Town of Framingham, Dedicated to Excellence in Public Service

 

Update of the PILOT/IMPACT Study Committee

August 2005

 

In June of 2005, Town Meeting passed a motion under Article 19 requesting the creation of an ad-hoc committee to create a comparative impact study of Social Services in Framingham that is “inclusive of any monetary and environmental impacts on town services such as fire, police, schools and safety.”  In addition, the motion asked the Board of Selectmen and Town Manager to research a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program for Framingham.  The Board of Selectmen has asked the PILOT Review Committee to include the PILOT research as part of our mission.

 

We have an incredibly diverse collection of members that bring varied experiences and backgrounds to the table.  We have been meeting since August 2nd.   To date, the committee has discussed and adopted as our mission the motion passed by Town Meeting on 6/9/05. We have also adopted a working definition of what a social service agency is, based on state guidelines and backed up with federal codes.

 

The next step for our committee is to create Action Plans for both the PILOT and Comparative Impact studies which we have been asked to provide. These plans will be generated by the topics and questions contributed by every member of the group and will be inclusive of all views. We are currently working to create an action plan for our research.  As that plan becomes clearer, it will be posted, along with other information, on our page on the Town of Framingham website.

 

One of our goals is to encourage public participation in this process and to be accessible to the public through our meetings, minutes and researched information. To achieve that end we welcome public participation in several ways:

 

  1. Attend our meetings.  They are held on Tuesday nights in the Memorial Building.  Time will be provided, as is feasible, to allow for public comment.
  2. Written statements can be sent to the Chair of the committee via US postal mail or email.  Statements may be read at committee meetings at the discretion of the chair.  For comments to be considered, they must be relevant to the issues of the committee.

Emails can be sent to bob@bobberman.com,

US postal mail can be sent to

Bob Berman

62 Lanewood Ave

Framingham, MA 01701

  1. Stay informed.  Meeting agendas, approved meeting minutes, our operating rules and procedures, and other relevant documents will be posted on a regular basis to the committee web page located at:  http://www.framinghamma.gov/web/Government/PILOT_committee.htm

 

While our timetable is open it is our intent to have an interim report of what our group has accomplished by the fall town meeting.  Please feel free to contact any member of the committee to make suggestions or comments.  We look forward to the awesome task at hand and look forward to helping to move the Town of Framingham forward on such an important issue.

 

The PILOT Study Committee

Bob Berman, Chair

Yaakov Cohn, Vice-Chair

Laurie Lee, Clerk

Dawn Harkness

Cynthia Laurora

Steve Orr

James Palmer

Wes Ritchie

Nicholas Sanchez

Kurt Steinberg