City Council - Special Meeting

Good afternoon. A quorum being present, I'll call today's December 17, 2025, special meeting of the Cambridge City Council to order. Today's meeting is being held to review the city manager's evaluation. The first order of business is a roll call of members present. Ms. Irwin, would you please call the roll?

Councilor Azeem. absent, Vice Mayor McGovern, present, present, Councilor Nolan, present, Councilor Siddiqui, present, present, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, is absent, Councilor Toner, present, present, Councilor Wilson, absent, Councilor Zusy? Present. Present, Mayor Simmons? Present. Present, that's six members present, three recorded as absent.

Thank you. The roll having been called, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance and Stand if you can, and then we will remain standing just for a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025 adopted by the Massachusetts General Court and approved by the governor, the city is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of its Cambridge City Council. In addition to having members of the council participate remotely, we have set up Zoom teleconference for public comment. You can also view the meeting via the city's open meeting portal or on the city's cable channel 22. To speak during public comment, you must sign up at www.cambridgema.gov backslash public comment. You can also email written comments for the clerk at cityclerk at cambridgema.gov. We welcome your participation and you can sign up at 6 p.m. Public comment is and can be made in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, Section 20G, and City Council Rules 23D and 37.

Please note that the City of Cambridge audio and video records meetings and makes it available for the public for future meetings. In addition, third parties may also be audio and video recording these meetings. We will start with public comment. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment?

We have two speakers signed up.

Would you please do public comment?

Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler?

Present.

Present. Councilor Wilson? Present. Present.

All right, if you don't mind, Ms. Irwin, you could start with calling the people's names for public comment.

Our first speaker is Paul Schwein, followed by Marjorie Saunders. If Paul has not joined, we will go to Marjorie Saunders. Marjorie, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.

Hang on. Okay, thank you. I'm going, I won't speak for three minutes. I will, if you want to speak. This is on item G. Initially, I'm sorry, Marjorie Saunders at 7 Maple Avenue, Cambridge. Initially, I was absolutely thrilled with the choice of Mr. Huang as our new city manager. He was intelligent, approachable. and I had high hopes for his tenure. I am now more than disappointed. We seem to have added another level of bureaucracy insulating Mr. Huang rather than allowing him to become more involved. I do believe one must trust those within one's staff and allow them to do their jobs, but the city manager seems to have a completely hands-off approach and relegated the dirty work to those beneath him without questioning.

I am of course speaking to the recent restructuring and laying off of staff The violation of city ordinances without involving any of those directly impacted or consulting any of the stakeholders in our community. As an educator, I have been in many workshops on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and those abrupt firings can only be described as totally exclusionary. To say that I am disappointed in total lack of explanation is an understatement. I am devastated. I have heard absolutely nothing other than empty, Technocratic words and phrases, including the repeated word efficiency. Doge comes from the insensitivity Insensitivity and lack of care that I had hoped Cambridge still stood for when I moved here 50 years ago.

It was a city I was proud to call home. We have lost sight of those values and all they promised. I cannot lay, of course, all of this on Mr. Huang But in the recent meeting, I was disappointed hearing what he said during the meeting. It was the government subcommittee and subsequently hearing him speak in the hall afterwards.

that is it and thank you very much for hearing me out thank you madam mayor our other speaker has not joined yet and that is all that are currently signed up

Thank you, Ms. Stephan. What we'll do is we'll leave public comment open until 4 o'clock, so we may want to go back to it before we take a vote to close public comment. Opportunity or item on this agenda will be hearing from the City Manager, then the floor will be open for City Councilor remarks. So Mr. City Manager, the floor is now open for any opening remarks that you may have.

Thank you so much Mayor Simmons. I think this is the third time that we have done this and really appreciate the opportunity to be before the council. This is just Thank you so much for having me. Starting this year with this new administration and working through all of the issues that we've been able to get done together. And so I think maybe just to provide the kind of highlights, I feel like we have done so much to improve the overall working relationship and transparency of the work of the city. especially as we navigate so many changes. The biweekly federal updates to discuss what we're facing and how we're trying to confront those.

I've appreciated deeply the work that the law department has done with the city council's backing to have Cambridge play a leading role in addressing a lot of the actions we're seeing out of the federal government. and in particular the coming together that this city council led and that we were able to achieve with the Cambridge Community Foundation during the government shutdown regarding SNAP benefits. I think we've been able to navigate these really difficult times over the course of this year together to communicate clearly about what is happening within this chamber and then to take actions when we need to. I know that the coming year will likely be just as hard and we'll continue to see a lot of these attacks and threats and some of the foundations that we've created will help us navigate those difficult waters.

In terms of the council relationship, as we come to the end of this term, I think the thing that I've been most excited to see working well is The cadence of council policy orders and awaiting reports. And while I know there are still some holes and gaps where sometimes we miss something, I also know that when there is something that individual counselors bring up, we've been able to be very responsive to give an update to try to get something back. and the bigger picture is that we're getting things back. I think the first term that I was here, that was one of the biggest sore points that the council had many things that it wanted to There were requests that were being put in by the body and we just were not able to get through all of them. I've deeply appreciated the city council doing work to prioritize what is coming through the council chamber.

and I appreciate the hard work of city staff and department heads to get those answers back. We're coming now to the end of the term and I think we've only got a handful of awaiting reports, mostly passed pretty recently. and I think as we enter the next term, I just feel really much better about the relationship where we can actually have a conversation together and also have those lead to really concrete changes. I would also just acknowledge some of the recent changes, especially the restructuring with an OEI. I've received a lot of feedback on from community members and also from the city council and those are absolutely heard there I'm sure that will come up as well in the discussion but That's also part of the purpose of this forum. And I do think that doing this exercise, having an annual review, that is part of our commitment to having a transparent and accountable

City, and for my role, that's part of what I signed up for, and I appreciate the counselors for engaging in this. Maybe my last note would just be because we are working through so many changes on the financial side, the budget process every year, I feel we have gotten better and better We're starting the budget process earlier, having more honest conversations about what our multi-year projections are. And really one of the messages that we have been working through internally and starting to change the culture of how we How we budget projects, how we budget the year, how we think about capital. One of the things that came out in our internal meeting is, Because we had the resources, we've often been able to budget our plan. We come up with a plan and then we can figure out how much it's going to cost and we will then put it into the budget and we'll move forward.

and a lot of what we're moving into is we have to shift from budgeting our plan to planning our budget. And that's a lot of what we're committed to going forward to recognize the economic trends, recognize the limits of how many taxes we can raise while still being fiscally responsible and in the long term being able to support all the work that we're doing together. but also having that space to engage with the community, with the council and to make the investments that we need to make. I think two things that we're really committed to in the next budget We've already started and been communicating about and discussing with the city council and the school committee. I think first is more engagement with the community. That's something that I know the schools have hosted feedback events or sort of workshops and we're committed to doing a couple of those in January. and to invite the community in to both learn more about the budget process, but also give us feedback.

