This is FU

On June 21, Doug Stephan, former Community Preservation Commission (CPC) member, and illegitimate Agriculture Advisory Committee (AAC) member seeks to be re-appointed to the Agricultural Advisory Committee.

If you have read our prior reporting, you would know that this guy is a bully that has contributed to at least half a dozen resignations from committees and boards he has served on. In many cases, the resignation letters directly name Doug as the reason for resignation, or allude to a hostile environment created by him.

He’s an old friend of the current Mayor. Recently he was placed illegitimately on the AAC, which was actually prohibited based on his membership on the CPC. On June 16, after posting an exposé on FU, Doug did the right thing and resigned from the CPC. His resignation does not make him eligible for a re-appointment, and more so his continued presence on the AAC sets a precedence that this mayor, is not playing by the rules… at least when it comes to his friends.

Doug is a bully.

It is no longer time to allow bullies City boards and commissions. It is a time to foster teamwork, respectful disagreements, and progress in this city. Hostile, misogynistic, disrespectful, and just plain mean, are words used to describe Doug by those who have had the displeasure of having to work alongside of him.

Click the link below to send a prepared email to the city council, to encourage them to do the right thing, and deny Doug Stephan the ability to further participate in ‘public service’.

CLICK THIS LINK TO AUTOMICALLY GENERATE AN EMAIL

If your computer or phone isn’t set up to use the link above to auto-generate an email, we encourage you to cut and paste the message below, and send it to CityCouncil@FraminghamMA.gov

Make sure to enter your name at the bottom where it say “YOUR NAME HERE”.

To the City Council,

I am deeply concerned with the prospect of appointing Doug Stephan to the Agricultural Advisory Commission for many reasons.

In his decades of ‘service’ to the community, sitting on the Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC) and the Community Preservation Commission (CPC), on commissions and boards on which he serves, members resign at a blistering pace.

Recently, Doug was named as one of the reasons a CPC member resigned. She cited ‘blatant disrespect and misogyny’. For example when responding to criticism that he shows up to meetings unprepared, he barked, ‘I don’t like to read’. He recently stated that he was considering not coming to CPC meetings until the work phase was done, and would return for the fun part, the voting on projects.

Leaving for meetings where work is expected and returning for fun meetings is not how civil service works. Is laziness really what we want on our boards and commissions? Should laziness be rewarded?

In 2016 the clerk of the AAC, quit. In their resignation, they wrote, I have ‘failed to achieve a level of respect committee-wide that would have the members respond in a timely manner to my requests to schedule a meeting or respond to any other inquiry.’

In 2018, the AAC stopped meeting for an extended period of time. Five members resigned during this time leaving Doug and his friend Tommy Hanson as the lone membership roster.

In 2020, new AAC members were nominated by Mayor Spicer to try to get the group up and running again. Doug was still a member at the time although the AAC hadn’t met in years. One member felt privileged to be appointed to this role and worked hard to get the group meeting. After a year of trying, the member resigned, writing ‘Since joining, and the push back about meeting from Doug Stephan, I have not had the opportunity to be involved in anything after trying on a couple occasions to get a meeting of new members with Doug.’ he continued on to say that all he wanted to do was bring new ideas and do the work, ‘but for this I was surprised by the hostility of Doug, as all I wanted to do is contribute’.

After Doug’s term ended in June of 2021, the remaining members appointed by Spicer came together and started meeting that fall. In 2022, supported by the new Mayor, they explored the possibility of holding a city run farm market downtown and hosting a spring seedling swap. In March of 2022 the Mayor mistakenly told Doug that his role as member never ended, and it was just a misunderstanding that he was not an AAC member. Immediately Doug started meeting as a member of the AAC and voting on matters before it. The projects that the AAC had been planning were immediately shot down by Doug as not possible, already tried, not worth trying, or not worth trying again. Because of Doug’s long term friendship with the Mayor, the Mayor seemingly sided with Doug over the past aspirations of the AAC.

On June 21, 2022, the City Council has a choice. They can do the right thing, and stand up for the volunteer civil servants who have already resigned from their roles because of Doug and they can protect future volunteers from similar fates. Alternatively, they can help the Mayor promote his friend Doug Stephan for appointment on the Agricultural Advisory Committee.

We don’t endorse bullying, hate, and misogyny in our schools or within the municipal workplace, so why are we trying to onboard bullies with long track-records of causing turmoil, to our boards and commissions?

The choice is yours.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME HERE