All:
Happy April – Earth Month and month of Easter and Passover. I celebrated Passover with my family. I love that we are able to blend my Catholic upbringing with my husband’s Jewish heritage for a personalized seder. As we noted during the meal, especially in these fraught times, it is important to take time to reflect, pray for peace, and acknowledge the common ground and needs of people around the world.
The sprinkling of rain today is welcome, and just the type of rain we need… although we are still in a drought, as the city has communicated. Keep outdoor watering to only what is necessary for the health of trees and plants, not lawns or cars… I filed a policy order earlier this month asking the City Manager to do additional outreach to residents and commercial businesses, asking them to limit water usage in line with state regulations. A full list of essential water uses is available here. Water conservation tips are also on the City website here. In the spirit of conservation, be sure to take advantage of the Earth Day and Earth Month events in and around the city. Check out some great ones at the bottom of this newsletter.
This week I attended a meeting convened by people who want the City to reverse the decision to install protected bike lanes the length of Broadway. The meeting was moving and tense. Many residents feel strongly that losing most (60%) of parking on that road will negatively impact their lives and they feel left out of City discussions and planning, and dismissed by many in the city who don’t respect their perspective. And many residents feel that installing protected bike lanes is the only way they will feel safe and be able to bike safely themselves and with their children, and that any delay is tantamount to dismissing their safety. It is distressing to know that after several years, we – the city – have not managed to have respectful conversations where we listen to each other and hear the rationales for a perspective, even as we may disagree on actions. The city needs to work for a range of people, and I am committed to continuing to address concerns of longtime residents, many of whom are mobility impaired and upset about any bike lanes, and to support the transition of the city to enabling multi-modal transit safely across the city.
I also participated in the Patriot’s Day event on the Cambridge Common: the 250th anniversary of the shot heard round the world. William Dawes rode his horse through the Common 250 years ago and the ride was re-enacted last weekend. For the next year we will be celebrating the country’s founding with many events leading up to next year’s 250th July 4 extravaganza.
Thank you to all of you who participated in the rally on April 12 urging Harvard to stand up to the demands of the Trump administration. Over a thousand people rallied in Cambridge, showing unity and strength. Harvard delivered a strong response in defense of higher education, academic independence, and freedom. I was interviewed by WCVB following the rally and filed a resolution thanking Harvard for standing up to the federal administration. This will not be the end of the road as we battle these issues. Grant funding has been withdrawn, lawsuits have been filed by the American Association of University Professors and others, and more work will need to be done to safeguard democracy, academic independence, and the rule of law.
Enjoy this spring weekend, and please send thoughts on the City’s top issue for the next month: the City budget. We rarely hear from residents on the budget – the appropriation orders and spending summaries are available for review. The full budget book will be available online by Monday – note especially the first couple of sections with summaries of spending in different areas.
P.S. Please send me your picks for the best bakery and brewery in Cambridge – we have friends visiting in a couple of weeks who have asked for a visit to our favorites… I know mine, but I’m curious to know what others think. Thanks in advance!
Below are comments on a few top line items and a few quick notes for Monday’s meeting. If you have questions or comments on these or anything else, please feel free to reach out at any time.
Patty
Some memories from my family’s Seder this year
Council Updates
New Home Rule Petition Charter
On April 14, the City Council voted to send a new charter document to the state legislature for eventual placement on a municipal ballot this fall for adoption by the voters. I wrote a letter to the Charter Review Committee which provided a brief summary of the new charter document, which I am including below for reference as well. I’m happy to continue to talk through the charter document at length with anyone who is more interested in the topic, but the below overview should help those not intimately involved in the process get an idea of what the new charter will look like.
