Framingham Budget Public Hearing Makes a Mockery of the City Charter

On Tuesday May 14, 2024, a public hearing on the city FY25 budget will be held at a City Council Finance Subcommittee meeting. This public hearing is required by the City Charter and is designed to provide a means for community members to give their input to the budget process.

In theory.

In practice, the community has been provided with none of the materials it needs to form an opinion on anything the budget actually will do for the city in the next fiscal year.

The Mayor’s FY25 operating and capital budget submissions make a mockery of the City Charter. They are replete with major, specific charter violations:

1. Failure to post the operating budget documents on the city website.
2. Failure to provide a Mayoral budget message (which is the most critical mechanism the City Charter established to ensure the community was well informed on what the budget would achieve).
3. Failure to provide any information on the work programs of city departments.
4. Failure to provide fiscal year end projections for free cash.
5. Failure to provide a 5-year capital improvement plan.
6. Failure to provide an inventory of all significant capital assets.

The Mayor’s submission simply ignores most of the requirements placed on it by the City Charter, especially Article VI, Section 4 (The Budget) and Section 8 (Capital Inventory and Capital Improvement Plan). See the Notes at the end for details of the City Charter sections.

In a further charter violation, the Mayor has not updated the city long range strategic plan, ignoring the requirements of Article III, Section 11. It is mandated by the City Charter to be updated every two years and approved by the City Council. The last and only version of the strategic plan was published on December 30, 2020, by the former Mayor. See the Notes at the end for details of the relevant City Charter section.

Such a strategic plan would guide budget planning and lay out goals to be achieved and milestones to track progress. Yet this key planning document is absent.

No member of the community has any hope of understanding at all what the budget addresses, achieves, or neglects. There is no mention of the state of the roads, buildings, water & sewer, or other infrastructure, nor of the state of city services, nor of progress achieved in the last fiscal year and what is planned to be accomplished in the next fiscal year.

The FY25 budget submission follows Mayor Sisitsky’s established tradition of planning opacity, but is actually worse than last year’s submission due to the collapse of capital improvement planning. For comparison, one can look at the article written last year on the FY24 budget submission:

The Framingham Mayor's Sparse FY24 Budget Submission

Given all of this, the public hearing on the budget on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, is a meaningless exercise designed to check a box on the City Charter requirements and nothing more.

Despite all this lack of information, it is possible, with a great deal of effort, to extract sufficient information to conclude that this budget is nothing short of a recipe for fiscal and infrastructure chaos, which will become evident over the next year and will create a severe crisis for the FY26 budget in an election year. That will be elaborated in subsequent articles.

Notes:

1. Here is Article VI, Section 4 of the City Charter. The parts which the Mayor’s budget submission violates are highlighted.

“4. THE BUDGET

a) Budget Message: The budget message of the mayor shall explain the budget for all municipal agencies both in fiscal terms and in terms of work programs. It shall outline proposed financial policies of the municipality for the ensuing fiscal year, describe important features of the budget, indicate any major variations from the current fiscal year in financial policies, expenditures and revenues together with the reasons for these changes, summarize the municipality’s debt position and include other material that the mayor considers desirable, or that may be required by the provisions of a municipal ordinance.

b) Proposed Operating Budget: The proposed operating budget shall provide a complete financial plan for all municipal funds and municipal activities for the ensuing fiscal year. Except as may otherwise be required by general law or this charter, it shall be in the form that the mayor considers desirable or that a municipal ordinance may require. In the presentation of the budget, the mayor shall use modern concepts of fiscal presentation so as to furnish an optimum level of information and the best financial control. The budget shall show in detail all estimated income from the proposed property tax levy and from all other sources and all proposed expenditures, including debt service, for the fiscal year. The budget shall be arranged to show the actual income and expenditures for the previous three fiscal years and the estimated income and expenditures for the current and ensuing fiscal years and shall indicate in separate sections:

i. Proposed expenditures for current operations during the ensuing fiscal year, detailed by municipal agency and position, in terms of work programs, and the method of financing such expenditures;

ii. Proposed capital expenditures during the ensuing fiscal year, detailed by municipal agency, and the proposed method of financing each capital expenditure;”

iii. The relationship of each proposed capital expenditure to the capital improvement program required to be submitted under Article VI, section 8; and,

iv. Estimated surplus revenue and free cash at the end of the current fiscal year, including estimated balances in any special accounts established for specific purposes.

2. Here is Article VI, Section 8 of the City Charter. The parts which the Mayor’s budget submission violates are highlighted.

“8. CAPITAL INVENTORY AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

a) Stewards: The mayor and council shall be active stewards of Framingham’s physical assets.

b) Capital Inventory: The mayor shall establish and update not less frequently than annually an inventory of significant capital assets such as buildings, infrastructure (water, sewer, storm water, and roads), moveable equipment and such other property as determined by ordinance. The council shall by ordinance establish the requirements of the inventory, such as age, condition, maintenance and repair history, remaining useful life and other features as the council may deem appropriate.

c) Contents of the Capital Improvement Program: The mayor shall create a capital improvement program, which shall include: (i) a clear summary of its contents; (ii) a list of all capital improvements proposed to be undertaken during the next five (5) fiscal years with supporting data and rationale; (iii) cost estimates, method of financing and recommended time schedules; and (iv) the estimated annual cost of operating and maintaining the facilities and/or equipment included. The above information shall be revised and extended each year.

d) Submission: The mayor shall prepare and submit to the council the inventory and the 5- year capital improvement program at least six (6) months prior to the mayor’s submission of the next fiscal year's operating budget.

e) Public Hearing: The council shall make the proposed capital improvement program available to the public and shall hold at least one public hearing on the capital improvement program.

f) Adoption: After the public hearing, concurrently with the passage of the next fiscal year's budget, the council may amend and shall, by resolution, adopt the capital improvement program with or without amendments.

g) Annual Report: The mayor shall annually report on the municipality’s progress regarding the capital improvement program.”

3. Here is Article III, Section 11(b) of the City Charter, which concerns strategic planning. The part which the Mayor has violated is highlighted.

"11. STRATEGIC PLANNING

…

b) Long Range Strategic Plan

i. Content: The Mayor shall prepare a long range strategic plan every ten (10) years in the year ending in “0.” This plan shall be prepared in consultation with the Strategic Initiative and Financial Oversight Committee as established in Article VI, division and department heads, multiple member bodies of the municipality, the council, school committee and residents, Said plan shall be updated every two years. The long range plan shall address financial, service, and infrastructure needs of the municipality and shall be coordinated with the findings and recommendations of any Framingham Home Rule Charter Page 30 master plan then in effect. Such plan shall be updated every two years and voted on by the council."