And then I think the second is having the council engaged earlier. That's something that I feel like we missed in the last budget cycle, where there were a number of things the council really wanted to see in the budget. And some of those came out too late. And so I'm excited as we get into the new term to start those conversations much earlier. Lots more to say, but I know that there's good feedback in here. I'm looking forward to the discussion, and I'll turn it back to you, Mayor Simmons.

City Manager yields the floor. The next thing we'll do, I'm going to go to Councilor Toner to outline the summative assessment scoring and comments, and then we'll open the floor up to colleagues. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So just for the public at home, so they know what we have before us and what the council had before them as they developed their individual assessments, The materials were my summit evaluation, which was a composite of all the other councillors' scores and comments. The solicitor's legal opinion about what is and isn't publicly available. the city manager's personal self-evaluation, the city manager's senior staff feedback and ratings. So those are all the elements that people had before them as they were coming up with their summation. The summative evaluation is a composite of the average scores and the comments by the nine individual city councillors. and I'm just going to review the overall score in comments and then the mayor will take it back and go around the room and ask people to have their feedback because this is a

and I don't feel like reading it to you when you all have had it. I'm sure you have your own personal thoughts that you want to share. So overall rating was a three out of four. So three met expectations and the overall rating The rationale was the city manager is an intelligent, personable, and well-intentioned executive who has demonstrated competence and strengths in several core areas and has made progress in others. Under his leadership, the city continues to function well with capable, experienced, and dedicated staff, and we remain financially stable despite challenges from the federal government and in the overall economic climate. He has demonstrated strength in key operational and structural areas including day-to-day management, effective city operations, and clear communications during the year. The City Manager has received high marks from his senior staff receiving an overall rating of 4.25 out of 5.

The 2025 Resident Opinions Survey also indicates strong positive results with 70% of residents giving the city either excellent or good marks on the overall performance of city government. which is a five point increase from the 2024 score. The number of residents offering the rating excellent is 22% which is a seven point increase over last year and equals the highest level in the history of the survey program. While the City Manager has done well with leading his team in the overall management and operational systems of the City, the Council Members have expressed concern that collaboration and transparency between the Council and staff have been on the decline. There have been areas where the council members, some council members feel that the council has not been involved in appropriate level of discussion before decisions have been made. The lack of transparent communication has led to some anger and controversy in the community.

Two examples cited are the management of the biomed community benefits discussion and the recent personnel decisions and organizational changes with commission staffing. Other Councilors feel the City Manager needs to work with the Council to bring forth a more cohesive vision and plan for the City, especially in terms of housing, transportation, parking, and the finances of the city during challenging economic forecasts. In summary, the city manager and the city council need to find the appropriate working balance between management authority and discretion, and Council Leadership and Involvement in Key Decisions areas as they move forward. And with that, Madam Mayor, I'm just gonna cite the headlines and the score. So in the area of leadership, the rating was 2.61. and City Council Relationship was 2.56, Management was 2.89, Community Engagement was 2.78, and the Area of Culture was 2.67,

and ADEI, Advanced Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, it was 2.67. In City Operations, it was 3.22. And in Fiscal Management, it was 2.89. If you don't mind, Madam Mayor, just go out of order and I'll just say briefly what my personal feelings are that I feel the city manager has done a very good job and challenging areas. I especially think in the fiscal planning area, there's a rocky road ahead. I think things have gone well in your first three, is it three and a half years? Three and a half years? Three years? Here, I know that I, if I were going to be here, I and other Councilors going forward would like to see more forward thinking on the budget in terms of, you know, we've been lucky that we could just

As you said, budget the plan, you know, and now we have to actually make, the future council is going to have to make higher decisions along with you. And the council seems to be saying they really want to be involved very early. They've been saying that for a while, that they want to be very involved very early. because there are going to be hard decisions. And what I read was they want to share the responsibility for those decisions with you. They don't want it to be just the city manager made this decision. They want to be part of the discussion, but they also want to take responsibility for those discussions and decisions. But overall, I think you've done a fine job. It is unfortunate that towards the end of the year that a tough personnel decision was made. Could it have been handled better? Maybe. Hopefully this is a learning moment for you.

The staff, but I don't want to insert myself into personnel management decisions at this point. With that, I will yield, Madam Mayor.

Councilor Toner yields the floor. Pleasure, the City Council. Vice Mayor.

I think we got an email earlier that we were going to go alphabetically, but whatever.

I didn't see it. So we can go alphabetically. Councilor Azeem, would you like to start?

I'm always a man of many words. I was going to say... On the good side, I think that there was a phase when you started as a new city manager and it was the early grace period. and in my feelings, this is like the first review that's been after the learning curve, right? After you get a little bit off of like, you're still learning the ropes, this is the first one where it's like, you've been in the job long enough that this is just how things are gonna go from now on. and this is what we should expect of you. There's a lot of things to just compliment in general. It seems like by and large, most of the employees are happy. There hasn't been a lot of operational complaints about like, You know, the details of how universal pre-K are run or things like that, for example.

You know, I think that in these ones, it's always tempting to focus on the things that are not going as well, and I will not be straying from that tradition. and so I had a few comments there. I think that it would be helpful to have plans, like I think that the detailed operational piece is very helpful and I think that places where city council kind of has a direction of where it wants to go into, right, whether it's housing or bike lanes or so be it, the city moves in that direction in a pretty reliable way. but there's lots of other places where actually it would be great to get some leadership in city council because either city councils don't have a preformed idea or that there could just be a place for city staff. I think that traffic is a big problem and parking in general and I don't know that we have like a city plan from the city councils of like how that's going to become so much easier to get around the town for like parking or for public transit in general. But that's a place where you have a lot of visibility and it would be really helpful to see, right?