Dear Charter Review Committee Members,
I wanted to send out a personal thank you to all of you for dedicating so much of your time to the government of the City of Cambridge. On Monday night, by unanimous vote, the City Council voted to petition the Massachusetts Legislature to enact a new Home Rule Petition Charter. Today that document was officially transmitted by the City Clerk to the Cambridge delegation of the Massachusetts Legislature. I’ve attached the full document here for your reference. This document will need to be considered and voted on by the Massachusetts Legislature and signed by the Governor before ultimately being placed on the municipal ballot to be voted on by Cambridge voters. I hope that by finalizing our Home Rule Petition this week that we are able to have the ballot question ready for this fall, but that will ultimately depend on how quickly the Legislature acts. This vote of the City Council represents an exciting landmark, embarking to replace our 80-year-old charter. This would not have been possible without your efforts.
I also want to apologize for not engaging your committee more often through the Council process. I had asked that you be informed and invited to meetings, but it has come to my attention that you were not specifically contacted. That is an oversight, and I take some responsibility for not following up personally. That being said, I want to reiterate my thanks for your comprehensive report. Your Final Report, as well as the videos of your dozens of meetings provided an important framework for how to think about charter reform generally and the Cambridge charter specifically. The Council took into account many of your recommendations and principles in drafting this charter, but ultimately did not take up all your recommendations. I wanted to provide a general summary below for your edification. Below, I lay out a general summary of the final document, but please note that it is not a comprehensive review and may have missed some items.
If this new charter passes the Legislature and Cambridge voters, we will still have a city manager form of government with all at-large elections conducted via proportional representation every two years. The makeup of the government will largely stay intact.
What the new charter does:
The new charter is a modern charter document based on best practices that you outlined with the Collins Center. The formatting is in line with your recommendations, and the Council and the Law Department worked to ensure that the language was accessible to residents. One important role of a city charter is to inform the public regarding the governance of the city. To that effect, we have worked to ensure the language in this document is clear and without unnecessary reference to other state law, where possible. It is a document that is gender neutral and accessible to all readers. You write in your Final Report about the current Plan E Charter: “As a document that is supposed to be the foundation of our government, it does not meet the moment… A modern form and structured charter would better serve Cambridge’s government and residents.” This new form and language are in line with your recommendation of enacting a modern form and structured charter.
This new charter will also retain regular charter review on a predictable timeline, every ten years. Additionally, in line with your recommendation, the new charter adds a provision for regular review of our code of ordinances. The new charter codifies the recent addition of an annual review of the city manager and adds additional review processes for the city clerk and the city auditor. The charter expands city council review of city manager appointed positions to multi-member bodies like boards and commissions. The charter also codifies the process by which the city council passes policy orders to the city manager.
The city council will continue to choose their own chair (the mayor), but the mayor will serve as an ordinary member of the school committee with its chair being elected by the school committee. One of your recommendations was to rename the position of the “Mayor” to “Council President”, but that change was not supported by a majority of the Council. In the future, the Council has committed to consider other ways of electing the mayor.
During the course of your time on the Charter Review Committee you spent a significant amount of time reviewing and considering the process of passing the City budget. Many of the comments I heard from your deliberations targeted the opaque nature of the creation of the budget, only seen or heard from in the spring, just before passage. This truncated nature of budget passage does a disservice to the Council and the public and does not allow for transparent input. As chair of the Finance Committee the last two terms, I have worked to ensure the Council and the City Manager meet publicly several times throughout the year to discuss budget goals in the operating and capital budget, long-term financial strategy, and Council priorities – something that has typically not been done. Article 6 of the new charter codifies required public meetings before the end of the calendar year rather than the fiscal year and with enough time to influence budget submission.
This new charter retains our ranked choice voting system while expanding flexibility. The new language allows for the Board of Elections Commissioners to modify the tabulation methods based on modern practices. We spent a lot of time discussing changes with the Elections Director and the Board of Elections Commissioners to ensure standardization of best practices and flexibility for future improvements. The elections system in Cambridge is one of the best in the state and has allowed for expansion of early voting, vote by mail, and accessible voting systems. Our current elections processes are codified in part by the Plan E document, but also in part by a number of Special Acts that have been amended, changed, and ruled on by courts over many decades. Retaining those powers and codifying that work in one plain language document is essential.
