CAMBRIDGE — By a 4-1 vote Monday the Cambridge City Council agreed to move forward legislation to create a city manager position and repeal the position of town clerk, treasurer and collector.
The prospect of creating a city manager position for Cambridge has been discussed for the past few years. The opportunity to make the change is now presenting itself with Cambridge City Clerk Ed Kinnamon’s plan to retired at the end of this year.
The city council voted 4-1, with Council President Donald Sydnor casting the sole opposing vote, to scheduled a first reading of the three ordinances needed to make the change in the city’s charter and an additional Ordinance 1041 to implement a transition plan for the change to a city manager form of government.
The first reading of the ordinances is to be scheduled during the next meeting of the city council, Monday, Nov. 24.
Explaining why he voted against forwarding the legislation, Sydnor said he wants more citizen participation by people who are actually residents of the city of Cambridge.
Sydnor said that during September’s public meeting about creating a city manager, of the 22 people who spoke on the issue, only 6 were city residents and “four of those wanted something else proposed.”
Mayor Victoria Jackson-Stanley said she does not want to see legislation creating a city manager position rushed into, telling the council, “You are not going to rush me into doing this. This is one of the most important pieces of legislation we will decide upon.”
The mayor also questioned changes in her duties that would occur with the creation of a city manager. She said that as she reads it, “In this amendment, the mayor is ceremonial only... I show up. I smile.”
Jackson-Stanley questioned the city manager’s responsibility for creating a budget and annual report for the city, which she said were currently her responsibilities. “I have concerns about that,” she said.
City Attorney Robert Collison told the mayor she would not be giving up mayoral powers to the city manager.
As for the question of who presents the annual State of the City address, as explained in a written response to citizen’s questions about the ordinance, “There is nothing in the language that says that the city manager would provide the public comments. S/he is to ‘submit to the Mayor and the City Commissioners ... and make available to the public a complete report...’
“It is totally appropriate that the Mayor and Commissioners or the Mayor alone make such a public report.
“However, the commissioners wanted this to take place can be resolved by placing the language in (section 3-21) where the Mayor could make the report or elsewhere in the charter.
“The intention is for the city manager to be the person behind the scenes, providing good information to the election leadership of the city so that they can make the appropriate report to the citizens.”
