City Council met for close to 2 hours on Wednesday the 15th to begin the process of developing the FY 2019 budget that starts July 1, 2018. The work done yesterday is very preliminary, and the first part of the session involved staff leadership speaking with the Mayor and Commissioners about their ideas and concerns, and the Mayor and Commissioners providing their thoughts about the city and what issues might be addressed.

Some of the issues that I came away with from these discussions included the following:

1. Consideration of reorganizing some staff positions to make them more focused and productive and anticipating the potential of transitions of staff leadership that may be taking place over the next several years. As the past two years have shown an increase in development in Cambridge and additional demands on city staff, additional positions may need to be considered.

2. With the changes coming with the Dorchester Hospital and potential Emergency Room and Medical Facility in town, the sailwinds project has the potential of taking much of our attention as does the upgrading some of our infrastructure. We also need to develop a comprehensive plan on how to address the aging infrastructure that exists.

3. Helping our police force to receive more education and training opportunities as well as housing opportunities in the city in order to help keep them here for a more stable and professional police force should be strongly considered. It is not to the benefit of the city for us to train young officers only to have them leave for better paying jobs elsewhere after only a few years here.

4. We need to look at how the Marina can create positive cash flow for the city rather than continue to break even except for the debt that is assigned to it that creates a loss of approximately $250,000 a year for the next 5 years.

After the above discussions, The Mayor, Commissioners, Staff, and Sharon Smith, the one citizen who attended to public work session, then had the opportunity to brainstorm a visioning process led by the City Manager that addressed these questions:

1. If you were in Cambridge on November 15, 2027 (10 years from now), what would you like to see?

2. At a meeting of citizens who lived in your ward (or in the city) what would be the accomplishments that you would like them to know about.

3. When interviewed by the local newspaper, what are the 3 most important accomplishments that you think have taken place in these past 10 years.

From those responses and the discussions that followed, the City Manager and Staff will subject them to some analysis that will be brought back for further discussion as we move forward with the planning for the 2019 FY budget.

I felt that the morning was well spent and that there seemed to be much consensus among both elected leadership and staff on what priorities need to be addressed moving forward.

Thanks to the City Manager, Elected officials, Staff, and Sharon Smith for a well spent couple of hours on behalf of the City of Cambridge.

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Dear Friends and Neighbors:

Last week I learned from our Mayor that there were a number of positions open on several city boards. They are the Housing Board of Review, The Housing Authority Board, and the Board of Zoning and Appeals. I have asked how many positions are open on each board but have not heard back from the Mayor as yet on the numbers.

Below are links to the city website regarding each of the Boards. There is a brief mention of what they do and how often they meet.

Housing Board of Review

http://www.choosecambridge.com/index.php/default_templates/city-boards-commissions/housing-board-of-review/

Housing Authority Board

http://www.choosecambridge.com/index.php/default_templates/city-boards-commissions/housing-authority-board/

Board of Zoning Appeals

http://www.choosecambridge.com/index.php/default_templates/city-boards-commissions/board-of-zoning-and-appeals/

For the Housing Board of Review, it appears that terms for all positions ended last year or are scheduled to end August 31st of this year.
For the Housing Authority Board, it appears that the term for one position ended this past June.
For the Board of Zoning Appeals 3 terms expired in April of this year.

I am not aware of how many, if any, of these vacancies have been filled, but the Mayor advises that she needs candidates for each of them.

For the city to run properly and for matters that come before these boards to be appropriately and timely resolved, citizens need to step forward to help out. It appears that the Housing Authority Board meets regularly, while the other two only when there is an issue to be decided.

As you may recall, a few years ago there was a significant and public issue regarding the Housing Authority that was, thankfully, resolved; but the problems that arose there are an example of how important it is to have involved and knowledgeable people providing oversight regarding the work of the Housing Authority and the other boards.

We need some of you to step forward and notify the Mayor of your interest in possibly serving on one or more of these boards. Please contact her at the email address above or by calling city hall.

Not having a full complement of board members will hurt our efforts to continue the improvements that are starting to take place.

Thanks for considering this request.

Steve Rideout

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