What the new charter doesn’t do:
Your Final Report included many ambitious goals, not all of which were supported by the entire Council. Some issues were not included in the Home Rule Petition Charter out of a deference to the realities of state politics. There was a general recognition on the Council of a need to adopt a modern language charter while pushing out discussions of some of the more ambitious ideas to future meetings and possibly future requests for charter change. That included your recommendations to expand voter eligibility to non-citizen residents and residents over the age of 16 as well as your recommendation to hold municipal elections on even-years to align with state and national elections. Those recommendations, as well as several others were not included in this charter document but were forwarded to the Government Operations Committee for further discussion and consideration.
The new charter does not expand budget authority of the city council, a recommendation of your committee and a measure I supported. As a former school committee member, I appreciated the collaborative process by which the school committee could reallocate money within the budget. That was ultimately not supported by a majority of the council after strong pushback from City staff. Your recommendation to establish a “Resident Assembly” to consider controversial issues in the city was not included in the new charter; however, the new charter does codify previously authorized resident levers such as Resident Initiative and Referendum Measures. The new charter does not include your recommendation to include a goal-setting process for the city council. The majority of the Council determined that the goal-setting process included in our City Council Rules was sufficient. Ultimately, compromise and several split votes determined many of these decisions.
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For those who don’t care about charter reform, it is easy to look at these considerations and write them off as banal changes; but for those of us who have deeply considered these issues, we know how important these changes can be for the equitable, just, and democratic opportunities that a good government can afford people. What we have before us is a clear, plain-language document that expands review and accountability measures within the government, standardizes best practices, and sets up a process by which we can further refine the charter. That is an exciting promise and a great step forward for the city. I believe this charter document goes to great lengths to strive for your stated criteria of equity and enfranchisement, participation in and accessibility of government, government effectiveness, and responsiveness and accountability. And moreover, the document provides for a process by which we can further address those priorities over time.
Thank you again for all your work for the community.
City Council Meeting - Monday, April 28, 2025
City Budget
The FY26 City budget is on our agenda for Monday, as well as a number of loan orders for capital projects (the full budget book will be available by Monday). This marks the beginning of the statutory budget process. The budget as well as the loan orders will be forwarded to the Finance Committee for a series of hearings and eventual adoption in June. The budget is an enormous document and I look forward to reviewing in detail over the next several weeks. After reviewing briefly, it was good to note that the only new staff positions being requested were already previewed with the City Council, namely the additional staff in DHSP for universal pre-k as well as the four CPD staff positions for the body-worn camera program. I have registered my issues with those additional staffing requirements during specific hearings on those topics, but I appreciate the level of transparency that the City Manager and his staff approached these staffing decisions with. Given our huge increase in staffing over the last few years, and the current economic state, relatively level staffing is appropriate, year to year. The budget grew at more than 7% per year for the last few years, and we need to halve that growth factor to stay within our financial bounds. If the worst case happens with federal funding and the economy, there may be further steps we will need to take, which is why we need to keep our financial flexibility in terms of an unallocated fund balance (“free cash”) intact.
I have a number of questions related to the expected costs and loan orders for specific projects and I will continue to ask for more attention to a review of all city operations for efficiency, per the last Finance Committee meeting and the Council request. Some of the capital spending on certain projects may need to be reduced if they are not essential or timely. Other capital spending, like sewer separation projects and municipal improvement and maintenance projects, may need to be prioritized and will help maintain public health and future financial stability. Finally, a thank you to City staff who have been working diligently on this budget book for much of the last year: by clearly laying out our consolidated spending summaries, the budget book continues to be a good document for all of us to use as we approach the next few years of uncertainty. As we continue to navigate economic uncertainty and federal government upheaval, it remains essential to be transparent and honest about our municipal financial strategies. My priorities in the coming year in terms of budget allocations are to keep budget flexibility in the case of additional federal and state funding cuts, continue to explore ways to reduce spending where appropriate, and continue to focus discretionary spending on low-income residents with housing support and sustainable living.
