Category: Weekly agenda summaries

Please consider signing our petition that calls on Harvard and MIT to do more for our community in this time of crisis, and read my op-ed on why MIT and Harvard need to step it up.

We continue to be vexed by the pandemic. Some states are beginning to reopen, but many think this is a mistake. We should be very cautious in how we proceed because the damage of a major rebound in cases and another shutdown would be unbearable. We are much better off coming out of this slowly and carefully, putting in place good strategies for suppressing flare-ups of the virus, and planning for the long haul, because COVID-19 looks to be with us for years to come. The choices we make, and the way we proceed, will say a lot about what we value as a society.

You can still give public comment virtually at council meetings by signing up here. Once you sign up, you will receive instructions on how to enter the Zoom meeting on Monday night. For assistance with this, please contact my office directly: [email protected], 617-901-2006 (leave a message and Dan or I will get back to you).

City Manager’s Agenda

CMA #1: City Manager’s update on COVID-19

This is another placeholder because the City Manager prefers to deliver his update in person on Monday night. But I would prefer to receive something in writing ahead of time.

CMA #2: FY21 Budget Appropriation Orders

Budget season is upon us, and here is a list of the FY21 Budget Appropriation Orders, broken down by city department. Customarily we don’t vote on these until after the budget hearings, so there is plenty of time to go through the budget and make sense of everything. It looks like there were no reductions in the operating budget, which is in fact slightly larger ($702.4 million) than last year’s budget ($678.4 million). The public investments portion of the capital budget ($37 million, not including bond proceeds) also seems higher than last year’s ($27 million). We will have to wait for the manager’s explanation, but presumably, these numbers are less than they would have been if COVID-19 had not hit. We may see much deeper impacts on subsequent budgets because property taxes are based on the market of 1.5 years ago.

Calendar

Charter Right #1: Revisions to the mandatory mask order

The debate continues over this policy order from Councillor Nolan that proposes changes to the city’s mandatory mask order. The Governor’s order is now in effect but differs from the city in several ways, and clarification is needed. I also want to see a reduced fine, particularly on the first offense, and data on any enforcement that occurs by race, age, and gender. You can read a detailed breakdown of the differences between the city and state orders, plus my rationale for seeking these changes, in this thread. If you missed it, start with my thread from last week first to get caught up on the situation.

Tabled #4: Summer camp operations

This late addition to last week’s agenda from Councillor Simmons asks for clarity on whether summer camps and other youth programming will proceed. It also asks for contingency plans for Cambridge youth in the event programming needs to be canceled or scaled back. The order was tabled last week after it was pointed out that the language might not cover everything we want to ask about. I anticipate Councillor Simmons will bring forward amendments and we will pass this order on Monday night.

Resolutions

Resolution #5: Congratulating Karen Chen

I submitted this Resolution along with Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler to congratulate Karen Chen on her recent inclusion in the Boston Magazine list of “The 100 Most Influential People in Boston Right Now”. Karen is the Executive Director of the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) and an East Cambridge resident. Under her leadership, the CPA has become a leading voice in the struggle for tenant protections including rent control, against wage theft & other unfair labor practices, and in combating racism against all Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have had many opportunities to work with Karen, including last year’s successful push for better working conditions at the Happy Lamb Hot Pot in Central Square. There are many excellent choices on the Boston Magazine list, but Karen’s inclusion is a refreshing reminder of the important and underappreciated role played by women of color in the movement for greater justice in our society.

Policy Orders

PO #1: Curbside textile recycling program

This Policy Order from Councillor Toomey asks for the city to implement Simple Recycling’s curbside textile recycling program. In fact, the city’s Zero Waste Master Plan (released in October 2019) specifically mentions the Simple Recycling program as one way that the city could implement a textile recycling program and it recommends doing so in 2020 or 2021. I chaired a hearing on the city’s plan last term, and this was discussed. This is one of many environmental initiatives that I would like to see move forward this year, once we are through this period of emergency. I will ask to be added as a cosponsor to this order in acknowledgment of my previous work on the issue, and hopefully, this will move ahead as close to on schedule as possible.

PO #2: Update on the Small Business Advisory Group

This policy order from Councillor Nolan asks for an update on what recommendations are being discussed by the Small Business Advisory Group that was appointed by the City Manager. I support the calls for more information on what the group has been discussing.

