Home Care In Framingham, MA

FRAMINGHAM, MA — New Year’s Eve is always dominated by nightlife, but there are plenty of options locally for those who don’t necessarily care to spend the first night of the new year awake at midnight.

Locally, there are ways to spend the day outside, plus restaurants and other locations with offerings.

However, the night owls among us also have a great spread of events to choose from.

Here is a look at some additional events happening in Framingham:

For those looking to head to Boston for the night, there are plenty of options there, too:

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have adopted iterations of the ball drop — the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho, for example.

The end of one year and beginning of another is often celebrated with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The history of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who would make promises to return borrowed objects and pay outstanding debts at the beginning of the new year, in mid-March when they planted their crops.

According to legend, if they kept their word, pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. If they broke the promise, they would fall out of God’s favor, according to a history of New Year’s resolutions compiled by North Hampton Community College New Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are myriad reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude and a plan to meet the stress and discomfort of changing a habit or condition.

It's always easiest to get the shopping done before New Year's, but it isn't impossible to pick up last-minute items locally.

FRAMINGHAM, MA — If you need another pound of butter or a carton of milk on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, it’s a good idea to plan ahead, as grocery stores in Framingham adjust their hours for the holidays.

Most major retail grocery stores will close on Christmas Day, but there are exceptions, including Rite Aid.

Some stores are also closed on New Year’s Day and operate on reduced hours on New Year’s Eve.

But it’s always a good idea to call ahead. Some grocery stores and food retailers observe reduced hours during the holidays. Stores on this list either confirmed their hours in an email to Patch or listed them on their websites.

Aldi: Stores are closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and operate on a limited schedule on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Aldi holiday hours vary by location.

Find out what's happening in Framinghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

BJ’s Wholesale Club: Hours are 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and 8 a.m.-7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Stores are closed on Christmas Day and open from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. on New Year’s Day.

CVS: Stores are open from 9 a.m-7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and 80 percent of stores are closed on Christmas Day. On New Year’s Eve, stores open at 9 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., then operate on the regular 9 a.m.-7 p.m. schedule on New Year’s Day.

Rite Aid: Stores are open regular hours on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, although some locations may adjust hours.

ShopRite: Stores close at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve., remain closed on Christmas Day, and are open regular hours on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Stop & Shop: Stores are closed on Christmas, open until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and open regular hours on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Target: All stores are open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Christmas Eve and are closed on Christmas Day. Stores are open regular hours on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Trader Joe’s: Stores are closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day, open for reduced hours on Christmas Eve and for regular hours on New Year’s Eve.

Walgreens: Depending on the region, stores will extend hours on Christmas Eve, reduced hours on Christmas Day, and from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The chain’s 24-hour stores will operate as usual. Check Walgreens holiday hours at stores in your area to be sure.

Walmart: Stores will be open Stores will be open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, closed Christmas Day, and open regular hours on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Whole Foods: All stores are closed on Christmas day. Hours vary by location on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Customers should check Whole Foods holiday hours for their location.

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More from Framingham

FRAMINGHAM — The city's chief financial officer has resigned, following a series of contentious City Council meetings where members questioned the transparency of the city government’s budget process.

Louise Miller is resigning effective Dec. 31, according to a letter that Mayor Charlie Sisitsky sent to city councilors and an unknown number of other officials. In the letter, a copy of which was provided to the Daily News by Public Information Officer Susan Petroni, the mayor noted that he had accepted the resignation.

In the letter, Sisitsky indicated he learned of Miller's intent to resign "earlier this week."

Key hires for Mayor Sisitsky:Framingham's Tusino, Wayland's Miller to join administration

Miller, who could not be reached for comment, has been under fire in recent weeks due to concerns raised by some city councilors about the city's budget process. During a meeting of the City Council’s Finance Subcommittee last month, member councilors expressed frustration with the city’s budgeting process. They requested the annual report from the city, something they've been doing since July.

According to Miller at the time, the root of the problem was that no city employee knew how to create the reports using the Munis software program, a standard software program used by municipalities throughout the state. She also said there was also an issue involving a software license that had originally been implemented under the Spicer administration that would allow residents to view every facet of the city budget through the city website. But that license had expired, Miller said, and was not been renewed by the Sisitsky administration, in part because the system, OpenGov, was plagued with bugs and issues when it was operating.