Like I worry a little bit that we talked at some point about getting a commuter rail station and airwife and because no one here both controls the MBTA directly but also we have a lot of things going on I worry that we drop the ball maybe that's just something that we don't see but I do worry about that In terms of the budget, I think that it's been made very clear from the last year and also some tough votes on taxes that things are tightening up. and I think that some of the budget votes that we get feel like either really small, like I know that you've said that the recent cuts to commissions wasn't a budget thing, but that was like a really small piece. Two other things like I think that when we talked about Rise earlier, the main feedback I got from CEOC and others was like, they just thought that a different thing was happening. and also I would say in general like all the cuts that we're like asked to vote on are sometimes feel very small and mismatched like I think that a taller narrative of like here's a budget

you know there's some tough votes coming you can expect one tough vote every two or three months this is what you kind of have like having an expectation that you can set to the public I think would be rather helpful rather than just you know waking up on a Thursday morning and being like oh well I guess like we're doing this now right and also I would say that you know obviously all of us contains complexities and I know that you really care a lot about the values of the city and I think that there's often only so many ways that we're presented to the public and a lot of the takeaway I get from the public is that you have a very technocratic I think that there is a place to reemphasize those values. especially in a moment where it feels like everyone is very anxious, like Massachusetts' recession, we're under attack upon the federal administration, the world in general is in a certain place. I think there is a place to speak up for our values

in a way that doesn't necessarily have to be connected to an action, but can sometimes also be shown through a small specific action. So I know that my colleagues have a lot of other things that they want to take a deep dive into, but at a high level those were my initial feedback.

Thank you, Councilor Azeem. Councilor Azeem yields the floor. Who comes next? I think it's me.

Vice Mayor. It's going by the voting order. Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. I'll just start off that I understand You have a difficult job. It's a billion dollar budget, 120,000 people, a lot of moving parts. Nine bosses that have their own agendas and great ideas. And things are, everybody has different areas that are More of a priority to them than the next person, right? So I acknowledge that

It's a tough position, and I have worked with three city managers now, and I've never agreed 100% with any of them, nor do I expect to. And so there's always going to be things that I like and things that I don't like. and that is, you know that is also part of the part of the system that we have set up right is this sort of checks and balances having a non-elected city manager and nine elected councillors and that makes things difficult as well because I acknowledge that You know, on one hand, thinking back a couple years ago, on one hand we say, you know, we want you to make certain difficult decisions.

and you came forward with some cuts and some restructuring in the health department and then we turned around and said, no, put those back, right? And made you put them back. So there are times when you do come forward, we ask you to do, You make these tough decisions, you make them, and then we turn around and say, no, no, no, right? And that's part of the checks and balances. It's not that, it just can make it difficult, right? So I just want to acknowledge that. There's certainly been issues that where we have disagreed. I'm thinking of obviously the Wellness Center and Rise during the budget conversations. and then more recently the layoffs and the different commissions. I'll get to that actually in a minute.

Overall, I believe that you're meeting expectations overall, even if there are individual issues that I can point to where I think you have fallen short. But I do think overall the city is very well run. I think the city is, again, we are continuing to do lots of things that make other cities very envious, and I think we've become accustomed to that, which Almost to the point that we take certain things for granted, that we don't give credit when good things happen, and we look more at where we have fallen short. And so I think of, again, the overall functioning of city services, you know we universal pre-k a couple years ago and continuing to move that forward last year expanding after-school slots

the 93 studio apartments for unhoused folks that opened this year, pushing back against the Trump administration, being flexible in times of crisis like with the SNAP benefits. Those are all good things. that you have led on. So I can't on one hand say, gee, I think this is a great city, and then also and not give credit for the great things that you and folks who work in the city have done. In terms of areas of improvement, I think of, How decisions are communicated, and we'll talk a little bit about the recent layoffs. I'm not going to question whether or not that was the right decision or not. Time will tell, right?

Even though I am skeptical, we don't do personnel matters here, and we'll see if the new structure pans out or not. but the way in which those layoffs happens. I wonder, you have a lot of folks on your staff. You have a large strategic team. I wonder sometimes who's giving you political advice. This council hired someone purposely who did not have municipal political experience, which can sometimes be a different animal than having political experience in the private sector. and I think sometimes getting, you know, if you had called, I think probably most of us here and said, this is what I'm planning on doing a week before Thanksgiving, we might have said, eh, Maybe that's not a great idea. These are some beloved and longstanding institutions and people.

I think you've got to handle this more gingerly. So I'd like you to take into account more how these decisions land with people. And then when people did testify and quite emotionally, quite upset, hurt by the decision, I felt that sometimes your responses felt a little dismissive. So when someone says, and I'll just say this for myself, when I said, look, I thought the timing was wrong. I don't see why we couldn't have waited until January to do this. And instead of acknowledging that concern, you say, well, there's no good time to do this. Felt a little bit like, you're not hearing me. And that's me, but I feel that other people in the community members had that same experience.

So as we move forward and are going to have to likely make some difficult choices and communicate some difficult things. I think if I give you some constructive feedback is, Really trying to tune in more to the way in which those difficult decisions impact people, not just in their lives, but just to their core, right? and how do you hear that feedback and accept that feedback and validate that feedback? Because the decisions are going to be what they are and I'm going to agree with some and I'm not going to agree with others. Sometimes I feel maybe you're not tapping into that. And knowing you a little bit better personally now over the last three years, I know you do care about those things. And when I talk to you offline, I know you do care about those things. I don't think that always comes across in the presentation.

That would be something I hope you take into account. And then the second thing on the areas to improve is, is really just being out there more, especially around the budget and as things get more difficult. I think back to, and I mentioned this to you, I don't think it was last year, it blurs together, but there was a very contested, bike infrastructure meeting at the Grammar Park School that we knew was going to be tough. And not that Brooke is not, it's not to say that Brooke is not capable, of handling herself in those situations or even other sitting, you know, Melissa Peters or other people who are very capable of handling those contentious meetings, seeing you at those meetings, backing up your staff and also being able to answer the questions of the public.

