New Evidence Suggests the Firing of Framingham's Senior Services Director Was Unjustified Political Payback

On May 26, 2026, the Director of Elder Services, Randy Aylsworth was given notice that he was terminated, effective May 29, 2026.

Randy was given just 3 days to leave, after almost 12 years of service at the Callahan Center, with 3 years as Director. He had worked in the field of older adult services for 27 years.

Subscribe

With Randy’s city salary covered by the FY26 budget until June 30, 2026, such a termination appeared peremptory and punitive.

Since being axed, Randy has not been able to secure another position in his field, as it is a very specialized one, and there is not an abundance of opportunities in the Commonwealth.

Randy earned his Master of Science in the Management of Aging Services from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 2021. Prior to working for the Callahan Center, he worked for fifteen years in various roles at Philips Lifeline.

Randy was very well regarded and very experienced in his field, and an important advocate for Framingham at the state level, where he served on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Councils on Aging (MCOA).

The MCOA newsletter featured him on March 21, 2025:

From Corporate Calls to Community Champion: Randy’s Second Act

The firing of Randy was explained by the Mayor as being an unavoidable consequence of the Mayor’s reorganization of city services, in a FY27 budget cutting move.

However, that is not the complete story.

On Friday, July 17, 2026, I was called by a City Councilor, who told me that in a recent meeting with the Mayor, where the Councilor was lobbying for reinstatement of Randy, the Mayor responded by saying that Randy “campaigned for Epstein” in the 2025 Mayoral race.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

But the Mayor’s comment uncovers the fact that, not only was Randy’s firing unlawful, as the reorganization had not received the City Council approval required by the City Charter, but there appeared to be a real political payback element.

Here is the back story on that.

As is well known, I ran against Charlie in the Mayoral race and one hurdle my campaign ran into was getting access to seniors with a campaign event at the Callahan Center.

Charlie blocked access for a long time, but eventually the City Solicitor advised Charlie that such actions were unlawful, and we got access for a well attended campaign event at the Callahan Center.

In all of this, Randy Aylsworth acted in a completely professional, politically neutral manner, simply complying with the law and taking no sides.

When the campaign event occurred, Randy was not present, as he was very careful to avoid any appearance of connection to my campaign.

I can attest to the fact that Randy had nothing to do with my campaign.

So, what can explain the Mayor’s comment to the City Councilor?

My take is that the Mayor’s view in the campaign was that if you were not with him, you were against him, and the firing of Randy was a consequence of that.

Compare that with Dawn Dellasanta, Director of the Framingham Library, who is now slated to take over management of Elder Services.

She campaigned actively for the Mayor, with 4 Charlie yard signs on her lawn.

Further evidence of the pressure the Mayor applied to city employees and board members was accumulated during the campaign, and included:

• A board member who had a Charlie yard sign on her lawn because she feared that a refusal would result in her not being renewed for another term
• A board member, who supported a City Councilor aligned against Charlie, who insisted on having no photos of them at campaign events for fear of a Charlie reprisal

It seems that Randy was simply not supportive enough of his boss in a political matter.

The long and short of this sorry situation seems to be that budget difficulties provided cover for a staff termination which not only violated the City Charter, but was simple, undeserved political payback.

It seems very reasonable and just for the Mayor’s ‘reorganization’ scheme to be rejected by the City Council and Randy Aylsworth reinstated with lost pay added in.

The community has a prime opportunity to weigh in on this today at the public hearing on the reorganization, which is being held at City Hall this evening, July 21, 2026 in the 7pm City Council meeting. The agenda is here, and includes a Zoom link for remote participation.