Council Updates, Beginning of Summer, and More

FY24 Budget Process
As I mentioned above, on Monday we will be voting to adopt the FY24 budget after several weeks of discussions in the Finance Committee and several months of discussions around council priorities. One of my primary goals as co-chair of the Finance Committee was to bring more council voice to our budget process, something the new City Manager has been eager to work with us on. In terms of specific budget items, I was happy to hear from each department head on their goals If you’ve been reading my newsletters or following council work, you will know that I voted against the School Department budget due to the lack of high standards and a commitment to third grade literacy and algebra for all eighth graders. I also voted, with my colleagues, to send a strong message about the public health department budget cuts. As is being reported, the Cambridge Health Alliance is experiencing yet another year of financial turmoil – and announced the elimination of over 200 positions. I note that deep deficits have happened many times over the last thirty years since the start of the CHA as an entity. I remain concerned about the ways the public health department is managed within the current model. While we all want the health facilities to be financially sound, it is not the City Council’s role to assure the fiscal soundness of a regional health care system. Ours is the public health of our city and ensuring the public health department is appropriately funded. I’d like to also thank my co-chair of the Finance Committee, Councillor Carlone, for working collaboratively and working to bring transparency to the process for both council and the broader public. Though I remain opposed to the school department’s lack of clear accountability, I will be voting for the entire City budget.

BEUDO
After nearly two years of working to pass amendments to the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO), we are now at the precipice. As you may remember, during our last Ordinance Committee hearing in April on the topic, Mayor Siddiqui, Councillor Zondervan, and I presented amendments to the most recent CDD proposal which were nearly all accepted by the full council. Of the four proposals presented, 3 of them passed on 8-0 votes. Now, CDD has presented Ordinance language which reflects those amendments. On Monday night we have an opportunity to pass that language and make it law within a few weeks. I’d like to reiterate how proud I am of the work of the city, the community, and all councillors to get to this point. As a reminder, these important amendments to the BEUDO will require emissions reductions over time for buildings over 25k sqft. The changes that I fought for include a few essential points – including and especially, mandating reductions to net zero by 2035 for the largest buildings and drastically limiting the use of unreliable global carbon credits. I’d of course like to once again thank all of you who have dedicated so much time and effort to pushing for a strong BEUDO. Your emails, letters, and words meant so much to shaping the process. Hearing from people from all across the Cambridge community is a big part of what got us to this level of commitment to reducing carbon emissions in our city.

Cycling Safety Ordinance Review
I have been working to think about ways to review the effectiveness of our Cycling Safety Ordinance. I support the ordinance, and the timeline, and believe we should monitor effectiveness.  For Monday, I am a co-sponsor of a policy order which calls for a joint meeting of the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee and the Neighborhood and Long Term Planning Committees to review the effectiveness of the CSO and of the implementation of bike lanes across the city. We are several years into the implementation of the CSO (originally passed in 2019), so we should have a conversation about how that implementation is going. Are we seeing improvement in safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars? Are we seeing reductions of cars and an increase in sustainable travel? How are infrastructure projects affecting the community more broadly? The policy order calls for collaboration with City staff to review data and establish measurable benchmarks which can hopefully be reviewed with regularity to ensure that the work we are doing is doing what we need it to do.

Danehy Park Irrigation
Along with my cosponsors, Councillors Zondervan and Carlone, I have submitted another policy order asking for the City Manager to take steps to immediately repair the Danehy Park irrigation system. If you’ve been following this tragedy closely, you will remember last summer when the failure to repair the irrigation system put dozens of trees at risk in Danehy Park. In the midst of that drought, I submitted a policy order asking the City to work to rethink their approach and improve their efforts to protect trees. Unfortunately, since then we have not seen the irrigation system fully operational (only partly). Now we are on the verge of another hot summer, no doubt with more droughts to come. It’s essential that the City fixes this system immediately.