Just about two years ago, members of the city council were critical of the customer service they received when trying to obtain information information from the city’s administration. They complained that they would often get push back from different departments, or were told to file a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA). Often times the requests made by councilors were on behalf of their constituents. The pushback showed them an unwillingness to assist. The city councillors were frusterated and made their complaints know in a city council meeting.
Within days, a letter by the mayor was drafted asking for a public apology from the city council, to apologize for complaining about shitty customer service out of the Mayor’s office.
The video below is a snippet of the mayor’s demand for an apology.
A YEAR LATER…. Scandal.
Via a FOIA request the Framingham Source requested text messages sent between Mayor Spicer and COO Thatcher Kezer during meetings of the city council. We saw the request, and wanted to press for a little more information, so we requested the messages sent by Mayor Spicer and anyone, during the city council meetings.
Both the Source and we received pushback. On October 23rd, just before the 10 business days allowed for FOIA response elapsed, we received a letter from Jennique Horrigan, the Mayor’s Executive Assistant, explaining why they needed an additional 15 business days… It reads:
Messages from my FOIA account have not been sending the last few days, nor have I been able to attach documents without crashing the system.
So I am writing to you outside of the system to update you on records requests 2020-1374; 2020-1377; 2020-1378; 2020-1379; 2020-1380.
For records request 2020-1377 I will be taking the extra 15 days allowed to produce the records for these two requests because the custodians of those documents need more time to extract them from their devices due to technical challenges trying to export or download the records from the phones in a manner other than just screen-caps. I will do my best to get these records to you before the 15 days.
I will load this email into the FOIA Direct system once the problems are figured out so that there is a record there of this communication, which means you may receive a duplicate message at some point.
Many thanks in advance for your patience as we work through technical difficulties.
Nine additional business days elapsed and on Friday November 6th all the texts were released. We are releasing all the texts here. Click to enlarge images.
From 9/3/2020 (Mayor in Gray, Chief Operating Officer in Blue)
From 9/15/2020 (Mayor in Blue, Chief Operating Officer in Gray)
From 9/29/2020 (Mayor in Gray, Chief Operating Officer in Blue)
From 9/29/2020 (Mayor in Blue, City Councilor Morales in Gray)
From 10/6/2020 (Mayor in Gray, Chief Operating Officer in Blue)
The Framingham Source, as part of their reporting on this, asked each councilor for their opinion on the matter and asked how they would move forward from this. Click here to read the article on the Framingham Source. The mayor was also asked for a statement, she did not respond to the source.
On Monday afternoon, Mayor Spicer issued an “Apology” via a press release on the city’s website. In her opening, the mayor called the Framingham Source, an online local newspaper edited by Susan Petroni, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a ” a local, politically motivated blog“.
It’s one thing to call Framingham Unfiltered a “a local, politically motivated blog“, because she has, and because we are. But to belittle an accredited news agency is another thing.
Here is Mayor Spicer’s apology to the people of the city. Click to Enlarge Pages.
While the word “apologize” is included in this document once, the heartfelt words “I’m Sorry” does not exist. This is not an apology, this is the mayor trouncing upon the City Council for standing up to her when representing their constituents.
If you can’t apologize, it is time for you to resign.