Town Says Its Civility Pledge not Impacted by SJC

In response to yesterday's  Franklin Observer article which speculated on how the town's Civil Discourse policy would be impacted by the State Supreme Judicial Court action, overturning a similar measure in Southborough, Town Administrator Jamie Hellen, reviewed the SJC decision case with Town Attorney Mark Cerel.

Cerel's conclusion, according to an email from Hellen, is that Franklin's Civil Discourse pledge, approved in 2020, is not required to be altered by the Council because the approved pledge (1) was mostly self induced and relates to the Council members themselves and (2) the pledge "encourages" and does not "require" civility from citizens.

"If you read the final "Whereas" of the resolution, you'll see the word "encourages." That word was used in the SJC decision," Hellen wrote.

"As you can see from the SJC decision, a board can still limit citizen comments time limits and can remove citizens from the room if they are being disruptive and so forth. While very important for the protection of freedom of speech and for citizens to comment on public matters and/or public officials, the decision itself was relatively narrow in scope. As Attorney Cerel commented on the Pledge at the time, it was "aspirational" at best. It has no legal teeth and that discussion point was aplenty at those meetings. Many have predicted the outcome of this case," Hellen continued.

However, he said the administration is also reviewing the Town Council Rules of Procedure for any clarifications and updates the Council may need to consider. 

I have not seen any  that would need to be changed as a result of this case, but obviously as we have more time to review and see how other communities respond to this case, we and Council may want to clarify some points, he added.

The Policy can be read  here.