I am the city manager and I am standing behind this decision and this is why we're doing it. I think we need to see more of you out there. because the buck does stop with you and people, I think sometimes your staff may, and I hate to speak for them, but maybe in positions where they're taking all the slings and arrows and you're at home. Right? And so for those types of things, I really want to see you out there more. But I'll yield for now, Madam Mayor.

Vice Mayor yields the floor. Councilor Nolan.

Thank you. So there is, as has been said, so much to celebrate about our management, about much of what we've been able to do, and also the challenges. I mean, a couple years ago it was COVID, and then it was The economy is starting to crumble and then this year it's been really challenging and I appreciate that we brought you in to change the culture of the city and that was moving forward and there's areas in which that has continued and some of the changes that are challenging to see are necessary. And yet I will say my review as you know if you've seen it was dramatically different from the last couple years because it shook me to my core when I reflected on the last year about some of the decisions were made. It's not about... saying there's not authority to make decisions. It was really reflecting on particularly the one area of the city council relationship. And the reason that matters is it's central to the functioning of the city.

that what I feel like over the last couple years, instead of us being viewed as representative of the people with our own strengths, and yes, weaknesses and crankiness and very different approaches, you know there's there's and I think it came through in some of the um either public testimony or in some of the write-up of the the council's kind of viewed as something to get through Instead of a collaborative partner with incredible strengths of everyone bringing a different sense of experience, of knowledge, of awareness to the table. And as the Vice Mayor mentioned, certainly the It's not even about us making that decision. That is not. I just want to take that off the table. It's about... The range of ways it was done and it flows over into the culture of the city. It flows over into I know I did, and I'm sure all of us got calls from people totally not included in that to say, what about me?

I think that, as was alluded to, that was the repercussion that should have been understood before that that happened. could hurt the great work that we've been doing over the last few years to change the culture of the city to bring it forward to a city where All employees feel valued and welcomed. So I think that was hard for me. And then I also reflected back on the deep, deep, deep level of disrespect that was shown when we were discussing the charter. The disrespect to the council is that we were all idiots and couldn't possibly do something more in the budget. I think this made me reflect back on some of the things that happened this year that I really encourage and hope that you, city manager, can set the tone to say we want to be collaborative. We view the city council as a board of advisors. They are valued, respected members with a range of perspectives. I'm inviting you to get back to that because I think that did happen. and now some of that has been lost.

And I certainly want us to be really joyful in acknowledging the various strengths that we bring to bear. There's, and I think it flows over into, there's other ways in which one of the areas that I hope you take to heart is there's often a lack of coordination among city departments so that we say, hey, Communications, can you put out this zoning thing that's going to change the entire city? And oh no, we can't do that because that's someone else's department. It feels like we need to be included in discussions about how to be more collaborative across the board. We heard just a couple days ago that the transportation department didn't know how to contact CHA in order to reach out to the folks who live in a public housing. That's not something that should ever happen.

We really need to do better on that and now we're three or four years into your tenure and that is something that should be ground zero for something that should really be addressed very soon by the strategic team. you know we've run into lots of other areas where there's an initial discussion with the council like great we're included initial and then there's no follow-up and then a decision has been made and we hear about it later on whether it was You know, the care team not coordinating with the police department, whether it was, we had discussed for many, many months body cameras, and then we didn't know until after the decision was made that it would require FTEs in the department. There's lots of those kinds of things that make it feel like the sense of collaboration and true respect, mutual respect, is just on the wane and I want it to be waxing. I think that's the right analogy. I want it to be growing.

So that those initial input become ongoing references throughout the year for us to be involved in. I mean, I wrote up some more specifics, I think, just through you. The city manager has gotten our individual reviews, is that correct? Okay, so I don't have to go over them. And again, there's a lot to celebrate, as I said, but there are a couple areas where I think the... The tenor of how we can move forward as a city, it'll become incredibly more important because we're facing tough times. This isn't about saying we shouldn't be doing tough things. Boy, some of the decisions that have been made and the processes by which we get there are not truly collaborative and are not in line with our We have a vision, our goals, our commitment to really working together for the better of the city.

committed to making that happen, and I really hope that we continue this conversation. I'm happy to do it individually, but again, The deep concern about if we continue on that path of not really treating us and the community with respect and including us in collaborative. I think it's gonna make the next years as we face really challenging financial times much harder. So I expect the culture to be changed so that it is something that we can all, hopefully a year from now, feel like, yeah, we had a bumpy road. We want to fix it. And also, it's not too late to fix some of the way that people were treated in the layoffs. There was some deep confusion about What was written was not what was given. That's also something that has to be acknowledged and fixed because, again, it's not good not just for those individuals but for the entire city morale.

Again, there's some strengths and there's some certainly commitment on my part and I hope on your part to develop that strong organization and use that strategic team, that strategy team, which we haven't seen the benefit of, and yet it's, you know, greatly expanded team at great expense and time and energy and I look forward to the fruits of that and I know we'll be facing some challenges and I hope and expect that we can work together on those.

are yielding. Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Siddiqui, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Through you, I echo a lot of what's been said. I'm going to try not to repeat things, but some of it will be repetitive. I do want to acknowledge and appreciate the different facets of how difficult this job can be and I think the coordination during our federal challenges and the updates that have been provided and the push to establish stabilization funding has really been really important and I think More of that is necessary. I think on the execution of day-to-day operations, that's been you know generally there's been positive resident feedback I appreciate the piloting of new engagement programs the street team for example and which has been going

One of the things they do is, as we heard in the past meetings, go door to door when there's various events. and I think there's been real progress made on some key issues and so I think those are things that you should be proud of. I think for growth and development I'll echo what's been said I think with this recent the last few months and this year I think the things that have come up Ultimately, I think management and leadership are kind of two different things, but there's a lot of overlap. And in this situation with the layoffs, I think what you've heard is Bringing the council along when there's a decision that will impact because there's public facing work is really critical.