Finance Subcommittee members frustrated over inability to gauge city finances

Finance subcommittee members, including Councilors John Stefanini and Michael Cannon, expressed frustration with what they termed a lack of transparency coming from City Hall.

“If the Finance Subcommittee of the City Council — which is charged by the charter to handle stewardship of the finances in the city — can’t get this basic information about how we spend our money, that isn’t transparent,” Cannon declared during the Nov. 21 meeting.

The city has also been criticized in recent weeks for not having a city accountant, nor an assistant accountant, since July. In recent months, Miller has been tasked with handling accounting duties.

Miller had stated during a City Council meeting in November that in general there was a shortage of civic accountants, and that the city had not been competitive in offering a salary to available candidates.

Part-time accountant spots error in Framingham revenue estimate

That lack of an accountant was exposed during a council meeting on Dec. 5, when the panel was notified that a part-time accountant had been hired and started the day before. The part-time accountant had identified an issue with the city overestimating new growth revenue for the fiscal 2025 budget, which ended up with taxes needing to be raised a considerable amount from what was originally proposed.

According to the budget, the original estimate had the city gaining $3.5 million in new growth, which has since been adjusted to $1.8 million. That led to an increase in the tax levy in order to offset the overestimated growth.

Stefanini told the Daily News that the Finance Subcommittee was notified at the last minute of the incorrect estimate, forcing it to put the burden of making up the difference on the tax base.

Charter Review Committee:Framingham residents have a chance to suggest improvements

"We had a $2 million calculation error in setting our tax rate this year, resulting in residents paying an additional $60, on average," Stefanini said. "Our new growth was half what it had been previously, and taxpayers had to make up the difference. If that information had been made available to the Finance Subcommittee in a timely fashion, we might have very well made adjustments to the budget, rather than increasing taxes. At 4:30 p.m. at the day of the hearing, we were given an updated number with no explanation."

Sisitsky was not available Friday for comment.

Stefanini told the Daily News that the city has a lot of work to do to restore confidence in transparency and budgeting.

"It starts by opening up the books of the city for public review and providing consistency to the accounting practices of the community," he said.

Miller was hired two years ago to be Sisitsky's chief financial officer. She was previously Wayland’s town administrator from 2018-22. Prior to that, she was budget manager for the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, as well as for the City of Medford.

Here is the memo City Councilors received. It is odd that it is undated. Nonetheless it is another sign of trouble on the financial front for Framingham.

I had noted in a recent article the financial chaos in the December 7 City Council meeting. That gives some insight into this departure:

https://framinghamobserver.substack.com/p/framingham-financial-chaos-threatens

In the above article I wrote:

“I wonder how long the CFO will last in a city where the City Council is a such a financial millstone around her neck?”

We now have the answer.

Framingham is in substantial financial difficulty, which is being hidden by the Mayor and the City Council Finance Subcommittee, and remains unreported by the Strategic Initiative and Financial Oversight Committee (SIFOC). The City Council has taken an extremist financial position for 6 years, in which it has set annual property tax increases substantially below inflation increases.

The result has been that the city treasury has been drained of $40 million/year, as shown in this chart:

That has eroded the city financial position to such a degree that city staff compensation is highly uncompetitive, staff are departing, job vacancies remain unfilled, and capital for repairing roads, replacing school roofs, and maintained the water & sewer system has been so depleted that a huge $400 million backlog of infrastructure maintenance has developed: $100 in road repairs, $100 million in needed school roof replacements and an estimated $200 million in water & sewer deferred maintenance.

Further, the city has diverted $10 million/year in state Chapter 70 education aid to replace school roofs instead of supporting the education needs of its intended targets: low-income, special needs and non-English speaking students.

In July, 2022, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the city’s bond rating by adding ‘negative outlook’ to its basic Aa2 assignment. See:

https://www.framinghamma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/47447/11-Jul-2022-Moodys-Rating-PDF?bidId=

Moody’s further noted:

“The negative outlook reflects the recent decline in the financial position due to a greater use of reserves and limited property tax revenue increases that have resulted in a structural operating imbalance.”

