We’ll Meet Again – What’s on the Agenda for the April 6, 2020 Cambridge City Council Virtual Meeting?
The address of Queen Elizabeth to the people of England today is still resonating with me, especially the subtle reference to the Vera Lynn song from the days of World War II. It really choked me up listing to the old gal weave together past, present, and future. If only we had that kind of moral leadership at the top of our political heap. Perhaps we will again some sunny day.
Meanwhile, back in our Cambridge, here are a few agenda items this week that I found interesting:
Manager’s Agenda #1. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to a request for the City Council to adopt a statutory small business exemption for personal property accounts equal to or less than $10,000 in assessed value, and if approved as a special act by the Legislature and Governor of the Commonwealth, for personal property accounts equal to or less than $20,000 in assessed value.
This is a relatively modest assist to small businesses, but it’s also a sign that maybe there’s a realization that small businesses are deserving of benefits now reserved entirely for resident homeowners. There’s also the added benefit of bureaucratic simplification.
Manager’s Agenda #4. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to an update on COVID-19.
We’ve all come to appreciate the daily updates from the City administration, but perhaps this will be an opportunity to get some insight into the larger picture of how the City is responding and will continue to respond to this public health nightmare.
Order #1. That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to confer with the relevant City departments to give the Council a financial impact summary on how the local Covid-19 response will be impacting the City’s free cash and ability to budget looking into July 1, 2021, and to report back to the City Council in a timely manner. Councillor Simmons, Councillor Carlone
I can’t help but be reminded of how often some councillors would view the City’s fund balance as some kind of untapped piggy bank just waiting to be broken open for pet projects and populist initiatives. I guess it takes an actual rainy day to fully understand the value of maintaining a "rainy day fund."
Order #3. That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to work with the relevant City departments to report back to the Council on what efforts have been made to work with other municipalities on this issue and to work with Cambridge’s State Delegation and the Governor’s office for a comprehensive regional housing plan to be put in place to house the homeless during the COVID-19 emergency. Councillor Toomey, Councillor Simmons, Councillor McGovern
ALL housing solutions have to be understood regionally. Unilateral solutions are not solutions. They never were and they never will be.
Order #4. That the City Manager expand tax-filing and stimulus benefit assistance to low-income and unhoused residents. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councillor Zondervan
With so many banks in every city square and elsewhere, one might think that these could provide the financial infrastructure for stimulus benefit assistance through coordination between the federal government and all of these banks. The same goes for providing low-interest or zero-interest short-term, government-insured business loans and mortgage assistance. Waiting several months for an across-the-board $1200 check to every resident seems like the least effective way to get through these difficult months of temporary unemployment and loss of income. As for those who lack a bank account or a home address, how to receive the federal benefit seems like just one more problem heaped on top of a host of other problems. – Robert Winters