The Framingham City Council held its regular meeting on October 8, 2025, covering a wide range of topics including election information, public comments, proclamations, a DEI audit presentation, zoning code amendments, and multiple votes on appointments and appropriations.
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 have a long night this evening. Version one of the agenda was posted in the public meeting portal and published to uh legislate on Thursday 10225 call to order. We will start with public participation. First person on public participation is our city clerk. Um Lisa Ferguson. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I'd like to provide the voters with information regarding the upcoming city election. The date of the election is November 4th, 2025. Um that's four weeks from tonight or today. Uh polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. The deadline to register to vote is Saturday, October 25th at 5 p.m. in person, um, 1159 online. Uh the city clerk's office is going to be open on that Saturday, October 25th from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Uh there is no early in-person voting for a city election. If you cannot or you do not want to vote in person on election day, you may vote by mail. Uh the deadline to apply for a ballot is October 28th at 5 p.m. Absentee ballots are available for voters who will be absent from Framingham on election day during polling hours. Um if they have a disability or if they have a religious belief that prevents them from going to a polling location. Um also if they're a non-registered voter residing overseas or in the military. The information on the ballot is as follows. There's one seat for mayor, there's one seat per district for counselor as well as for school committee, six seats for library trustee, three seats for cemetery trustee, and one charter amendment question. The ballot is two-sided, the candidates appear on the front side, and the question is going to appear on the back. Detailed information about the election was placed on the city's website under elections and voting in June. This includes information about the charter question, the summary, the vote of council, the recommendations of the charter review committee, the red line version of the charter that shows the proposal of what is being added to the charter and what is being deleted. And also on the website are links to all the meetings pertaining to these amendments. So it's a lot of information. And I'll also like to briefly discuss the legal mandates that I must follow in timelines regarding the ballot question. On August 6th, 2024, uh council voted um to approve the recommendations of the Charter Review Committee and send this question uh to the voters. Under the law, the city clerk is required to mail information regarding the question to the voters no later than two weeks before the election. September 16th of this year was the city preliminary for District 2 uh school committee. Um that was held. September 22nd was at 5 p.m. was the deadline to object or withdraw from that um preliminary election. Um at 501, I drew names for ballot placement for the city election for November 4th, and the printer was notified on what needed to be printed on those ballots. On September 25th, ballot proofs were received, reviewed for accuracy, and the ballots were ordered. On September 29th, uh the charter question postcard was mailed to the voters. This is well in advance of the required two weeks before the election. This date was chosen deliberately by me so that not only were the voters who chose who choose to vote in person on November 4th were notified, but also the hundreds of voters that have that are receiving their ballots in the mail this week so that they are also informed about the ballot question. The postcard has links to the website and also a QR code for voters who do not use a computer.