Framingham Youth Council Proposes Clerk Position, More Meetings, and Annual Meeting With School Superintendents

By Nick Barry

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FRAMINGHAM – The Framingham City Council’s Ordinance and Rules Subcommittee met Thursday to discuss changes to the Framingham Youth Council ordinance.

Framingham Youth Council Chair Isabella Petroni discussed the changes with the subcommittee.

The Youth Council voted unanimously to make four major changes to its ordinance that created the Youth Council.

One major change is to establish a permanent clerk position to record minutes for the 13-member Youth Council.

The ordinance currently calls for all youth Councilors, who are not Chair or Vice Chair, to serve as clerk rotating from meeting to meeting.

A second change is to create liaison positions from the Youth Council to the City Council and to the School Committee.

Presently, the School Committee assigns a liaison to the Youth Council (District 5 School Committee ember Priscila Sousa) and the City Council assigns a liaison (District 5 City Councilor Robert Case, who chairs the City Council’s education subcommittee), but it it is not reciprocal.

Third, the Youth Council seeks to increase the mandatory number of meetings from once a month to twice a month.

Finally, the Youth Council wants the ordinance to stimulate that their will be a joint meeting with the Framingham Public School and Keefe Technical superintendents annually in January.

Petroni told the subcommittee the goal of the changes is to allow the Youth Council, comprised of youths ages 13-22, to “do more.”

The Ordinance and Rules Subcommittee accepted the changes in a vote of 2-0. Councilors John Stefanini and Tracey Bryant were in favor. Councilor Phil Ottaviani Jr. was not present.

Subcommittee member Bryant said she wanted the proposed ordinance changes sent to the City Solicitor for approval.

The subcommittee will now recommend acceptance of the changes to the full 11-member City Council.

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Petroni, then a student at Framingham High, authored the original ordinance to create the Framingham Youth Council, which was created in 2019.

The City Council reviewed the proposal, made a few changes to it, including the rotating clerk position, and then unanimously approved it. The Mayor signed it into law in March 2019.

The Framingham Youth Council has 13 members. Two members are appointed by the at-large City Councilors for a 2-year term. Two members are appointed by the Mayor for a 2-year term. And 9 members are appointed by each of the District Councilors for a 1-year term. Terms begins July 1.

Petroni was elected by the 13-member council to serve as chair.

Chloe Mills was elected to serve as Vice Chair.

The Youth Council in its first two years created 5 subcommittees, each with its own chair and vice chair.

All 13 members of the Youth Council terms expire in 2021.

SOURCE posted Q&A’s with each of the Youth Councilors earlier this spring.

The City is expected to post applications for new positions sometime this month.

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Nicholas “Nick” Barry is a student at Westfield State University but lives in Framingham. Nick is an English Major that is focusing on writing, but he is currently finishing up his second major in Ethnic Studies. Although he is unsure of what the future will hold, he wants to do work related to journalism or solving important social issues.  This is his second time interning with SOURCE.