Forum on SMOC suit set for Monday night Sunday, April 26, 2009
Dan McDonald 508-626-4416 Metrowest Daily News
FRAMINGHAM -- Paul Mina, assessing the divisive lawsuit that has the nonprofit South Middlesex Opportunity Council locking horns in federal court with elected town officials, hopes calm and reason will trump the public outrage that has seeped into the case. Mina, president of the United Way of Tri-County, will find out firsthand tomorrow night if civility can prevail. He is one of five panelists to lead a citizen-sponsored forum on the South Middlesex Opportunity Council's lawsuit. Organizers hope the summit will promote cordial discussion of what has snowballed into one of the most divisive issues in town. In October 2007, SMOC sued the town and elected individuals serving on volunteer boards, including selectmen, Planning Board members and Town Meeting members, alleging a handful of officials tried to block expansion of its social services. Thus far, Town Meeting has appropriated $400,000 for the defense of the case, with another $350,000 special appropriation to be considered this week in a special Town Meeting. SMOC did not return calls seeking their legal budget for the case on Friday. The two-hour forum begins at 7 p.m. and will be held at 720 Edgell Road, inside the Lutheran Church of Framingham's Social Hall. "This is only going to get worse until cooler heads prevail," Mina said. SMOC has drawn the ire of some town residents for myriad reasons. Some say the suit is an attempt by the agency to run roughshod over home rule and freedom of speech rights. SMOC counters that the town discriminated against the most vulnerable - the disabled - through attempting to stall projects involving a residential drug treatment facility and a veterans shelter. Tony Chiccarelli, a Herbert Street resident not named in the suit, articulated a common refrain of SMOC critics last week. He says SMOC properties downgrade neighborhoods. "They're rewarding bad behavior," he said. "From what I have seen, there are still drunks there, there are still drug addicts there, and they have a place to live for free." Mina says social service agencies are not damaging Framingham. He suggests the opposite is true. "It enhances the community," said Mina. Mina, who says the United Way has no stance on the lawsuit, hopes to give a historical reference as to why human service agencies are here. "They moved to Framingham because that's where there were people in need," said Mina. "Some have been here for 30, 40, 50 years. They've been part of the fabric of the community forever." The people who use such social services, "are not going to go away if the agencies move away." If the agencies move out, says Mina, it could cause a much greater problem down the road. Or as former Selectman John Kahn, who will also serve as a panelist, wrote in a statement, the clients SMOC serves, wherever they come from "will always be in need of service from some public or private provider." Kahn also notes that no community can support indefinitely the "inexorable expansion of social service agencies and facilities." Other panelists include Town Meeting member Robert Snider, former selectman and state Rep. John Stasik, and the Rev. Richard Hurst, pastor of the Lutheran Church of Framingham.

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