There's really easy ways to figure out when it's not public facing but This was very public-facing work, and I think there were key process failures that happened, and I think I appreciate that You have given a lot of thought into managing and listening to key staff. I think that's something to do. When a decision goes awry and when there's more questions than answers, when there's confusions about the how and the why and the who, I think you have to go back to that process point of you know, how things actually, how decisions were made over the, you know, I won't go into what we talked about in GovOps, but there are key things that were missing, and I think that's the you know that is worrisome and I think that's what you've seen in the review and I so I think

you know on that note I think the how you take this feedback will be important right and I think I think that's something how you take feedback and then Change is I think what I really care about. And I think we have some practical tools that we can use in the work ahead, whether that's on The budget, you know, I think intentional goal setting with the council is really important. I think looping us in When you can, when it is appropriate, is really important. I think you've mentioned that you've highlighted in your opening remarks, you are thinking about... The budget process, I think as we do that, the collaboration is really important, as my colleagues have said. And so I do think we have to give a lot of thought into what...

I'll just say that for me, you've seen my write-up, I think there are issues that personally, whether they're related to the biomed, I think what I appreciate is you are acknowledging where there have been gaps and that's really important. But what we do from here and the changes we make, that's going to be the most important. How you take this feedback and then and learn from it. And I think on the charter point, having been in discussions with City staff, it was very challenging. It was really challenging and I think it would have been great if you had been there in those moments and in those meetings. and it really did feel like us versus them in many moments and I think we want to feel we don't want to feel like that and so I think however we can go towards a healthier

More Collaborative. Thank you so much for your time. Some of the major things that have happened during this time. Thanks.

Siddiqui yields the floor. Councilor Sieniewicz, the floor is yours.

Thanks, Madam Mayor, through you. I try to say the same things in private as I do in public, so I think you've heard a lot of these things before. It's just a chance for me to say them in public, but hopefully A lot of these are not new. The budget process, as others have said, hopefully we can figure out how to engage the city council more and earlier in the process. I didn't know that's something Thank you so much for joining us. and even we have examples of places even like in Somerville where the city council does not choose who the executive branch is and just feels like the council there has more engagement and authority. I hope that's something we can improve on here. The charter I had almost forgot was this year. I was thinking, oh, we already talked about this last year during the evaluation process, but that was still 2025.

And as others mentioned, yeah, it felt like a big miss, just a really strange thing where where staff were coming out sort of not working with the council on this thing. And the city manager was totally absent from that process, at least publicly. And so just a very strange thing, I think, If it were in another city and the executive branch was going to take a position on it, it would be the mayor saying, in fact, the mayor of Somerville did say, we want to move towards four-year terms. I'm the mayor coming out publicly. There was very little that you sort of came out publicly around the charter on, and so it was left to us to argue with city staff about in a way that felt unproductive, unhelpful, untransparent, just very confusing, I think, both for the public and for the council, and felt like a big mess. and then the personnel decisions with the Women's Commission. I've had a bunch of conversations with folks in the public and yourself on this, still sort of confused around a lot of the rationale there and frustrated, but just wanted to

Let's talk about it from a collaboration with the council lens, and in particular tie it back to this question about the structure of our government, because I think if this really does become important in the structure we have, which is a city manager council system. If we had a strong mayor system, like Somerville or Boston did, and the mayor wanted to make these personnel changes and folks came to me as a counselor and said, I'm mad about these. I could say, look, I don't choose who the mayor is. I think they screwed up here. You've got to talk to the mayor about this. If you think this was a big gap, you can organize for something else. I can't say that in our system, right? Everything the city manager does reflects back on the council here. All of your actions reflect back on the council, whether we were involved in them or not. And this was a case where we were not involved. I didn't find out until the public did about these. The account manager is responsible to the council. And so I have to take responsibility for this. And so I think that's a real key piece here in our system.

And I think the response there around the council not being, you know, one role is not to be involved in the details of running city government personnel decisions or the city manager. I could hear that, except it also goes the opposite way on things like curb cuts, where the council has said very specifically, we don't want to be approving every single curb cut, and the response from the manager and staff have been like, actually, no, we wanna make sure the council is the one to approve each curb cuts here. And so it's a real whipsaw on We don't want the council to be involved in the minutia of decisions. And at the same time, we do want the council to be involved in the minutia of decisions. When they're hard ones about curb cuts, we want the council to do it. When they're hard ones about personnel, we don't want the council to be involved. And it's just a very confusing... sat there. I did want to share some positive feedback and make sure to make that as part, the responsiveness. both of yourself and from all city department heads, I think is great.

When I have an issue, we reach out to you or from department heads, get a response very quickly. It's not always the response I want, but the response I get is quick and turn around and that's true whether it's a specific thing whether it's a pothole or something and I do think that's something we hear from a lot of residents of that like this This turnaround, the speed of city government is responsive in a way that is not true of every municipal government in the US. So did want to call that out and support that. Awaiting reports, as you mentioned, I think are also improvement from this system compared to the previous city manager, just like knowing where things are at with policy orders, having a sense of where they are. I will say like the critique I have there a bit is like having another year of this is sometimes we get a report to something, a report back. and so it's no longer an awaiting report but it doesn't really solve the things. I think like curb cuts are another example of this where we got a response so it's not on the awaiting reports list anymore.

We haven't solved curb cuts. It's still an issue. We're working on that. We're going to come back. We're going to finish that process. But I don't know where that's at because it's not on the awaiting reports list. So I think we need some better system there for measuring things or just better updates because... I still have no idea where we're at with curb cuts and it's still where we're wasting hours and hours on it at council meetings. And then the last feedback I have was Just on the structure of this evaluation, glad we're doing it. It's great. We didn't do it my first term. It's just helpful, I think, for the public and all of us to know where we stand with the city manager and air these things out in public rather than it having to be a A thing that folks don't know. It's good to have this all on the public record. I don't know that the evaluation format is exactly the right one. Still, the city manager is the head of the executive branch, and I just don't think these categories are what the head of the executive branch in other cities are getting evaluated on. They are all about management.

