moorecol No.8 09-25-2004 hed : If you're looking for change - don't plan on it By BOB MOORE It wasn't planned this way but for most of the day Thursday, officialdom was in an uproar about a plan, a housing plan that was a plan or wasn't, and a story in the ayem paper that had Jay Grande, administrator of the Planning Board, tucked away somewhere in the Planning and Economic Development Department, with limited or no powers, it seems. What's going on? Is Kathy Bartolini's growing Planning & Economic Development Department swallowing the Planning Board in one big gulp? One interested party guessed in the daylong turmoil over planning if Kathy's department might drop the planning and become EDD - after all, its function is only partly planning and to minimize confusion, let the Planning Board continue to do the - excuse the word - planning. Town Manager George King set it all straight, more or less. His aim to revamp P&EDD was one thing but it did not include, for the present, any changes in planning duties as the ayem story had indicated, or implied. Whatever. But planning still disrupted selectmen's procedure. We're talking about the proposed Housing Plan for Framingham which Kathy's "department" had cooked up and which had been gone over by the Housing Partnership Committee and passed on to selectmen - two of whom are HPC members =where it is stalled. But some of the zoning called for in the plan to be submitted to the state just might not pass muster with Town Meeting which has the last word on zoning. So TM's Planning and Zoning Committee had gone over the plan and had something to say, Committee Chairman Tom O'Neil said. But hold on. Selectmen were passing on articles to be submitted to the Oct. 19 Town Meeting and Article 4 [skip the details] had something to do with TM having a second bite of the apple on the Housing Plan. The plot thickens. Seems the original housing plan [46 pages] had been called back, so how, under Article 4, could "educate the public" [O'Neil's phrase] if there was no plan in existence? There was quite a bit of bobbing and weaving on this "ghost plan" with Chairman Chris Ross and Vice Chair Katie Murphy saying it would be a waste of time and confuse [what?] things if selectmen asked TM to convey what zoning they'd pass on. In the end, Charlie Sisitsky rescued the board with a new Article 4 that let TM "educate the public" [his phrase this time] with some indication of what it would accept. Passed. After some debate, so the Housing Plan for Framingham rests there. Uh, I wouldn't plan on it. WRONG - It was a serious and careless mistake I made last week. And I want to clear the air. After going all-out in support of Ginger Esty in the Democratic primary to nominate a candidate for Framingham-Ashland state representative, I "threw" a vote for her rival, Tom Sannicandro of Ashland. Glad to give one vote to a man who had the courage to wage a battle on stickers. One vote wouldn't hurt. Wrong. When friends wanted to know - gosh, hadn't I read Sannicandro flyers? No. I had thrown them aside. I dug them out of the trash. Among his charges against Ginger was that she had refused to support a statement by Framingham selectmen that this is a town that "welcomes" all immigrants. It was a mushy statement that said "we accept all." Hmm. Esty wanted to add the town welcomes "legal" newcomers. Good for her. In my view Sannicandro had seriously distorted the picture. Had I read his mail, I wouldn't have "thrown a vote" to him. That doesn't speak well of me. I acted on a whim. I apologize. I hope no one follows my example. HOT POTATO - "Illegal" entrants from South America - that's a subject that won't go away. It rankles the 4-1 Board of Selectmen. Weekly, legal residents of Brazilian descent press selectmen to "do something" about rights for "the illegals" such as driver's licenses and jobs. The illegal sale of Social Security papers to illegals has deepened the uneasiness among town officials who profess inability to act on a matter that involves federal authority. The arrest of a man believed to be the "S.S. salesman" has been followed with letters to immigrants who may have overstayed their visas. On Thursday, Joe Rizoli, a Framingham resident who weekly presses selectmen to act, told the board "there are 10,000 to 15,000 illegals in town. Ten years ago, the police chief estimated that there were 5,000 Brazilians uncounted in the Census. ______________________________________ You can reach Bob Moore edmoore4@aol.com or at 1-508-620-1449. Or wherever. [Let it ring; he's slow.]