The Framingham City Council met on September 19, 2025, to address a range of legislative matters, including collective bargaining agreements, a proposed zoning change to make the council the special permit granting authority for large projects, and public comments on military culture and development impacts. The council approved several consent items and contract ratifications unanimously.
The City Council is the sole legislative body of the city of Framingham and is therefore responsible for passing city ordinances. The city council is made up of 11 members who exercise the legislative powers of Framingham. Two of these members are known as counselors at large, and nine members are known as district counselors. The city council serves as a link between the citizens of Framingham and their municipal government. Counselors help constituents by connecting them to resources, services, and city departments. And also serve as advocates for all Framingham residents. The following city council coverage is brought to you by the government channel, a service of the city of Framingham. We're using version one of the agenda. It was posted in the public meeting portal and published in to legislate on Monday, 915, 2025. We have Council Zoin joining us remotely. I believe it will be Councillor Cannon, Councillor Long, and Councillor Steiner. He's here. Oh Council Steiner. How are you, sir? I tried to catch it. She didn't catch me in time. So that's nice to see you. All right, let me take that. And he's got his BC hat on, which is even more impressive. Oh, you mast. Oh, kids come first. They come before all of us. You're absolutely right. The burgundy, you got me off guard with the burgundy. Yep. First order of business is public participation. Chris Leonard, you're our first speaker. Three minutes. Um welcome. And thank you for your um I got a mail from you, so thank you. Thank you for recognizing me. My name is Christopher Leonard of 20 Sewell Street. I'm a 2004 graduate of Framium High School and a proponent of systemic peace. My participation today is in the form of a criticism of the dominant military culture of this nation, provided to you in the spirit of confidence in each one's capacity for virtue, emphasizing simultaneously each one's capacity for vice. I have taken the liberty of sending to several of you a print copy of Veterans for Peace, Peace and Planet News, a special issue on militarism and climate crisis. I urge you to read about a vision for abolishing war, establishing justice, and responding to climate disaster. Regarding the human cost of militarism, not only are the lives and well-being of American warriors endangered by planned organized violence, also at significant risk are enemy combatants and foreign national civilians. Military interventions occurring out of sight of the American public make the human loss of foreign victims effectively invisible. American warriors experience moral injury, committing violence that many would find ethically objectionable. Some even resort to self-injury. It seems that violence begets violence, not peace. My suggestions to address the environmental and human cost of militarism are preliminary. They are rooted in providing an alternative narrative to the public and especially to the youth who are destined to inherit the debts of our wrongdoing. A transition must be made from a system of mass exploitation and negligence to one of mass responsibility and care. National security can be had by other means than violence or the threat of violence. In walking north from this building on both Union Avenue and Concord Street, one is dumbstruck by the number of American flags on display. Perhaps the city can display the hundreds of flags of other nations or of other states in this union, illustrating the Latin phrase a pluribus unum. This symbolic act represents cooperation with various sovereignties rather than a perpetual pitting of us against them. Another suggestion would be to permit a peace advocate to educate the youth about the environmental and human costs of war for every war recruiter that is permitted to enter a school. Yet another suggestion would be to honor the memory of foreign victims of war alongside American victims.