As a parent with 7 kids I hope the free tuition for kindergarten is approved. The federal government will pick up the tab and it would give some of the residents of the town relief in this time of a bad economy.

@Herb Chasen - You owe Town Meeting member Kim Poness a cup of coffee.
She was nice enough, when I asked, to help one of your new recruits tonight and even help get him elected to her precinct 18.

Susan, where's the rest of the live blog? It seems to only go to 6:11. Is there a different URL?

Cover it live is Patch"s new live blogging tool you need to click on that grey box above to read the transcript. I will copy & paste it below later but when I do it takes all the coding with it ...

One last thing I discovered last night is that cover it live is not available for our mobile app viewers ... I was trying to help a town meeting member follow our live blogging and we had to use the desktop version on her smart phone ...

Thanks for the shout-out Susan! I had no idea that the new TMM in my precinct was a Chasan "recruit"! I hope he cares equally about all of the issues, and not just the schools.

@Kim - In your neighborhood - and I know you won't be offended - it IS important to care about a lot of issues!
See you tonight at Town Meeting

Susan - you're absolutely right - not offended in the least - see you tonight!

I'm sad that Mr. Chasan's new recruit in precinct 18 has not shown up for any of the meetings except the first night. It will be interesting to see if he shows up to vote on the school budget and nothing else. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that doesn't happen, as I truly believe we need balance in town. I'm not sure it's in our best interest to have fabulous schools but crumbling neighborhoods and no money to do anything else.

Kim, if the one makes you sad, then I would imagine that you are happy with the dozens of Chasan's recruit's that have been there every night? I know I am, not because of any issues or voting block (I have voted the other way on a few items, with more to come) but because historically we have often had far less than the 130-140 or so TMM's than we have the last two weeks.

Active members are always better for the democratic process than empty seats, and nobody in recent memory has done more to fill seats than Herb Chasan.

Saying that, lets make Framingham a city and it won't be an issue.

Kim - Is there still a vacancies in your precinct to fill? Would you be happier if you had another vacant seat, or someone from your precinct giving representation, even if not perfect attendance? So far it does not look like there have been many close votes, so perhaps the person decided that attendance those evenings was not critical. With only about 10% of our entire group of eligible voters participating in last election (and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in your precinct was even lower), I think we should be encouraging residents to participate to whatever degree they are able, rather than criticizing them if they fall short of your expectations. It is wonderful that you are so giving of your time to the town, I know your time is valuable and town meeting is very time consuming. But I think we should be careful about being critical of those who are not able to do that. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are not taking their job seriously. (But I can't speak for them. Perhaps you could discuss with them directly, rather than in a public forum like this). Just my two cents.

Such interesting reactions from what I thought was a small observation. No, John, I would not be happier if we had another vacant seat. How odd that you would surmise that. And I don't believe I actually criticized anyone, just expressed a hope that a well-balanced approach to the issues would be taken. A criticism would look more like this "shame on so and so for not showing up to town meeting - shame on so and so for . . . well, fill in the blanks". Not even remotely what I said here, nor did I call anyone out by name. I expressed a sadness and a hope - end of story.

Sorry Kim. I apparently misunderstood your comments. I thought you were implying something that evidently you were not. Please accept my apologies. I agree more participation, and well-balanced approach, are always desirable. And thank YOU for all the time you are giving to the town at Town Meeting.

@John - thanks so much for that! And I'll try to be more careful about how I phrase things to be sure I'm expressing my points clearly. Thanks for the feedback :)