Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky is focused on finances and farmer's markets

Before Charlie Sisitsky moved to Framingham in 1971, he didn’t know the city past its Route 9 shopping plazas.

“Nobody knew there was any other part of Framingham,” Sisitsky said. “But Framingham has a lot to offer. We have a very diverse community. We have a large variety of housing. You can go out to Northwest Framingham and see these farms and open spaces and you think you're out in rural New Hampshire or Vermont, and then you move south toward the center of town and you see all these apartments along Route 9 and all the shopping areas along Route 9. There's just so much going on in this city.”

Sisitsky, a longtime selectboard member, was elected mayor last year and took office in January. He is the city’s second mayor after residents of Framingham, the Metrowest city of 72,00 residents, voted to switch their form of government from a town to a city five years ago. So far, he's focused on finances and reforming farmer's markets.

In 2021, he ran against and beat incumbent Mayor Yvonne Spicer, who was the first popularly elected Black female mayor ever in Massachusetts.

“We accepted the fact that we have become a city and we've moved on,” Sisitsky said. “And, you know, there's still some rumblings and people still thinking, well, we'd be better off if we continued to be a town and still did things the way we used to do it in town meeting. And others feel that Framingham is big enough, that it should be a city and it's working.”

When GBH’s Morning Edition spoke with Sisitsky for our series on new mayors in Massachusetts, he didn't parse words about his predecessor. Under Spicer's leadership Sisitsky was a city councilor, but he didn't think things were working.

“We decided not to run for reelection mainly because we didn't feel that the first mayor was doing a good job, and it was not the way we anticipated that the transition would go from town to city," he said.

“We got the impression that the mayor wanted to do her own thing without involving the city council, especially when it came to finances, and it wasn't working out the way everybody envisioned it to be,” he continued.

Sisitsky said he got elected because voters knew his work on the city’s now-defunct selectboard.

"They weren't satisfied with the bickering and the animosity between the city council and the mayor, and they felt that I could do a better job," Sisitsky said.

Going into office, he said, his first priority was to develop a new relationship with the city council. He also wanted to tackle problems with the city’s Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund, and clean up three contaminated sites in what he called environmental justice communities.

He went on a Zoom listening tour when he took office, meeting with the local chamber of commerce, the small business association and the Downtown Business Association. “We had Zoom meetings with everybody, and I introduced myself and they introduced themselves to me and I listened. We're trying to develop a working relationship.”

He spoke at length about revamping the city’s farmer’s market, on a suggestion from his wife.

“In past years, the farmer's market has kind of operated independently, with no city involvement at all,” Sisitsky said. “And so it languished for years. So when I became mayor, one of the things I said and I even, I said this to my wife, as a matter of fact — what things do we do in Framingham that we can do better? And she said, 'the farmer's market, do something about the farmer's market.'”

It’s been “tremendously successful,” he said.

“Overnight, people are showing up,” he said. “People are complimenting us on and putting this together. And it's been a huge success. We've got food trucks there. We've got some entertainment now. Families show up and have lunch out on the common. And because the farmer's market is open later, they'll come back and pick up dinner and bring dinner home. So it's been a big success... it's all about listening.”

Framingham has a three-term limit for mayors. If Sisitsky stayed in office for three four-year terms, he would be 88 years old when he left office. He said he intends to stay for as long as the city will have him.

“Somebody said age is only a number, and my number's unlisted,” Sisitsky said. “So as long as the people will reelect me and they think I'm doing a good job and I still have things to do, I'm going to keep running.”