They're not at all about policy, and the management things are important, right? Those are the things, all good, but it's missing all of that policy lens, which I think is the other thing, Executive gets graded on. There's just none of that in here. And it actually goes a little too deep on management. There's the category here on culture. I don't feel like I... have the best sense of the city manager's role in the culture in the city. I think other folks do, but the specific interactions of that, what number to give there, the specifics of it are hard to do. I have very specific... thoughts on a lot of the policy stuff the city is doing and I think a lot of that we're actually doing really well and better than other cities and would be a positive thing in a lot of areas but there's just no category for that here where on some of the management categories there's more specificity than I really need so I think Hope that that's something we can improve on the city manager evaluation process. That's all the feedback I had for here and looking forward to continuing this work with the council and the manager.

Council, Sobrinho-Wheeler yields the floor. Councilor, do you want to add anything?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I don't want to respond to things, but one thing I do want to say so the public in general knows is when we came up with this process, the reason it's not just city council feedback, it's also... responses from senior management. We take into account the resident survey, et cetera. So we're trying to be holistic. And I don't disagree with Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler about maybe it's time to change some of the categories and have that discussion. Again, I won't be here, but I was very happy to do this for the first three years that we've been doing this, and I've enjoyed doing the work. But if there are going to be changes in the The new Council should get on it real quick so that everybody knows what the rules of the game are going forward. Thank you Madam Mayor.

Council Tony yields the floor. Council Wilson?

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. Let me see if I can get my camera on. If it gets unstable, I'll turn off. Good to be in community with you all. And I'm happy to hear a lot of what my colleagues have already stated. I just want to echo and emphasize the fact that The work of a city manager is extremely challenging, right? There's a lot of layers to the work, and one that I truly feel is... Not only just an important one, but just a complex one when you're thinking about the many facets of the role and of the work. As I said to the city manager when him and I met last week, There's a lot to be prideful for, right? There's a lot of work that you are doing extremely well. And like any person, there's always room for improvement and room for growth.

and areas in which many of my colleagues have already stated this, the response around the federal administration, our ability to act and be, whether it's filing in lawsuits or in other areas, we have been able to be steadfast in our response as well as just being in the know of what is going on and reacting when we need to. I think the way we were able to step up and partner with the Cambridge Community Foundation around SNAP benefits was a very responsive one and supporting of our pantries was very responsive. While I do wish that there was more efforts that was actually put into that, I do appreciate the efforts that the $250,000 and many more.

and so moving into room for growth. Well, as many of my colleagues have already stated, there's a lot of areas for growth when we talk about leadership and management. These last several weeks or months have not been easy. And I think you've heard a lot in terms of just areas where you could do better and do more. And I'm just curious, and I just have a question, Madam Mayor, through you to the city manager directly on just what you have heard thus far as I am like the seventh person in the... and the pool to speak. What are you truly, honestly taking away from this feedback that you are receiving thus far in terms of how you move into your next year, the remaining of your contract, etc. ?

Mr. City Manager.

Through you, Mayor Simmons. A lot, you know, I think I've actually found these sessions to be incredibly useful toward both getting feedback, and I think This conversation is probably the most concrete and distilled compared to prior years. I think there is a maturation where it's becoming more clear where things are going well and also where there have been gaps. Wilson, some of that is coming through very loud and clear on the big picture. And then I think there's always really helpful thoughts that come out. that I end up actually really taking and trying to work into how we plan for the next year. I think the feedback on the budget process is sort of always a work in progress.

I do think we've got some pretty concrete ideas for what I hope will be a pretty different process this coming year that the council will appreciate. I actually felt like Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, your note about the awaiting reports process is better, but then when we reply in an awaiting report and there's still something to be done, but the awaiting report is off the tracker, I think that's actually accurate and we need, I don't want to call it like an awaiting reports, awaiting reports tracker, but I do think that there needs to be something that's tracking outstanding requests from the city council that ultimately aren't going to be part of a waiting report if the response was given. But if there was something that we're meant to deliver, I could also point to beyond curb cuts. I know the short-term rental ordinance, that's another thing that We replied to on the awaiting reports, but it's gotten bogged down in a lot of the other work that's happened.

But I think a tracker next term that captures that would actually be really useful to the council and also to the to the city. And I think the feedback as well in terms of this performance review structure, I would agree, I think we should start Thank you very much. How we think about joint goals on the policy front with the city council. Ultimately, there was a reluctance initially because that's not something that the city controls on our own. We really do that together every Monday night. but I think we are getting to a place where the collaboration actually I feel like has been really healthy on the policy front and we may be ready to say,

collectively we're setting policy goals and I'm happy to have that become part of my evaluation which makes sense you know I think it actually is a bit it's a gap that that's missing from this conversation

Are you yielding the floor?

Yes, I yield.

Manager yields the floor. Councilor Wilson?

Thank you and thank you City Manager for that. I think you're putting some thought into it and of course you're going to put in some more as you continue and, you know, I think it is important to maintain a healthy relationship with the council, not only Thank you so much. Thank you so much. and the building of a healthy culture and community. And this is something that I specifically noted. And of course, again, we've heard this from a couple of other colleagues, but it is important to say and name again that

The movement of the board and commission, the seven staff members, The process in which it was done, it doesn't sound like there was overwhelming consensus that this was a good process, right? And so again, while I want to respect you as a leader and respect the members of your staff and their leadership role for coming to decisions that they came up with, I think there's just a lot of learning Thank you. Thank you. to something that Vice Mayor McGovern stated, because you and I and the three of us were sitting and it was that response of like, well, you know, it's never a good time. And while that is accurate, We're very clear that that wasn't good timing at all.

And again, while we don't have purview over personnel matters, it is important because when the community has an outcry like this on decisions that get made, This now becomes public, right? And it now becomes an issue that is a council issue as well to just raise of like, how do we do better even in areas where we want to make Thank you so much. I don't know where you start, but I do know that you have a little bit of a window of time to really... do something somewhat magical in terms of rebuilding some relationships and rebuilding trust within staff and their morale. Because I do have conversations with quite a few members of our city employees.

