Framingham Voters Will Choose From 3 Mayoral Candidates on Tuesday

FRAMINGHAM – Tuesday, September 14 is an election day in the City of Framingham.

City-wide voters will choose from 3 candidates for Mayor. Registered voters will select one name. The two individuals with the most votes on Tuesday will appear on the Tuesday, November 2 ballot.

The winner on November 2 will be elected for a 4-year term, starting January 1, 2022.

Mayor Yvonne Spicer is seeking re-election for a 4-year term. She is being challenged by former Natick Department of Public Works Director and long-time Selectman and former City Councilor Charlie Sisitsky and Framingham businessman Carlos Valadares.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Voters in District 7 only (Precincts 13 & 14) will also have a preliminary election on Tuesday for City Council.

Councilor Margareth Shepard has chosen not to seek re-election for a third 2-year term.

There are four candidates for her seat. Voters again will seek one name and the top two candidates will move on to the Tuesday, November 2 ballot.

SOURCE asked each of the three mayoral candidates a series of questions last week. There answers were published today, September 12.

You can read each of the candidates answers in the links below. The answers divide the candidates on several key issues in the City of Framingham.

Carlos Valadares

Charlie Sisitsky

Mayor Yvonne Spicer

SOURCE also asked each candidate why voters should select them on Tuesday. You can read their full answer below.

SPICER: As Framingham’s first Mayor I have laid the foundation for a world-class city, but I have more to do. I am the only one in this race who has done the work of being your Mayor and I am ready to continue leading this effort. Over the last four years our town became a city and simultaneously endured a pandemic. We have accomplished a lot on a number of lingering issues:
● We are revitalizing blighted plazas, like Nobscot and Mt. Wayte;
● We have brought life science companies to the area to create good jobs;
● We have expanded green spaces and bike trails, bringing in millions of dollars worth of grants
● We finally started the cleanup of the General Chemical site;
● With my support, we Increased the school budget by 15.2%, representing $19.4 million
over the course of my administration.

But we have a lot more to do. In this election we will make a critical choice: whether we go
forward and work towards an inclusive, resilient city for all, or fall back to the ways of the past.
Over the last few years we transitioned to a city form of government while facing unprecedented pandemic. We battled the virus and its economic aftermath. Many in our midsts lost loved ones, jobs, and their safety net and continue to struggle. The pandemic resulted in a nationwide increase in economic inequality, a reckoning with racial injustice, and some of the first impacts of the climate crisis.

However, the pandemic has also brought out in us the compassion and will to conquer the challenges. We have reached out and checked on our older adults, and delivered groceries to our neighbors. We are improving the ways we govern, teach, and do business. We are cleaning our corner of the world, making Framigham beautiful, one clean street and one decontaminated site at a time.

The pandemic might not be over yet, but I am ready to continue this work. I am the only one in
this race who has led Framingham as your Mayor. I am focused on continued investment in
education, swift pandemic recovery, green economic development, and expanding workforce
housing through homeownership and wealth-building. The time to make a collective promise to a greener, more prosperous future for Framingham is now.

I humbly ask that you cast your vote in my support on September 14, and again on November 2!

SISITSKY: The most important change we need immediately is a culture of collaboration and
cooperation from the Mayor’s Office with the School Committee, the City Council, our legislative delegation, and neighborhood groups to ensure we have a team effort for our
City. It is about the collective City, not who has the honor of sitting at the Mayor’s desk.
With community support and collaboration, I will change our current course. I pledge to
work every day for Framingham, in a civil and innovative way with all of our City’s elected and appointed officials and stakeholders to make sure our government is prepared to meet the needs of the future.

Throughout my career, I have demonstrated the ability to work cooperatively and effectively with the best interests of the community in mind. While on the Board of Selectmen, I helped lead a dedicated and competent management team that worked hard to ensure consistently excellent, affordable municipal services including public safety, education, parks and recreation, library services, health and public works. I have worked with a large and diverse number of our community’s many constituencies, board members, non-profits, corporate citizens, four different town managers and countless other public officials maintaining Framingham’s financial stability, an enviable and stable bond rating, adequate stabilization funds, and multiple consecutive years of reduced tax levy assessments which translated to direct savings to all taxpayers in the community each year.

In both my professional life and in public service – I’ve worked to build bridges – literally and figuratively. If there’s one thing the past four years here in Framingham has taught us, we need public officials that do a better job of working together for the benefit of the whole community.

No Mayor can, nor should they try, to do it alone. As we begin to focus on planning for a post-pandemic economic recovery, we need to draw upon the wisdom and experience of all our community stakeholders and work together for the best interests of our City.

The stakes are high and the opportunities are too important to miss out on. I strongly believe that I am the right person for this job at this moment in our City’s history to equitably support our schools, our environment, our senior citizens, our economy and lead everything our Mayor must do to help our entire community move forward. We, as a community, need to do better. It’s time to work together, and focus on Framingham.

VALADARES: People should vote for me as mayor because I am the right person to bring unity to the City of Framingham. The most important thing for a mayor to have is a good relationship with the residents of the community. I believe that with my background and love of people, I am the best person to fit that role. I want nothing more than to be out talking and helping people everyday. I have started multiple nonprofits and help the community whenever there is an opportunity. It is my dream to serve the people as a full time job. I’m also able to connect to the entire community in a way that the other candidates just aren’t able to.

It is important to communicate with all the residents. Having a mayor that speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and English fluently will go a long way in hearing the voice of the entire community. Democracy requires the engagement of everyone in order to function. We need to start working with the immigrant community as well to fix the problems they’re experiencing. Having their voice go unheard leads to some of the problems we’re seeing now. This impacts all of us in Framingham, no one wants to see our beautiful city decline. I have lived in the United States for more than two thirds of my life and am a proud American, but I am not ashamed of the fact that I was born in Brazil. I want to represent, but also unite the whole of Framingham like it hasn’t been before. I want to see events happen in the city that encourage all of the residents to attend. We build a stronger community by all coming together.

I want a local government that understands it is their responsibility to facilitate this. I want to unite everyone around a City Hall that cares to see everyone brought together, and I want to unite City Hall itself as well. It is no secret that the relationship between the Mayor and City Council has completely broken down. We need more communication and cooperation between our Councils and departments at City Hall. This is how we will make better use of the funds and resources we already have. We need everyone to come together to create comprehensive solutions that are not possible in isolation. I am the right person to work with everyone.

I will not come to office on my first day with a list of rivals, but with a driving passion to make Framingham a better place for everyone to live. This is why I want to be Mayor of Framingham. I love the city and people so much, I know we can accomplish so much more if we just tried doing it all together.