PO #3: Recycling Accessibility

This Policy Order from Councillor Toomey aims to improve accessibility to recycling for residents by reopening the Recycling Center for a limited time and strategically placing recycling bins across the city for residents who are unable to reach the Recycling Center. The order fixates on plastic bags, which many retailers have begun using again during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither of these ideas strike me as terribly practical solutions to the supposed problem, but I will ask DPW to get some clarification on that.

PO #4: More information about the Police Department Twitter incident

I signed onto this Policy Order from Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, which asks for more information about a very unfortunate incident that took place on Twitter last week, where Police Superintendent Jack Albert tweeted a political statement vulgarly disparaging two elected officials from the Commonwealth while logged into the official Cambridge Police Department Twitter account. While he has apologized for “accidentally” using the official police account, the sentiments he expressed are disturbing nonetheless, coming from a high-level police official.

The issue of police bias continues to remain a problem and is reflected in this incident: by expressing vulgar distaste for “liberal” politicians, who tend to advocate for the poor, and routinely receive a majority of the black vote, this tweet can easily be interpreted as bias against poor people and black people in our city.

This Policy Order asks for details on what disciplinary action has been taken, and for a report on how protocols have been revised to avoid future issues on social media. The Council may have to go into executive session to hear about the disciplinary action.

PO #5: Solidarity with the workers of Lesley University

I submitted this Resolution, which puts the Council on record in support of better conditions for contracted workers at Lesley. The petition from students and faculty calls for continuity of wages and benefits for all food service, custodial, and public safety workers on campus, among other things. Local 26 was able to secure benefits for the dining hall workers, but not wages, and the union doesn’t represent other workers on campus.

Communications & Reports from Other City Officers

COF #1: Update from the May 5 School Committee meeting

This is an update from Mayor Siddiqui on the recent School Committee meeting about the upcoming budget. Once again, I appreciate the swift and informative writeup from Mayor Siddiqui and her staff. It is clear she understands how important this conversation is to many of us on the council, and I’ve kept a close eye on things as they’ve unfolded, in the hopes that the next budget will actually take significant steps towards addressing racial inequity in our schools. Hopefully, the Committee’s decision to table a final vote on their budget means that things will improve before the budget comes to the Council for final approval.

COF #2: Update on food insecurity work & resources

This is a helpful update on the work Vice Mayor Mallon and Food For Free have been doing around food insecurity. COVID-19 has certainly presented us with significant additional food insecurity challenges and I’m actively working with the Vice Mayor on policy design to get ahead of this challenge as much as possible. I appreciate her leadership on this issue as always, and the important work that Food For Free and other community partners are doing to help combat hunger during this terrible pandemic. Hopefully we can learn from this to combat hunger more effectively after the pandemic is over.

The good news is that our suppression efforts are working, and we seem to be peaking in terms of the active caseload in Cambridge. The not-so-good news is that we’re still seeing new cases, and the terrible news is that we’re still losing neighbors and loved ones to this horrible disease and the disruption it has caused. This week we’ve started receiving some data about the race/ethnicity of people testing positive, and even though the data is very incomplete, we are already seeing disparate impacts on black and brown communities in Cambridge that mirror national trends. That’s why I’ve put in an order for Monday asking for more data, and for more resources to be directed towards these vulnerable communities. Our nursing homes and long term care facilities are also being severely impacted, and the vast majority of deaths in Cambridge from COVID-19 are in these facilities.

Memorial Drive and all city streets remain open to vehicular traffic despite two separate orders passed by the council asking the Manager to close some streets and Memorial Drive to traffic to allow more space for social distancing. As the weather warms and the virus wanes, we don’t need more policing, we need more space.

Last but not least, Harvard made use of the pandemic to cover its confession to accepting $9 million from Jeffrey Epstein and giving him undue influence and inappropriate access to their campus. Like MIT, Harvard grossly mishandled this situation, and needs to atone for their transgression.

Please consider signing our petition that calls on Harvard and MIT to do more for our community in this time of crisis. You can sign here or read my just-released op-ed on why MIT and Harvard need to step it up.

You can still give public comment virtually at council meetings by signing up here. Once you sign up, you will receive instructions on how to enter the Zoom meeting on Monday night. For assistance with this, please contact my office directly: [email protected], 617-901-2006 (leave a message and Dan or I will get back to you).

