[broadstreet zone=”51611″]
FRAMINGHAM – Traffic was one of the #1 issues during the first City of Framingham election in 2017. And it continues to be one of the top three issues for Framingham residents.
The new City Charter created a Framingham Traffic Commission. The Mayor appointed nominees in mid-2018, and in its short two years, it has four chairs.
The Traffic Commission has had a couple of accomplishments – it moved to lower speed limits in several neighborhoods to 25 miles per hour and it enacted a four-way stop sign on Warren Road, pushed by former City Council Chair Dennis Giombetti and neighborhood residents.
But residents in other neighborhoods have been pushing for improvements to curtail crashes, and the Traffic Commission has been unable to help due to a lack of funds to hire traffic consultants or conduct traffic studies.
[broadstreet zone=”59945″]
The Traffic Commission had requested $200,000 from Mayor Spicer, but she only included $25,000 for the Commission in her multi-million budget.
Last night, the 11-member City Council had before it a proposal to request the Mayor provide an additional $150,000 appropriation for the Framingham Traffic Commission. It was a request, the Mayor could agree to or ignore.
The City Council instead chose to table the request, in a split 6-5 vote.
District 3 City Councilor Adam Steiner made a motion to table the matter. Audience members who wanted to speak on the matter were unhappy as it meant public discussion would not be allowed on the issue.
Council Chair George P. King Jr. Asked his vice-chair to remove the motion to table to allow the public to speak and Steiner refused.
Voting to table the matter and do nothing on traffic and funding were: Steiner, District 1 City Councilor Christine Long, District 2 Councilor Cesar Stewart-Morales, District 5 Councilor Robert Case, District 7 Councilor Margareth Shepard, and District 9 Councilor Tracey Bryant.
[broadstreet zone=”70107″]
District 8 Councilor John Stefanini, promoted by residents in the Coburnville-Tripoli neighborhoods made the initial request for the $150,000 funding. A draft letter to the Mayor was presented to the 11-member Council to review.
Councilor Bryant thought the tone of the letter was inappropriate.
Editor’s Note: Both documents are below.
Councilor Stefanini said there have been 32 crashes in my neighborhood in one intersection in two years. He said four vehicles were turned upside down, one person was Medflighted out. Another vehicle blew a stop sign and drove straight into a house.
“We sat around waiting for this to happen, and it has not happened,” said Stefanini, about funding the Traffic Commission.
“This is not a demand, it is a polite request to say let’s make this a priority,” said Stefanini.
[broadstreet zone=”58610″]
At-large City Councilor Janet Leombruno said she was perplexed why anyone does not think this is a good idea. She said she understood Stefanini was talking about his neighborhood, but that this could easily be 50 other neighborhoods with traffic issues.
District 6 City Councilor Phil Ottaviani Jr. gave his support to the request.
“The traffic in Framingham is a complete shitshow,” said Ottaviani. “I see the frustration with the Traffic Commission.”
Ottaviani said he does not care who gets the credit anymore. I would like us to do things.
“We need to take action and be held accountable to the people who put us here. Anyone who doesn’t think traffic is a problem in the city of Framingaham, they are drinking the Kool-Aid,” said Ottaviani.
Several residents were in the audience last night and were frustrated they did not have an opportunity to speak.
I was disgusted,” said former District 8 City Councilor Judy Grove. “This was political. Unbelievable that we were not allowed to speak. Adam (Steiner) is the one who made me very angry. He knew the Traffic Commission was only given $25,000 and they wanted $200,000. He served on the finance subcommittee with me. Money should be appropriated for the Commission. By not voting, they are making the Commission useless. I am totally shocked and disheartened,” said Grove last night.
[broadstreet zone=”52093″]
“The traffic problem is growing by the day in Framingham, and Commission can not address it as they are underfunded,” said Grove.
“It is a no brainer to give the Traffic Commission the tools it needs to address citizens’ concerns. The Council should stop playing petty politics with people’s lives. What a disappointment,” said District 3 resident Mary Kate Feeney.
District 1 City Councilor Long said the Commission is not underfunded.
Long said she has spoken to the Mayor four times in the last few weeks about this issue. She said she spoke to the Traffic Commission Chair. She said she spoke to the traffic commissioners. She said she spoke to the DPW director.
“There is $290,000 in the budget coming forward,” Long told her Councilors last night.
But as of last month, the Traffic Commission has told several neighborhoods that they could not address issues in their neighborhoods as they have no money for consultants or studies.
Stefanini said that one of the last acts by Framingham Town Meeting was to complete a traffic master plan. He said part of it was completed, but that the neighborhoods on the southside of Framingham, except for Warren Road and one other area, were not done.
Steiner gave no reasoning at last night’s meeting on why he tabled the discussion and did not allow the public to speak, or a vote to take place.
SOURCE reached out to him this morning and he provided the following statement.
“There is no more critical issue in Framingham than traffic and the safety of our roads. It needs to be addressed urgently and with precision,” said Steiner. “Unfortunately, the City Council was utterly unprepared to do this last night. Without representatives of DPW or the Traffic Commission in the conversation, there was no way to have a meaningful discussion about such an important topic and I am not interested in symbolic half-measures and political blustering on such an important matter.”
“In addition, the proposal last night would have done nothing to address the problem. 1. It was a letter to the Mayor with no teeth to ensure that it would be acted upon 2. It was not created in collaboration with the people who actually have to enforce it such as DPW and the traffic commission 3. It only requested funding for half of the work that is urgently needed so it would have put the traffic commission in the position of having to cherry pick problem areas. 4. DPW reports that the full amount is in their current budget request and this would have undercut that,” said Steiner.
[broadstreet zone=”59982″]
“What we need to do is fully fund the traffic work that is needed in collaboration with DPW, not fire off a symbolic letter. DPW is coming to the finance committee meeting Tuesday night and we will have a chance to address all of this and I encourage residents to attend to join me in requesting full funding and a detailed plan to address Framingham’s traffic concerns,” said Steiner,
Source Notifications 
MetroWest Medical Center