Moody’s was calling out the property tax revenue the city loses each year by taxing below the levy limit increase allowed by Proposition 2 ½. These losses are shown in the chart above. Moody’s also called out the fact that free cash is at its lowest level in 10 years: $6 million, down from a high of $16 million in 2017.

The financial position of the city, which Louise Miller inherited when she became Framingham's Chief Financial Officer in January, 2022, was extremely poor. She worked to improve things as much as any human could, but it is impossible to right Framingham's financial ship without major changes in the property tax extremism of the City Council.

Louise did an excellent job in Wayland, where she was their Town Administrator, and no doubt she will find success elsewhere, as she is a competent financial professional.

In the meantime, the Framingham City Council should reflect on the fact that all of their criticisms of Louise Miller and the financial staff of the city administration are completely unjustified, as the City Council, and especially its Finance Subcommittee under the leadership of George King & Mike Cannon, enthusiastically supported by John Stefanini, has created a financial crisis in the city.

FRAMINGHAM — An Ashland restaurant is expanding into Framingham, as Murphy's Eats & Treats is opening a second location at the former CJ's Northside Grill spot on Edgell Road.

Murphy's owner Shaun Keefe was recently before the Framingham Board of License Commissioners, where he received a common victualer license from the board.

The new location, at 911 Edgell Road, was most recently home to CJ's. That eatery closed in April after 12 years in business. Riley's Roast Beef is another past business that operated from that spot.

“We are looking to expand our business," Keefe told the Board of License Commissioners during their Sept. 11 meeting. "We have an existing restaurant in Ashland on Route 135. I’m a Nobscot neighbor, I live in the neighborhood and I love that location down at 911 Edgell Road since it was Riley’s Roast Beef.”

Top tastes:MetroWest and Milford ice cream shops discuss most popular and unique desserts

Keefe said the opportunity to expand to that location became available when CJ’s decided to close.

“We were presented with an opportunity to go in there and open up our business,” Keefe said. “We came into this a little under three months ago when we entered into a lease with Rousseau Realty Trust.”

Murphy's owner says 'fresh food isn't fast food'

Murphy's offers ice cream, as well as burgers and seafood, with an old-fashioned drive-in kind of atmosphere.

"We do a lot, we obviously have ice cream and burgers, but we have Captain Marden's seafood — which is a big thing for us — we will have some breakfast," Keefe later told the Daily News. "Everything we make is cooked to order. It might take a little bit longer, but I always say that fresh food is not fast food. The only thing we have that is frozen is the ice cream and French fries, and I don't own a microwave."

Retro restaurants:Finding classic diner cars in MetroWest, Greater Milford

Keefe told the board that as a Nobscot resident, he has noticed there are not a lot of commercial spots for people to get food without having to leave the neighborhood.

“You have to go down Route 9 or out to Route 20 if you want to get something a little different than a sub or Chinese food,” he said. “We are looking to do what we have done in Ashland. We are a very community-based kind of company, we employ and have already hired 22 young adults (for Framingham), 20 of which are from Framingham and two from Sudbury. They’ve been up in Ashland training, so that when we do open the doors here they will all have had at least three shifts working up in Ashland.”

The Edgell Road location is undergoing construction and renovations before a planned October opening.

Murphy's Framingham location will be open nearly year round

“We’ve already done some work inside, and we are excited for what we can bring to this neighborhood," Keefe said. "We want to bring back the classic car nights. We've resurrected the old Riley’s Roast Beef oven from the back, where it has sat unused for the last twelve years."

While Murphy’s in Ashland is a seasonal shop, open from March until early December, Keefe said the plan for Framingham is to be open nearly year round, with the shop closing for three weeks around Christmas and New Year's Day.

Two slices, plus creativity:Ten mouthwatering, must-try sandwiches in and around MetroWest

Murphy's is seeking to be open from 6 a.m. to as late as 10 p.m. on some nights. Keefe, who was a coach for Framingham Youth Football, said one motivation for being open that late is to give high school students a place to congregate after school sporting events.

“I’ve realized there really aren't a lot of places for kids to go after football games,” Keefe said. “I coached a lot of the kids, so I’d like to think that they would behave themselves. Plus, I’m bigger than them.”

During the Sept. 11 Board of License Commissioners meeting, board Chair Stuart Pologe said he looks forward to seeing Murphy’s continue a tradition of providing food in Nobscot.

