Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

Feb 22, 2010 City Council Agenda Highlights – David Maher Elected Mayor

Feb 22 update — The Cambridge City Council tonight unanimously elected David Maher as Mayor and Henrietta Davis as Vice-Chair of the City Council.

David Maher taking oath of office

The City Council returns tonight and perhaps again this Wednesday (and future Mondays and Wednesdays) until they are able to produce five votes to select their Chair, i.e. the mayor. During a time when two city councillors (Decker, Simmons) are vying for the State Senate seat vacated by Anthony Galluccio, there is no way that these candidates will want to give up two nights per week to City Council business even if the sole agenda item is a series of unproductive votes for mayor. The likelihood is that this thing will be resolved tonight, though I’ll withhold my bets on this thing being immediately resolved or on who will get to wear the crown and get the fatter paycheck. [Scorecard here on mayoral ballots to date.]

Here are some agenda items that jump out:

City Manager’s Agenda #4. Transmitting communication from Robert W. Healy, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 10-10, regarding a report on the status of the Urban Ring Phase 2 project.

The upshot of this is that the Urban Ring project has been shelved for the time being, but efforts will be made to protect the rights-of-way for the day when economic conditions are more favorable to built this new transit route – be it a rail or bus service partially in a dedicated right-of-way.

City Manager’s Agenda #8. Transmitting communication from Robert W. Healy, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) for $1,139,400 to the Public Investment Fund Public Works Extraordinary Expenditures account ($759,600) and the Public Investment Fund Community Development Extraordinary Expenditures account ($379,800) and will be used as follows: $759,600-Municipal Building Energy Efficiency Program; $250,000-Community Energy Efficiency Campaign; $100,000-Community Energy Efficiency Incentives Program; $29,800-Public Bicycle Parking Program.

This is one of two items involving the use of federal stimulus money. It will be interesting to see how much of this money ultimately flows to Cambridge and if it is used as an advance for projects already planned (as opposed to just wasteful “make work” projects).

City Manager’s Agenda #14. Transmitting communication from Robert W. Healy, City Manager, relative to the transfer within the Community Policing Grant of $31,360 from Grant Fund Police Extraordinary Expenditures account to the Grant Fund Police Travel and Training account to cover costs associated with the Cambridge Review Committee.

This is noteworthy primarily because of its roots in the Great Gates Caper of Summer 2009 when a clueless president chose to take sides in a local Cambridge matter and was able to extricate himself politically with some airline tickets and a few beers. Meanwhile, the principals in the initial episode, Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley, seem to have resolved their altercation without the need of a multi-hundred thousand dollar study committee. Jim Crowley even gave Skip Gates the handcuffs used in his arrest for donation to the Smithsonian. Nonetheless, we see an additional $31,360 allocation for this study committee. Maybe we should just buy them a few beers.

City Manager’s Agenda #18. Transmitting communication from Robert W. Healy, City Manager, relative to the transfer of $78,980 from the General Fund Employee Benefits Salary and Wages account (salary adjustment) to the General Fund Election Commission Other Ordinary Maintenance account to support two special elections scheduled for Apr 13, 2010 (primary election) and on May 11, 2010 (general election) for the vacant Senate seat for Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex.

This interim election to fill the Galluccio vacancy should not even be happening. Whoever wins the April primary will face no opposition in the May election and will be seated in time for summer recess and the fall reelection campaign season. This same seat will again be contested in the September primary (most likely featuring many of the same candidates) followed by an uncontested November election. This is a total waste of money with no benefit.

Even more insane is the election method itself. There are 7 Democratic candidates who will be splitting the vote so completely that it will be virtually impossible for any candidate to get anywhere near a majority of the vote in a low-turnout April primary. The election promises to be a textbook example of how elections should not be conducted, but does anyone believe the Massachusetts State Legislature will ever change the method?

Here’s the change they should make: Change the law for the filling of vacancies in State Senate and State Representative seats so that the first election is an open (nonpartisan) preliminary election followed by a top-two runoff. No election system is perfect, but this would at the very least produce a majority winner in a meaningful final election. Until Massachusetts seriously addresses the topic of electoral reform, state government has no business referring to itself as “progressive.”

City Manager’s Agenda #20. Transmitting communication from Robert W. Healy, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Numbers 09-125 and 10-17, regarding an update on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Middle School Youth.

This item is noted only because the middle school proposal has the potential to be one of the top political hot potatoes this year. Nothing at the City Council has yet emerged as either controversial or especially pivotal, but the year is young. In the meantime, everyone obsesses over the mayoral election which is peripherally related to the middle school proposal.

Order #1. That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to prepare a response to Google’s RFI which would nominate the City of Cambridge to be a candidate for Google’s plan for the installation of a fiber optic network.   Councillor Cheung and Councillor Toomey

Once again, Councillor Cheung steps forward along with Councillor Toomey with a good initiative. It’s hard to say what a Google fiber network in Cambridge could yield, but it does seem like a natural place to do this. Telecommunications, the Internet, and access to television programming is evolving rapidly, and this at least has the potential to change the landscape in which Comcast now operates in a nearly monopolistic manner.

Order #6. That the City Manager is requested to determine whether or not the flights to and from Logan Airport have any zone, time, or other restrictions and if the Cambridge community is notified in the event of changes in flight patterns.   Councillor Decker

File this one under wimpiness and entitlement. Cambridge people want to use cell phones, go grocery shopping, and fly out of Logan to destinations of their choosing, yet they protest loudly when trucks have to drive the local streets to deliver groceries, when cell phone transmitters are affixed to buildings, and when planes fly over someplace other than Winthrop, Chelsea, or East Boston.

Order #7. That the City Manager is requested to direct the Information Technology Department and the Community Development Department to work with interested councillors to explore organizing a competition among local technologists, programmers, and CRLS students to develop an iPhone application for the City of Cambridge.   Councillor Davis and Councillor Cheung

Once again, Councillor Cheung (with Councillor Davis) attempts to drag the City Council kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. Whoever ends up being elected Mayor should appoint Leland to chair the Cable TV, Telecommunications, and Public Utilities Committee (as well as the University Relations Committee and perhaps Co-Chair of the Finance Committee). This fellow could really make things interesting. By the way, the author of the Cambridge Civic Journal, though he maintains quite a few websites and has been known to kick around databases and software and plenty of other technical stuff, drives a 30+ year old vehicle, has neither a cell phone nor an iPhone, and has no intention of upgrading any time soon from his current Luddite existence. — Robert Winters