And I can tell you, there's an overwhelming Thank you so much for joining us. around what that looks like because that morale then trickles down to whatever the work is that needs to be done could potentially impact work. and we don't want to see that happen. So again, there's some highs. There are quite a few lows. and areas for improvement. And while I'm not here as we move forward into the next term, I'm someone who's going to be a text away and a phone call away. And I will continue to reach out when I do feel like there are areas for, hey, when you deserve a high five, here's your high five. And when you deserve, I guess, nothing.

A low five. A low five. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I was talking to my three-year-old for a second. No, no, I wasn't. I'm kidding. But that low five, I will be there to hit you up and say this is a low five moment and let's do better. So overall, again, we are a city that has a history of doing extremely well, but also really thinking about When we have this billion dollar budget, how we are prioritizing, and this is another thing that I mentioned, and I'll state it for the public, again, When we talk about bike lanes versus social service, and I'm not saying it's bike lanes versus, right? But when we're putting a significant amount of dollars into the creation of newer bike lanes across our city and yet, When it comes down to perhaps how we invest in our social services, whether that is the Rise Up program or

Keeping a Shelter Open, or how we invest in feeding poorer families through our SNAP benefits, it seems to get a lower... A lower value versus, say, how we react and respond to maybe by claims. And that I want to see a shift in. Members of our community across the board should not continue to see our budget and wonder where do they fit in to the budget. they should be able to see the budget and know that this is where details matter this is where issues that are relevant to them matter and I also want to see that these committee meetings and community meetings specifically around community engagement actually gives out to our community and that there is true deep community engagement happening.

We are investing some significant dollars into a new department and I am, the jury's still out on where we are with this. So I really want to see some act fast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With that, I'll yield. Thank you.

Council Wilson yields the floor. I'd like to entertain a motion to close public comment. I just want to be sure, Ms. Stephan, that there's no one hanging out in the public comment area.

No new sign-ups, Madam Mayor. You can close.

Very good. So on a motion by Councilor Toner to close public comment, roll call, please.

Azeem, Vice Mayor McGovern, Yes, Councilor Nolan, Yes, Councilor Siddiqui, Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Yes, Councilor Toner, Yes, Councilor Wilson, Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. That's all nine members voting yes.

And public comment is now closed on the affirmative vote of nine members. We'll now go to Councilor Zusy. Councilor Zusy, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Madam Chair. City Manager, under your leadership, this rich city continues to function well with capable, experienced, and dedicated staff. A staff of 3,700. That's no easy job. That's a really big job. So first areas of strength and accomplishment. I was really impressed with our response to the Trump administration with multiple legal challenges and prompt responses. to various inflictions, including with housing vouchers and SNAP benefits. Generally, the city has delivered excellent services. Financially, we remain afloat, even through troubling times, and we still have our AAA bond rating. Residents feel safe and most feel positively about the city.

I feel as though city staff and you have been very responsive to our requests for reports back. Overall, we have a healthy work culture, and we continue to invest in things we hold dear, affordable housing, education, and social services to provide opportunity for everyone to better their lives. So that we do all those things is extraordinary. Places for growth and development. We need to provide greater transparency and greater access to information through the open portal and the website and more consistent data, especially relating to housing. We need to plan better vis-a-vis housing and transportation and be more transparent about how we're responding

to complaints about transportation issues and I realize there always will be many of them because they directly impact people's lives but We've got to let people know, just like with C-Click Fix and their reports, that the Transportation Department is honestly evaluating Residents' Concerns About Crosswalks, all sorts of things, and Safety Issues. We need to encourage better communication between CDD and inspectional services to facilitate development and best outcomes for neighborhoods and the city. We need to empower staff to lead us experts and to push back on the council as appropriate. I sincerely believe that like a

letting the market define our city and have a complete deregulated, I don't think deregulated upzoning is planning. And we've had fabulous planning in the city for decades, which is why the city looks and feels as great as it does. We've got to continue to support planning efforts. We need to continue. I think we all believe we need to evaluate existing programs more carefully and make cuts as necessary. We all know how difficult that is. But it's absolutely essential, and as our financial leader, that is why we pay you the big bucks. It's up to you that we balance our budget. and that we respond to our priorities.

We need to make sure that we don't spend down our free cash too much, because if we lose our AAA bond rating, we're really in big trouble. So I appreciate your financial oversight there. We need to reduce our budget, stop growing our debt, though I realize there are some capital expenses that we must continue to invest in. And we need to really preserve Cambridge's livability. And I feel profoundly this isn't a frou-frou thing. It's why businesses want to be in Cambridge, because this is A place workers want to live, but if there is no parking, if we have traffic congestion, if there's no traffic enforcement, If we have no behavioral expectations in public places and people feel unsafe and unwelcome in them,

That doesn't make us a very welcoming city. And if we cut down all our trees and lose our shade and We're a sustainable city. We take pride in being sustainable, and we have had a fabulous plan. That we've pursued to accomplish climate goals, but we've got to have open space, greenery, trees, all those things promote public health. and make us a place that people want to live. I realize that, yeah, again, you've got a really hard job. The council is inherently political. And again, your job is ultimately to be the one that makes sure our budget balances, that we retain our AAA bond rating, that the city is responsive to its residents, and that we provide

Excellent services. And I really appreciate you and your role in leading the city and look forward to working with you over the coming term, too. Thank you. I yield.

Councilor Zusy yields the floor. So the advantage of going last, everyone has said everything I would say, so I don't have to say it, but maybe I'll say a few things. I remember when you came to us as a city manager, however long ago it was, because it seems like much longer than I'm... I made a big deal about them and You rose to the occasion and you took care of those. When I see how you interface with the community at large, and when I say the community, I'm not talking about neighborhoods. but I'm thinking about governmental agencies, the business community, the larger pieces of engagement, which is very important is how we're viewed in the city by others. And I think you put a very good face on our city, outside of our city.

I've had the opportunity to be with you in places where there have been the mass mayors and it's very clear that you're highly respected and if you're highly respected then the city is highly respected and that's a very good thing. I also think that your relationship with the schools, we now have a new superintendent and he seems to work well with you. So that's a very good thing. There was a little bit of a rocky road there for a while. I think that is improved, and that's a good thing. Because I always say that we're two separate departments. There's the city, and then there's the school department, which is one of our larger departments. It's almost like an entity unto itself sometimes. And that relationship, I believe, has really improved. I can speak. I know since being mayor, I think we've had a good relationship. We meet often. We don't always agree, but that's okay.