Transition Wellness Center
One specific budgetary item we have discussed over the last several weeks is the expiration of ARPA funds for the Transition Wellness Center (TWC). On Monday, the City Manager will present a report on the recent discussions as well as a recommendation not to allocate additional funding for this facility beyond the ARPA allocation. This is not an easy decision and was discussed in detail over the last several weeks during regular council meetings as well as a Human Services Committee meeting and a Finance Committee meeting. Per the report and per discussions with Council, instead of allocating an additional $4 million each year for this program, the City Manager recommends investing $5 million in a Federal Funding Stabilization Fund that will be able to be utilized to fill gaps in essential services like emergency housing vouchers, fuel assistance, or other existing programs that may come under fire from the federal administration. This fund will require further Council discussion and approval to appropriate before any allocations are made to specific programs or purposes. Additionally, as laid out in the recent Finance Committee discussion, we will need to continue to collaborate, as a Council, with City staff to prioritize potential new programs holistically, recognizing that we face significant risks of federal funding reductions in the upcoming fiscal year.
Local Events/Notes
City Hall Tree Tabling Event
Tuesday April 29, 2025, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. The City Arborist and Assistant City Arborist will be tabling outside City Hall. Come learn about Cambridge’s Urban Forest and get a free seedling along with coloring book and crayon giveaways.
Riverside/Cambridgeport Tree Walk
Wednesday, April 30, at 5:30 p.m. Join City Arborist David Lefcourt and Assistant City Arborist Abigail Bentley for a Riverside/Cambridgeport neighborhood tree walk. Those interested can meet at Alberico Park for an approximate 1 mile walk.
Tree Celebration at the Main Library
Thursday, May 1, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Department of Public Works Urban Forestry Division and members from the Committee on Public Planting and Green Cambridge will be outside the Main Library giving away free seedlings. Activities include a tree themed toddler story time, a Community Grafting Project wood block printing activity, and a grafting workshop!
City of Cambridge Launches Sustainable Cambridge
The City of Cambridge has officially launched Sustainable Cambridge, a new initiative that encompasses all of Cambridge’s efforts to address climate change while keeping the community welcoming, neighborly, and beautiful.
“Sustainable Cambridge is an all-of-government effort to support a climate-ready, welcoming, inclusive, thriving community,” said Julie Wormser, Chief Climate Officer, City of Cambridge. “It involves the City’s work on everything from managing flooding and heat waves to housing, equity, public health, and overall community well-being.”
With the tag line “All of Us. All In.” Sustainable Cambridge reaffirms a citywide commitment to transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy and maintaining a thriving community in a climate-altered environment. “We are committed to ensuring that everyone — regardless of race, gender, age, socioeconomic status — is safe from extreme weather,” added Wormser, “And we want to help lower the bar for other communities to be able to do the same.” As part of the launch, the City of Cambridge has gathered all its climate and sustainability work into a single public-facing website, www.cambridgema.gov/sustainable, including:
- How Cambridge will hit our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050;
- How Cambridge is preparing our people and places for extreme weather;
- What residents can do at home, from energy efficiency to keeping bees;
- What people can do around Cambridge, from finding a park to volunteering;
- How to find help in an emergency; and
- More information on our plans, data, and lots of interactive maps.
Residents can also subscribe and learn more about events, news and other exciting Sustainable Cambridge information. In support of Sustainable Cambridge and Earth Month, the City of Cambridge will host a series of events and feature a variety of activities throughout the rest of April. Programs led by the Office of Sustainability, Public Library, Department of Public Works, universities and non-profits will highlight nature, music, planting, and biking to celebrate the environment.
Thank You
Thank you to everyone for reading. If there are any topics you want me to cover in future newsletters, I’m always happy for the input! As always, please feel free to reach out to my aide, Patrick (phayes@cambridgema.gov), or me for any of your City Council needs.
You can find all previous newsletters on my website. Please share with anyone you think would be interested: https://pattynolan.org/news/