“In the tradition of the Framingham Drive-In, Leon’s Ice Cream, McCarthy’s restaurant, Lobster in the Read, Riley’s and CJ’s, I hope Murphy’s Tasty Treats follows in that same tradition, and makes the people of Nobscot happy,” Pologe said.

City Councilor George King. Jr. will lead the committee. He has a history of leading committees tasked with overseeing school renovations.

Press release from the City of Framingham:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 01/25/24

For further information, contact:

Susan Scully Petroni

City of Framingham Public Information Officer

Find out what's happening in Framinghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

[email protected]

508-782-8629

Mayor Sisitsky Announces Leadership For the Framingham School Building Committee

FRAMINGHAM – City of Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky has named City Councilor George P. King. Jr. chair of the newly-formed Framingham School Building Committee.

Mayor Charlie Sisitsky on October 31, 2023, signed an executive order to create a 13-member Framingham School Building Committee.

“As a seasoned professional with years of experience in finance and education, George brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Framingham School Building Committee. His background in finance has given him a keen eye for detail and an ability to navigate complex budgets, while his experience in education has given him a deep understanding of the needs of students, teachers, and administrators,” said Mayor Charlie Sisitsky.

King, who served as Town Manager from 1999 to 2005, appointed and oversaw the committee responsible for the renovation project at Framingham High School.

From 2005 to 2017, King was the Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Nashoba Regional School District. While in that role he was involved with the construction of Center Elementary School in Stow.

Councilor King has been an at-large City Councilor since 2018, having served as Chair of the Council, and is currently the Finance Subcommittee Chair.

“I look forward to serving on this important project. As someone who went to elementary school, practically next door from where we hope to build a new elementary school, I appreciate the importance of establishing a new school in such a large population center of the City,” said Councilor King. “I believe I can use my experience being involved in past school building projects both here in Framingham and in my previous position as Assistant Superintendent for another District, along with the top-notch committee we have assembled in Framingham, will help me as I undertake this role.”

Mayor Sisitsky named District 4 School Committee member Adam Freudberg, as vice chair of the building committee. A former chair of the School Committee, Freudberg has served as School Committee Finance Subcommittee Chair.

“Adam's attention to detail and his focus on the educational needs will be invaluable to the Committee. Adam has a great collaborative approach which will help the City achieve its goal of a new elementary school in South Framingham,” said Mayor Charlie Sisitsky.

In December, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board of Directors voted to officially invite Framingham Public Schools into the eligibility period, which would provide funding support for a school building project in Framingham.

The City of Framingham is looking to replace Hemenway Elementary School on Water Street, which was built in 1961. The existing facility is insufficient for the enrollment and curriculum of the Framingham Public Schools, and the existing building’s scale and orientation of spaces are outdated and unable to properly adapt to the needs of contemporary school.

The City of Framingham hired architects to perform a pre-feasibility study in 2019 for the expansion or replacement of the existing Hemenway Elementary School. This pre-feasibility study delved into the existing building and site, and also expanded to looking at options for a new site, including the possibility of a new southside school.

Last year, the City of Framingham, in a collaboration between the Mayor and the City Council, purchased a 35-acre property from the Sisters of St. Joseph along Bethany Road for educational purposes.

In December 2023, the Mayor named his four appointees to the Framingham School Building Committee. They were Matteo Batista, Roslyn Child, Rachel Evans, and David Panich.

The School Committee selected its chair Jessica Barnhill, from District 8, Freudberg, and District 2 School Committee member David Gordon to serve on the School Building Committee.

City Council Chair Phil Ottaviani Jr. named King, District 5 Councilor Noval Alexander and District 9 Councilor Tracey Bryant to the School Building Committee. Both are former Framingham School Committee members.

The School Committee on January 17, 2024, selected Erin Asbury, Brittney Karpierz, and Scott Wadland to complete the 13-member School Building Committee.

As chair, Councilor King will call the first meeting, expected to be sometime in February 2024.

###

150 Concord StreetFramingham, MA 01702Ph: 508-532-5411

Tuesday8:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Friday8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Additional Hours

This press release was produced by the City of Framingham. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

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A fire at an apartment building in Framingham, Massachusetts, may have been intentionally set, investigators said Monday.

