Framingham Council In Beef Over Council Letterhead
FRAMINGHAM, MA — At a quick glance, it might appear that the Framingham City Council is fighting over office supplies. But take a deeper look, and you'll get a look inside the Council's political workings.
The City Council letterhead was the subject of a 40-minute debate at Tuesday's meeting. At issue is a letter five Councilors sent to Mayor Yvonne Spicer on May 21. The letter asks the mayor to relax local laws to allow restaurants to reopen more quickly following coronavirus. That part is not controversial — but that the letter was sent on the official City Council stationary without input from any of the other Councilors is.
On Tuesday night, Councilors Christine Long and Cesar Stewart-Morales proposed a new rule governing how the official City Council letterhead can be used. The proposed rule would require a vote of the full Council before anyone could use the letterhead. The penalty for not getting approval would be the "loss of the ability to use City Council letterhead in an individual capacity."
"You need to make sure when you speak it is clear if you're speaking on behalf of yourself or on behalf of [the whole Council]," Stewart-Morales said. "That is just something that comes with the territory."
The Councilors who signed the letter — Chair George King, Jane Leombruno, Philip Ottaviani, Michael Cannon, and John Stefanini — said that they didn't gather input from other Councilors to avoid a possible open meeting law violation.
The Councilors who were left off the letter said they were blindsided by it when contacted by constituents. Vice Chair Adam Steiner said that he was asked why he didn't sign, even though he didn't know about it.
"This is not the worst crime in the world, but I think to me it's obvious — it's local government 101, if you're speaking not on behalf of your group you make that clear," Steiner said.
The Councilors who signed the letter pushed back, saying they were only thinking about how they could help small business owners.
"I can't believe we're talking about this," Cannon said.
Ottaviani said the new rule would be "micromanaging the duties of each City Councilor."
Cannon made a motion to send the new letterhead rule to the ordinance and rules subcommittee. But that motion was voted down 6-5. The five who voted in favor of Cannon's motion were the same five who sent the letter to Spicer.
The discussion broke down at the end, and the whole thing was killed with a little-used parliamentary maneuver.
Stewart-Morales sought an immediate vote on his proposal. But Councilor John Stefanini invoked Article 2 section 9b of the city charter, which says "If any single member objects, a vote on the measure shall be postponed to the next meeting of the council."
That means the issue could come back at a future meeting, whether all the Councilors sign on or not.
This article originally appeared on the Framingham Patch
