Councilor Questions Timing Of Mayor's CPA Ordinance Veto

Framingham MA

21 February, 2021

9:17 AM

Description

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The Framingham City Councilor who was in charge of committee that created an ordinance governing the Community Preservation Act (CPA) is pushing back on Mayor Yvonne Spicer's Friday veto of the law. In a memo to City Council, District 8 City Councilor John Stefanini says Spicer didn't file her veto in time for it to count. The Council unanimously approved the CPA ordinance in a second vote on Feb. 2. The ordinance was signed by the City Clerk and handed to Spicer's office on Feb. 5, Stefanini says in the memo. "The mayor's office on Feb. 12 called the Council's office asking for another copy of the order as it had 'misplaced' it," Stefanini said in the memo. "The Mayor finally returned it to the City Clerk on Feb. 19 — 17 days after it was passed, 15 days after signed, and 14 days after it was delivered. No matter how you calculate ten days, it had passed." The Framingham City Charter says ordinances will automatically go into effect if the mayor takes no action within 10 days. The charter, however, is silent on a timeframe for issuing vetoes. "If the mayor has neither signed a measure nor returned it to the council within ten (10) days after the date it was presented to the mayor, the measure shall be considered approved," the charter says. Spicer vetoed the CPA ordinance over a section that deals with appointments. Four members of the nine-member CPA committee — a group that will eventually approve funding requests under the CPA law — will be residents. The Council gave itself the power to appoint those at-large members rather than letting the mayor do it. The mayor typically appoints residents to city boards and commissions per the city charter, but Councilors have said the state CPA law gives them the option to choose who makes the appointments. Stefanini in his memo highlights that Weymouth's City Council appoints members to that city's CPA committee. Following a veto, the City Council must wait 10 days before discussing the vetoed item. The Council can override a veto with a two-thirds vote. Spicer has issued two other vetoes during her first term. In September, the Council unanimously overturned Spicer's veto of the apartment moratorium.