Firefighters were called to the building at 1630 Worcester Road just before 4 a.m.

Video from the inside of the building shows doors and walls covered in black soot and hallway lights melted.

"I opened my door, it was like, it looked like Hell," said a tenant named Sandy. "You couldn't see anything, it was so thick."

She says her dog, Mocha, started barking, alerting her to the fire.

It started on the first floor in a lobby area of one of the buildings at The Green at 9 and 90 apartment complex early Monday morning.

"Like I was in a dream, and Satan was going to pop out," said Sandy.

Tenants on the first floor say the smoke in the hallway was so thick, they couldn't escape and waited on their balcony in frigid temperatures until they got the all clear.

"I was going to get a facecloth and run down the hallway with my family," said tenant Donald Lyons. "Or throw a mattress off the balcony and jump like the 12 feet down, because we were, like, trapped."

Investigators aren't releasing details of what they found at the scene, but Framingham Fire Chief Michael Dutcher tells NBC10 Boston it's possible from the evidence they gathered that someone may have set the fire on purpose.

There are 200 apartments in the building, so a lot of lives could have been at risk.

"It could have been a mass casualty," said tenant Craig Lyons. "Especially how bad the smoke was."

Four tenants were taken to the hospital to be checked out for smoke inhalation. They were all treated and released.

"I don't feel safe here anymore," said Alicia Lyons, one of the tenants who was sent to the hospital. "I don't understand why people want to harm other people."

A $5,000 reward is being offered by the Arson Watch Reward Program for any information that leads to the person who may have started the fire. Tips can be called into 1-800-682-9229.

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This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

The Temporary Rules subcommittee had no Chair, did nothing for 3 weeks and then met for just 48 minutes with no full review of the rules.

|Updated Sun, Jan 28, 2024 at 12:31 am ET

SUMMARY

Although the balance of power has changed in the City Council, the old guard could easily block vital improvements which are needed for much improved City Council performance. At least two current City Council subcommittees achieved little of value in the last term, and should be retired, and a Public Facilities subcommittee should be created to address the daunting $400 million maintenance backlog for roads, buildings, and the water & sewer system, and to guarantee that projects like the new community center and the emergency dispatch center are successfully completed.

The rules review carried out by the Temporary Rules subcommittee was incomplete at best, and sloppy at worst, and its recommendation for virtually no changes should be rejected, and replaced by a set of changes which the full City Council should settle on after a thorough debate.

In a prior article, it was explained how Phil Ottaviani adroitly captured the City Council Chair even though, with John Stefanini gone, the old guard majority of 6 Councilors was reduced to a 5 Councilor minority. The current old guard is {Ottaviani, King, Leombruno, Cannon, Alexander}, with a potential majority new guard as {Steiner, Mallach, Long, White Harvey, Bryant, Ward}.

Some people object to the use of the terminology old guard and new guard, but it is a very convenient way to identify players in the power struggle going on in the City Council. So, I shall keep using it.

Find out what's happening in Framinghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The old guard wants to ensure that its approach to city government endures, and capturing the Chair was a very significant step toward that goal. The next move by the old guard is to block any change in the way the City Council operates, and that means derailing any attempt to alter its rules, which among other things govern which subcommittees operate, how many Councilors serve on them, what their missions are, and how they report back to the full City Council.

Here are the current rules governing the City Council:

https://framinghamma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/48664/City-Council-Rules-101723?bidId=

At the start of each new City Council term, the Chair creates a Temporary Rules subcommittee to review the rules and report back to the City Council with recommendations. Having engineered his ascension to the Chair, Phil Ottaviani then used his appointment power as Chair to ensure that old guard controlled the Temporary Rules subcommittee by having 3 of its 5 members belong to the old guard: Ottaviani, Leombruno, Cannon, so the old guard would prevail in any subcommittee vote.

Further, he did not appoint a Chair for the subcommittee and then departed for Aruba for a week at the start of the year, so that the subcommittee could not meet till his return. With that delay, and with no Chair in place to drive setting up meetings and agendas, the subcommittee did nothing for the first 3 weeks of the year.

The subcommittee did finally meet remotely on Thursday, January 25, 2023, for just 48 minutes before Phil had to leave again for some other meeting. There will be no further meetings of this subcommittee, so its recommendation to make no changes to anything, except adding Ethics to the Rules & Ordinances subcommittee title, will be presented to the full City Council next week.