City Manager’s Agenda

CMA #1: Funding for domestic violence prevention initiatives

 This appropriation of $20,000 will support additional services related to domestic violence prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic, in partnership with Transition House. This is a hugely important part of our response to help protect those experiencing increased trauma as a result of being stuck at home with their abuser during the pandemic.

CMA #2: Reappointment of Larry Ward as an Election Commissioner

The Election Commission runs our elections every year, and they are critical to the functioning of our democracy. The Commission consists of two Democrats and two Republicans, each appointed to staggered four-year terms by the City Manager. The City Manager chooses appointments from a list of candidates submitted by the City Committees of each party. Larry Ward, who was first appointed in 2012, has been re-appointed to one of the Democratic seats. You can read his responses to the Cambridge Democrats questionnaire, here.

From the official website: “The Board’s responsibilities include certifying nomination papers & petitions, registering voters, administering election recounts and preserving the integrity of the database for the street and voting lists by personally verifying the existence or nonexistence of questionable addresses within the City. In addition, prior to each election, approximately 260 additional election personnel are recruited, trained and supervised by the Board to staff each of the polling locations within the City. They work with the office staff to ensure that elections are managed in accordance with local, state and federal laws”.

CMA #3: City Manager update on COVID-19

This is yet another placeholder, and we will undoubtedly receive an actual update in person on Monday night. Why are we not receiving these updates in writing?

Resolutions

Resolution #2: Supporting asks from MIT graduate students

 MIT has not treated anybody right during this pandemic, including their own students. As a former MIT graduate student myself, I stand in solidarity with their very reasonable requests. I will ask to be added as a cosponsor on the floor, to give this resolution even more weight. Note: this item was placed incorrectly on the agenda in the Resolutions list. It should be on the Policy Order list, and will be taken up during the Policy Order part of the meeting.

Policy Orders

PO #1: Guidelines for re-opening construction

 This Policy Order was introduced last week as a very late addition to the agenda. I thought it would be best to exercise my charter right and give the council an additional week to consider it, given its immense detail.

It is, of course, important to carefully consider when and how construction projects will open back up. The safety of the workers and their families is of utmost concern. Special protocols will be needed to ensure workplace safety until the pandemic is over, especially at large worksites. But this Policy Order makes only passing reference to worker safety, and focuses instead on bureaucratic details aimed at restarting construction as quickly as possible. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure these adjustments are well intended. But is it really appropriate for the City Council to decide right now that, and I quote, “The City should allow all paused projects to submit their covid-19 safety plans to the City now for review, to decrease the anticipated backlog; a lack of formal response from the City within 3 days should be considered an approval from the City“?

Much of this order is far too prescriptive. Demanding a five day response time from CDD for certain types of construction approval is an inappropriate level of specificity. No doubt the Community Development Department has many important priorities during this emergency. Where does one even come up with a figure like that?

I could continue but you really have to read this order for yourself to understand why it is so objectionable. So while I support having this conversation, I can’t support it as written. I will submit amendments that refocus this policy on workplace safety and public health.

#2: Small business recovery plan

This policy order asks for a plan to help small, local businesses recover from the economic impact of the pandemic. This is another important conversation we need to have about the coming “new normal”. 

#3: Making library materials available

This asks the City Manager to look into ways to provide library materials to students and others. This is a good idea, and I support the order. Our libraries are an important resource for students and the community, and we need to start thinking about how to make those resources available again while protecting everyone’s health and safety by maintaining social distancing. 

#4: COVID-19 public memorial

This asks the City Manager to work with the Cambridge Arts Council and others to create a public memorial for those who have been lost to COVID-19. We have lost many community members, and this is an important part of our response. We need a way to safely mourn their passing and celebrate their lives.

#5: 50th anniversary of Kent State and Jackson State shootings

I submitted this resolution to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the shootings at Kent State (on Monday) and Jackson (10 days later) State universities. At Kent State in Ohio, four unarmed students were killed and nine unarmed students were wounded by members of the Ohio National Guard while engaged in a largely peaceful protest of the continuing war in Vietnam, the invasion of Cambodia, and the presence of the National Guard on their campus. Ten days later, two African American young men were killed and twelve people were wounded by Mississippi State Police in protests at Jackson State in Mississippi, in a similarly inexcusable armed assault on unarmed students and bystanders.

