Framingham Mayor Sisitsky Discusses His Successes In First Year & Things Still To Fix in 2023

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FRAMINGHAM – City of Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky just finished his first year in office.

The first-term Mayor, whose term does not end until December 31, 2025, talked about what went well in his first year, what still needs to be fixed in the City, and his vision with SOURCE earlier this month.

One of the biggest successes for the Sisitsky administration in 2022 was the revitalization of the Framingham Farmers’ Market.

Sisistky credits First Lady Robin Kaye with the idea to work on making the market a success.

The Framingham Mayor waived the fees for vendors and hired a market manager with experience Bill Sell, who also runs MetroFest for the Framingham Visitors Bureau. One of the first changes Sell did was move the hours was noon to 5 p.m. to 3 to 7 p.m., with food trucks arriving at noon.

“The last couple of Thursdays before we closed down for the season, I walked around and I talked to different vendors and every one of them was thrilled the way it was handled this past year. They thanked me and they thanked Bill for doing such a great job. And they said one of the key pieces was to get rid of the fees and change the hours,” said Sisitsky.

The Mayor said there will be no fees for market vendors again in 2023.

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Another big success for the Sisitsky administration was the purchase of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail land from CSX, said the Mayor.

“We picked that one off the scrap heap, and by the end of the year, something that was going no where, was finalized,” said Mayor Sisitsky.

The Mayor gave a lot of credit to his new Planning Director Sarkis Sarkisian, who many now call Sarky, and Chief Financial Officer Louis Miller.

“He ran with it. CSX was very happy to hear from us. They said, we’re surprised to hear from you. We’ve been trying to make contact with the City for past three or four years and we don’t get any response. So they were very happy to work with us,” said Mayor Sisitsky. “They initiated the first the agreement and draft agreement and it’s been a constant communication with them. And I give all the accolades to Louise and Sarky for working on that and following through on it. And they’ve been fantastic. And as we signed the purchase sale agreement and we’re waiting for them to process it down in Florida and send it back to us, we expect to have that soon. And then we’re going to do the due diligence with the environmental and with the survey and everything.”

There has been some criticism of the Sisitsky administration for exits from his administration, but he has hired several high-profile departments heads and leaders in his administration, who are still here in 2023.

Besides CFO Miller, and Planning Director Sarkisian, the administration promoted Mike Tusino to Chief Operating Officer, hired a Health Director, a Human Resources Director and a new Director of Public Works.

The Mayor said filling vacancies in the City has been hard, as labor shortage across the Commonwealth is impacted Framingham too.

“It’s very hard to find people. But Framingham is not alone. I see the same positions we need to fill advertised in several cities and towns,” said Mayor Sisitsky. “So there’s a lot of competition out there for these positions.”

During the interview, the Mayor said the City has made an offer to a bilingual woman to be the next Citizen Participation Officer. (She is scheduled to go before the City Council tonight for a vote.)

But along with the great hires that have stayed, there were some high profile exits from the Mayor’s office including the first citizen participation officer, the chief of staff, and most recently the chief information officer, whose last day is February 1. And recently, Director of Elder Services Grace O’Donnell announced she was leaving.

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Also during his first year, the Mayor opted to create the City’s first-ever in-house legal department – an all-female legal team, too.

Mayor Sisitsky said the in-house legal department is “saving the city a lot of money and it’s gives us better coordination of our legal work because, I mean, I just had a meeting with Kate at nine o’clock to go over what she’s working on and different things and we talk about priorities and what’s going on with court cases and administrative things. It is much more convenient to deal with the legal issues when the person’s right in the building. If I have a question I can just stop in instead of having to make an appointment to see the outside counsel and everything. And I think the, it’s made it easier for the different departments that need legal advice just to get on the phone with Kate and ask a quick question, not have to worry about the cash register ringing up every time they talk. So I think it’s made it easier for everybody to access legal needs.”

Some issues that have not been resolved in 2022 include crime downtown, traffic & congestion all over the City, speeding throughout the City by motorists, and the water & sewer crisis Mayor Sisitsky inherited from the former Spicer administration.

“I’ve had a couple meetings about reviewing the proposals for traffic department that was dead in the water and we’re trying to figure out how to go about doing that,” said Mayor Sisitsky.

He said the Police Department and the social service agencies within the City are working on the panhandlers, homelessness and those in need who disrupt a positive experience downtown.

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Another positive for the administration in the first year was giving access to Lake Waushakum to the neighborhood and the City all year-round. The gates at Lake Waushakum were locked more than 9 months of the year. The Mayor ordered the gates open last May and they have remained open ever since.

Mayor Sisitsky said the beach will be open again this year for public access for the environmental justice neighborhood.

The Mayor said environmental justice projects are a top priority for him.

He is working to improve the water quality at Lake Waushakum and negotiating with MassDEP and Avery Dennison to clean-up Mary Dennison park & playground.

“I also supporting a redesign of the Arlington Street Playground,” said Mayor Sisitsky.

And in regards to recreation, the Mayor wants to purchase land in the City and developer a youth center with a pool, too.

And he is also working to negotiate a deal with the Sisters of St. Joseph to purchase land on Bethany Road for a potential new elementary school on the Southside of the City.

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The Mayor is working closely with Senate President Karen Spilka and the state to bring a regional justice center to the former Danforth Building in downtown Framingham.

“That would be a $100 million investment in downtown,” said the Mayor.

That decision could come as early as this spring.

Another success was the purchase of the office building next door to the Memorial Building, and the plans to house a regional dispatch center on one floor, said the Mayor.

“I still have a lot of I’m planning to accomplish over the next three years,” said Mayor Sisitsky.

SOURCE asked Mayor Sisitsky if he would get it all done in 4 years, and if he is considering a second term as Mayor.

“I love this job and I think we’ve been very successful in getting a lot of stuff done that we just talked about and I want to keep going and do more. You said what’s on the horizon? Well, we want to continue work on the courthouse. That’s going to take a while. I want to get some more parks fixed up, I want to get some splash pads installed. I want to get a recreation center built that has a pool in it,” said Mayor Sisitsky. “We still need to build another school in the South side. I mean we gotta work on that. That’s going to take a while. Not going to be able to do that in my first term, so we’ll do it in the second term.”