This was a very strange meeting, as the expectation was that the subcommittee would work its way through the current rules document, systematically reviewing each section, so that the final recommendation to the City Council would be thorough and complete, with a document showing the suggested changes.

But there was no systematic anything.

The current rules document was one of the meeting materials, but was never looked at in the entire meeting. It simply seemed that with the long delay, no preparation for the meeting due to the lack of a Chair, the meandering nature of the discussion, the lack of reference to the rules document, and the rushed nature of the meeting, the no change outcome was inevitable and a pre-ordained win for the old guard.

The contrast between the rules review process for the City Council and the School Committee is so huge that it bears looking at to show the yawning chasm between their two standards for review.

When I served on the School Committee and co-chaired its subcommittee reviewing its rules at the start of its first and second terms in 2018 and 2020, the process was much more comprehensive. The School Committee chair gave the subcommittee a detailed charge to guide its review, and the entire rules document was reviewed top to bottom. That also included sketching out a long term agenda and providing guidance for professional development for School Committee members.

Here is the updated 37 page rules document produced by the recent meeting of the School Committee Rules & Administration subcommittee review on January 22, 2024, in a meeting which lasted about an hour and a half:

https://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/cms/lib/MA01907569/Centricity//Domain/81/2024/Guidance%20for%20Rules%20and%20Administration%20Subcommittee%202024%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf

That meeting can also be viewed here:

https://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/cms/lib/MA01907569/Centricity//Domain/81/2024/01.22.24%20Rules%20Sub%20Zoom.mp4

For contrast, the City Council Temporary Rules subcommittee meeting of January 25, 2024, can be viewed here:

http://vod-framingham.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/3059?channel=1

The amazing incompleteness of City Council subcommittee rules review is emphasized by a rapid reading of the current City Council rules document, which shows how poorly organized and sparse it is, and how different subcommittees have quite different operating constraints. The document has no index, runs to just 16 pages, and while some subcommittees can only consider matters referred to them by the City Council, others have no such constraints. [It seems that prior new term reviews were conducted as poorly as this recent one.]

But most amazing of all is the performance data on City Council subcommittees over the prior City Council term. While some subcommittees, such as Finance, seemed to hold sway over most City Council business and met constantly, two subcommittees seemed to do nothing which could not be done just as easily by the full City Council.

The Education, Library, Arts & Culture, Elder & Veteran Services subcommittee met 3 times in 2 years for a total of 107 minutes. That subcommittee is ripe for retirement. The full City Council could cover its functions easily.

The Economic Development & Housing subcommittee met 5 times in 2022 for a total of about 3.5 hours, and 5 times in 2022 for a total of less than 2 hours. That subcommittee is ripe for retirement. The full City Council could cover its functions easily.

Retirement of these two subcommittees would free up City Councilor time to support creation of a Public Facilities subcommittee to address the daunting $400 million maintenance backlog for roads, buildings, and the water & sewer system and to guarantee that projects like the new community center and the emergency dispatch center are successfully completed.

A great deal of the workload of the Finance subcommittee could be very efficiently moved to that new subcommittee, so that investments in infrastructure and capital projects could be properly prioritized and managed, and the City Council fully informed, before the money end of the picture is reviewed by the Finance subcommittee.

Finally, the City Council persists in having multiple 3 member subcommittees, which kill collaboration between members of such subcommittees, as any two of them cannot meet for coffee and chat on their subcommittee topics without breaking the Open Meeting Law. Ironically, an individual member of a 3 member subcommittee can meet and chat with any other member of the City Council on those topics, so long as that other member is not also a member of their 3 person subcommittee. Setting the minimum subcommittee membership to 4 members would fix this chronic problem.

Although the Temporary Rules subcommittee has done such an incomplete job, all is not lost.

The full City Council will decide if there are to be rule changes. Hope springs eternal that the new guard will see the need for change, and improve future operations of the City Council with changes made along the rough lines set forth above.

FLIGHT OF FANCY

Imagine a parallel universe, where the City Council realizes that it is the decision making body, not its subcommittees, and that a comprehensive review of its rules should be done at the start of every new term.