I haven't thrown you out, I'm sorry? I know, are you right? There's still time. The other things from a productivity perspective, although I do know that some of this rested with the clerk's office, and although she's since retired, The agenda is under better control and that is a huge improvement. City Council got a lot of flack about the agenda. Thank you so much for joining us. Then what we do for our constituents is going to be done well.

One recommendation out of this evaluation process that I think I would love to see, if I can turn the page a little bit, If we could have, if you put in your agenda, just should we forget a biannual training. A training gives us an opportunity to have a conversation with you and with one another about where we're going. This term, and I'll take responsibility for that, we didn't really have a goal-setting meeting. And I think that's something that we should do. So there should be somewhere within each term, and I'm going to lay that at your feet, that you should... No justice. We really need to have this meeting where we assess where we're going, where we are, what we need to do. And when I say a training, training or a retreat, it's just us...

sitting down going over things that are important to us so that you can hear what's important to us and then we as a group can try to say, How do we order these things? Because it's you as the executive administrator to say, okay, I hear the council has 10 things they want to do. We can do two well. Or we can do three well. And I think that would help all of us. In addition, when we're doing this, we think about everybody getting a share of getting something that they need to get done, because like my colleague, Sussi says we are the electeds. I know we're saying we want to be more forward-facing, but We're the forward facing ones. And so we need to be able to make sure that the people that voted for us to represent them feel as though we're being represented. So we need to really make our relationship

In terms of what we ask for and what gets done is tight so that we can go out into the community and say, yes, we've heard you. We know what you want. We're trying to get it done. I understand saying, oh, the city mayor should be more visible, but he doesn't get elected, so he messes up. We mess up, we get that notice on November 4th or whatever day the election day is, we don't want you to come back. So I want just to say that, so that's important. Most of the things that have been said, good and bad, I've agreed with. The only other things I want to add that are important to me in particular is following up on neighborhood issues, particularly the ones that keep coming back. I feel like every September I'm saying the same thing. And at some point you should say, September's coming, I know members of the...

The city council are going to be very concerned about mattresses and desks and things like that being in the street. And that's really important to me as someone who lives in the port. And there's citizens of the port that feel like... They are neglected because we're having the same conversations every year, every single September and every single May. At some point, even I believe, well, maybe they don't or he doesn't, because I know my colleagues, if I bring a motion to the floor and say, I want those mattresses and things removed, my colleagues are going to support it. but you have to execute it. And so at this point, this must be the third time I've asked for it, it should be, if you have to move them yourself, not that I would ask you to, but it should be done. It should just be a reflex. So improve on follow-up.

following up on council's request. And we had this conversation, you and I, about being real clear with us on the budget. If you're saying that we have to cut 2%, then we... It's important for you to say to the council even though the council has the final vote, even if it's a vote that we take that you don't agree with, you remind us, I understand at the end of the day the council directs my feet, but I would be remiss if I did not say this is going to have a negative impact. And I don't think you do that enough. Which is the next thing is standing up for your decisions and standing up for your decisions even when they're contrary to what the council has said.

And then lastly, because you've heard a number of things, I may have not said it to you as many times as I've said it with other city managers, and I've had the distinct pleasure of serving with six, is that you can do the right thing the wrong way. And why I believe the council is a little Disappointed, not to use a really harsh word, is that you make a decision, you do it a certain way, you direct your staff to do it, it gets out into the public domain, we're the one that takes the hit for it. That's just unfair. So three things. One, and you know what I'm talking about. I think everybody else that's listening, you can do the right thing the wrong way. Make sure the council knows it's coming so that we don't get blindsided by it. We may still not defend it, but at least we were aware of it.

And then the last thing is stand up for your decision, because as I said, There were two people that sat in this room. Center, defending a decision that at the end of the day was yours. You should stand up for your staff. I mean, that's the most important thing that one can do. And for the most part, the only last thing I would say is I find the lines of demarcation, who's supposed to do what, gets very cloudy. When you first joined the ranks of the city manager, I said very early on, decide how you want to do this. The charter says we only talk to you. So do you want us to talk to you or can we talk to everybody? And you say, oh, you talk to everybody. Well, if I'm going to talk to everybody, I want everybody to respond to me. And that doesn't always happen. And so you can't put the genie back in the bottle. That's the model that you have. are recommended or live by and fine, but if that's the way it's going to be.

There's some departments I get a call and before I can hang up the phone, I get a response. There's other departments I call, it's hurry up and wait. and we can't have that, it has to be consistency. Generally speaking, at least the staff that I engage with the most time, extraordinary individuals. are very responsive. There's one person, I'm not going to name them, but they're in this room. They take my call, and I call them two and three times a week, and they know who they are. So that being said, it is important if we're going to be as a team, and that's what we are, we are best when we work together. At the end of the day, you get to hire who you get to hire because that's what the charter says. Have I been in love with some of the people? No, and you know who they are. I'm going to let that go. But I just think it's important that when we work together as best as we can, the city is always going to do better.

and that's what I would recommend. So generally speaking, I support what all my colleagues have said in one way or the other. We want to always be working toward how can we Be a better operation because at the end of the day, we're not here for each other. We're here for the citizens of Cambridge, and that's what really counts. I'm going to yield the floor. If there's nothing else that members want to say, Councilor, do you want to have any concluding remarks?

Nope, I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to help prepare this report, and I'm sure the city manager will take all of the feedback that and he has received every single word that people wrote going forward. So thank you, Madam Mayor.

Councilor Toner yields the floor. If there's nothing else to say, I will take a vote to take a motion to adjourn. On a motion by Councilor Siddiqui to adjourn this meeting. Ms. Irwin, please call the roll.

Azeem, yes, Vice Mayor McGovern, yes, yes, Councilor Nolan, yes, Councilor Siddiqui, yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, yes, yes, Councilor Toner, yes, yes, Councilor Wilson, yes, yes, Councilor Zusy, Yes, yes, Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes, that's all nine members voting yes.

Thank you. The meeting is adjourned on the affirmative vote of nine members. Thank you, good evening.