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Finance subcommittee approves $75,000 transfer for interim CFO consultant, adds transparency conditions
Summary
The Framingham City Council Finance Subcommittee voted to transfer $75,000 from salary reserves to pay an interim chief financial officer consultant and approved conditions requiring public posting of expenditures, five years of property assessments, and a CFO 'budget book.' The vote was unanimous (5–0).
The Framingham City Council Finance Subcommittee voted on Jan. 15 to transfer $75,000 from the FY2026 salary reserve to the Chief Financial Officer professional and technical consultant account to fund short-term CFO support while the city completes a national search for a permanent hire.
Councilor Stephanie Nee moved the measure with a set of transparency conditions appended: "Provided that the city post all expenditures, our checkbook, excluding veterans benefits for the past 2 years on the city website as is readily searchable format...," and that the assessor post five years of property assessments and the CFO produce a budget book showing prior and upcoming fiscal-year detail. The motion was seconded and passed by a recorded committee vote of 5 to 0.
Acting finance staff told the committee the consultant firm under consideration quoted $15,000 per month and that the city had initially budgeted for a longer engagement; staff said they had received about a dozen applicants for the permanent CFO position and sought short-term support because "time was of the essence" to ensure continuity of financial operations.
Several councilors and members of the public questioned the decision to hire a consultant without issuing a full RFP. Councilor Cannon said he was "surprised not to see an RFP in the background material for this" and urged broader public solicitation; a resident who testified, Donna Kilcoyne, said the city had "wasted weeks" that could have been used to run an RFP and expressed concern about transparency ahead of a tight budget year.
Committee members tied the consultant decision to an aggressive work plan for the next 11 weeks, during which councilors said they will schedule additional meetings, meet division heads and insist the administration provide revenue and free‑cash data earlier in the process. The committee also requested that staff bring auditors and Department of Revenue reviewers back for an update on the FY2025 independent audit.
The transfer authorizes short‑term consultant pay and does not itself create a permanent position; the committee recorded the transfer as approved and attached the posting and budget‑book requirements as a condition of the authorization.