Half a century later, not enough has changed. The United States has been at war overseas practically the entire time, and unarmed black men are still being shot in the streets by the police here at home in an endless war against our own people. It’s important to commemorate this moment in history as a reminder of how far we still have to go. I encourage you to read the full resolution, as well as this article in the New Yorker, to learn more about the incidents and their significant cultural impact.

#6: Request for more COVID-19 data

I submitted this order, which asks for additional enhancements to the city’s COVID-19 data center. We know that black and brown people in Cambridge are facing a disproportionate impact from COVID-19, but we need more information in order to respond. Specifically, we need information on deaths by age, race, and ethnicity, the total number of tests performed in facilities and in the community, and any other available data that can be safely reported. All the data should be downloadable so that anyone can easily access it and do their own analysis. The order also asks for the City Manager to immediately direct additional resources to mitigate the racial disparities already apparent in the data, because people’s lives are on the line.

#7: Restart Planning Board meetings

I submitted this order, which calls for the Planning Board to begin meeting again (virtually). In particular, I would like to see special permit applications from Economic Empowerment (EE) applicants move ahead. The lawsuit brought by Revolutionary Clinics against the City’s two-year exclusivity period for EE applicants has been struck down, in an important victory for racial justice. Since the exclusivity period expires in September 2021, it is important that these applicants are able to move ahead as quickly as possible, and right now the main obstacle is the Planning Board not conducting meetings.

#8: Universal COVID-19 testing

This order asks for free testing for all residents, like Somerville is already doing. It is critical to provide widespread testing in order to get this virus under control. All the countries and localities that have successfully reversed the course of this pandemic have done so with the help of widespread testing to identify the virus and quarantine the carriers to limit the spread of the virus. 

#9: Protections from Zoom-bombing

I submitted this order after our unfortunate encounter with the phenomenon known as “zoom bombing” during the public comment portion of last week’s meeting. During public comment, some people chose to make racist comments and display pornographic images. What’s frustrating about this incident is that it was largely preventable, and as an IT professional, I had been asking about these security concerns for several weeks now, and offered my assistance, to no avail. This order contains common-sense advice to allow us to run city council meetings via Zoom.

#10: Revisions to the mandatory mask order

I co-sponsored this order by Councillor Nolan based on what happened last week. The City Manager implemented a mandatory mask policy just hours before the City Council meeting last Monday, which had the matter on the agenda. This preemption sidelined the voice of the Council and our democratic process, which would only have improved the policy. As a result, there hasn’t been a discussion of the immense potential for disproportionate impact and bias in enforcement, especially given the announced $300 fine. You can read my summary of what happened at last week’s meeting here.

Requiring everyone to wear a mask makes perfect sense, but threatening poor and unhoused people with a $300 fine does not. I joined a recent (virtual) meeting between members of the unhoused community and the City Manager, in which one young man stated plainly that there is not a lot of trust between the unhoused and the police right now, and that some people are being treated very roughly by some of the officers. The city claims the fine will only be a last resort, but if you’re not planning to fine people $300, then why attach a $300 fine at all?

As someone at the meeting carefully explained, those who do not have shelter don’t have a “home” to go to and take off their mask! So while some wealthy privileged people may not be deterred by anything less than $300, even the mere possibility of a $300 fine is oppressive to poor and unhoused people who are having an even harder time than usual meeting their most basic needs of food, shelter, and personal hygiene. It is tone-deaf to insist that we can’t have a mandate for wearing a mask without a $300 fine. It’s shocking that the city insists on that posture despite hearing clearly from the unhoused community that it is disrespectful and threatening to them.

A few days after last week’s meeting, the City amended the order and announced an effort to hand out compliant masks to anyone who needs them, something I had been calling for since before the policy was announced. Meanwhile, the Governor issued an emergency order that supersedes the city’s and allows for a fine of “up to $300”, but does not require it. We could levy a lower fine, or even no fine at all, based on the language of the order and guidance from our Attorney General.

The order on Monday’s agenda is not an attempt to “weaken” the mandatory mask order, as some of my colleagues have suggested, but rather a necessary attempt to improve it. Given the immense potential for disproportionate impact and enforcement bias, it is critical that the council has an opportunity to discuss and express its opinion on this matter.

Bonus: Spring has sprung and the garden is planted! Vegetables planted: eggplant, tomatoes, beets, spinach, lettuce, kale, corn, beans, and zucchini (hopefully).