Town Council Meeting Bracketed By Accusations and Soul Searching

Above, Dashe Videira: "My jaw dropped to the floor."

The Wednesday evening Franklin Town Council meeting began with torrent of citizen comments and ended more than two hours later with soul-searching comments and some that were concerned and conciliatory from councilors.

First up with impassioned remarks was resident Dashe Videira, a candidate for state senate. She noted that she had attended the state rep debate in Medway on Tuesday Oct. 8, and was initially forced to wait outside with others while an overcrowding issues was address

“All I was doing was just standing there and the thought that somebody could [come up to me and] tell me that I didn't have the right to live, and that I was running a hate campaign, and then to top it off, called me a vile human.” Videira said “my jaw dropped to the floor,” and that she was very thankful for someone physically being there to help` diminish where it could have gone.'

"I'm very thankful that my husband was not there, because I think a very poor situation could have gotten even uglier,” she added.

Videira said the man making the remarks was the current chair of the Franklin Cultural Commission and also a former town councilor. She also faulted a current town councilor near her in the crowd, for not intervening or speaking out.

 Having been portrayed on the Vote Franklin Facebook page in a ‘meme’ that appeared to show her as a school shooter and also describing her as being like the Boston Strangler, Videira said that the ‘group’ involved with the page is itself a hate group and needs to be shut down.

Two speakers later, Jane Callaway-Tripp got up and continued the topic, taking the members of the Town Council that are part of the Vote Franklin page to task for not speaking out against the hateful rhetoric on that site, and went further than Videira, naming the source of the verbal assaults on her as John Ristaino.. Callaway-Tripp said that his comments amounted to ‘more a less’ a threat and suggested that the Council should remove him from his position on the Cultural Council. She also asserted the Councilor Ted Cormier-Leger was near Videira and should have acted.
Several other speakers followed, one of whom said that Ristaino had made similar violent statements toward her inside the event. With another criticizing Ristaino’s actions as at odds with his activities in St. Mary’s Parish. One speaker said the signs around town proclaiming that Kindness Matters in Franklin are ludicrous since she says she had encountered so much hostility in town and hoped to move as soon as her children finish school. At least two of the commenters singled out Councilor Patrick Sheridan for ‘smirking’ or laughing during their comments and those made by Videira.

All together the river of comments took about half an hour to run its course (including a separate critique of the Town's failure to act on its looming fiscal crisis from Susan Dewsnap) and was followed by a more staid meeting, discussing a range of topics, including the town “branding” initiative.

Near the end of the meeting, during the Councilor Comments period, several members expressed sorrow and dismay at what had happened to Videira, with Melanie Hamblen noting that she herself had experienced similar things a few years earlier, prompting her to leave social media. Ted Cormier-Leger, who had been criticized by some of the earlier speakers stated that ‘Kindness does matter,’ and said he was said to hear about what had been said to Videira. He said “I honestly didn’t hear anything that was said to her,’

“If I truly witnessed somebody badgering and threatening another human being, regardless of political differences, I would have stepped in,” he added. He went on to talk about the interactions he has with many people around town in the context of business, children and sports and that we are all part of Franklin and need to work to treat each other with respect.

Neither Patrick Sheridan nor Cobi Frongillo commented.
Town manager Jamie Hellen was asked by a councilor whether something could be done regarding the verbal attack and he said he was unfamiliar with the matter until the start of the meeting and couldn’t do anything unless he heard from the police.