,
Doug Lawrence
Secretary, FDC