Preliminary Screening Committee for New City Manager Selected
Aug 19, 2016 – The Mayor is pleased to announce the appointment of the following people to participate in the Preliminary Screening Committee for a new City Manager. We also extend our appreciation to the 50 people who submitted applicants and were generously willing to volunteer their time in support of our search efforts.
The Preliminary Screening Committee, comprised of 15 community members reflecting citywide constituencies and four City Council members, will be facilitated by our search firm GovHR USA. The purpose of the Committee will be to interview the most qualified applicants and determine the three finalists to present to the public and to the City Council for their vote.
The public will have opportunities to meet the three finalists and provide feedback prior to the nominating vote taken at a City Council meeting in late September.
The following provides a list of the Committee’s constituent members and a brief recap of their qualifying credentials.
| Constituency | Applicant Choice | Bio |
| Resident representative | Peter Traversy | Peter is a resident of North Cambridge. He’s a small business owner and active in youth sports. |
| Resident representative | Elaine Thorne | Elaine is a Riverside resident and was a longtime Project Planner for the City of Cambridge with extensive experience working in all neighborhoods in our City. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Cambridge Community Center. |
| Resident representative | Laura Booth | Laura is a resident of the Port neighborhood. She’s a CPSD parent who brings extensive work experience in the local nonprofit community and is a longtime advocate for affordable housing. She has experience with senior level hiring. |
| Large Business representative | Jay Kiely | Jay currently serves as Chair of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. He is a senior level manager with Forest City and has been active in Cambridge’s civic, nonprofit, and corporate arenas. |
| Small Business representative | Patrick Magee | Patrick is a Wellington/ Harrington resident who owns and manages Atwood’s Tavern on 877 Cambridge Street. He is a founding member of ECBA and has served as President for the past five years. |
| CPS Representative | Richard Harding | Richard is a resident of the Port and has been a longtime elected member of the School Committee. He is Co-president of the Cambridge NAACP and served as a member of former Police Commissioner Haas’ Community Advisory Board. He’s been a leader in the Men of Color Task Force. |
| Public Safety representative | Gerald Reardon | Chief Reardon is a nationally recognized leader in Fire Safety. He has spent his entire professional career with the City of Cambridge Fire Department and the last 17 years as its Chief. |
| Person with demonstrated knowledge of municipal finance | Fred Fantini | Fred is an East Cambridge resident and served as Deputy Treasurer for the Town of Arlington for 35 years. He’s a former CCTV president; a longtime member of the Cambridge School Committee; and has experience with executive searches. |
| Health and Human Services/Public Health representative | Claude Jacob | Claude is Cambridge’s Chief Public Health Officer at the Cambridge Health Alliance. He’s also Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Association of County and City Health Officials and has experience with executive search hires. |
| Representative with knowledge of City Planning/Urban Development | Susan Schlesinger | Susan is a Cambridgeport resident and longtime advocate for affordable housing. She’s been an active member of the Affordable Housing Trust and with the Community Preservation Act Board. She has experience with high level executive searches. |
| Higher Education/Institutional partner | Kevin Casey | Kevin is Associate Vice President at Harvard University with oversight of nonprofit engagement, government relations and local economic development. |
| Public Art and/or Recreational representative | Ellen Semonoff | Ellen is a Mid-Cambridge resident and has longtime served as Cambridge’s Assistant City Manager for Human Services, which has oversight of the city’s recreation department. She’s the Chair of the Cambridge Public Health Committee and former Chair of the Cambridge Health Alliance. She has experience with high level executive searches. |
| Affordable Housing advocate | Susan Connelly | Susan is a North Cambridge resident and a CPSD parent. She has extensive experience working in the field of affordable housing and serves as Director of the Community Housing Initiatives at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership and serves as Treasurer of the Cambridge Housing Authority Commissioner’s Board. |
| Nonprofit Community representative | Elaine DeRosa | Elaine is a Cambridgeport resident and has extensive experience working on behalf of low-income individuals and families serving as Executive Director of CEOC for past 28 years. She has committee experience working on city public policy, affordable housing, health care and delivery of community services issues. |
| Representative who advocates for the quality of our community’s civic and social well-being | Reverend Lorraine Thornhill | Rev. Lorraine Thornhill has served as Lead Pastor in the Port neighborhood for the past 19 years. She’s also Lead Chaplain, Cambridge Police Department; Vice-Chair, Board of Trustees Cambridge YWCA; Commissioner, City of Cambridge Human Services Department; and President, Cambridge Black Pastors Alliance. |
| City Council member | Councillor Leland Cheung | |
| City Council member | Councillor David Maher | |
| City Council member | Councillor Nadeem Mazen | |
| City Council member | Councillor Timothy Toomey | |