Continuing lack of municipal broadband study inspires six-councillor budget item protest vote
The citizens group Upgrade Cambridge rallies at City Hall in September for a study of municipal broadband. (Photo: Marc Levy)
A yearslong lack of action on a study of city-owned Internet led to a rare rejection of part of next year’s proposed budget, with city councillors voting 3-6 on Tuesday against funding for the Information Technology department.
The $2.9 million was one of more than two dozen budget items up for review during a six-hour Finance Committee hearing, but it produced the most sparks, with councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler announcing during debate over municipal broadband that he wouldn’t be voting against just technology funding, but against the $715 million budget as a whole.
“When the council says this is a priority, we should be seeing progress on this,” Sobrinho-Wheeler said of a broadband study.
Sharp questions about the lack of a municipal broadband feasibility study – and references to other cities that have installed their own affordable broadband system and paid it back within 10 years – provoked a passionate response from City Manager Louis A. DePasquale.
“We have contacted many cities and most have not paid this back over 10 years. They are not similar to the City of Cambridge … I really don’t think it’s being discussed fairly what the financial impact of this is,” DePasquale said. “We will discuss it, but this is not something that’s easily paid back. And I just think to hear that over and over again, when we hear our consultants say that’s not the case, is unfair to me in the city.”
Even that scrap of information was news to the council.
“If the city has already done this, we should see that,” councillor Dennis Carlone said.
“We were a victim of Covid-19”
DePasquale said he would presented on broadband, with advice from “our consultant on why we don’t think a million-dollar investment at this time is right, leading to a billion-dollar investment in the middle of the financial situation that we’re in.” But the coronavirus crisis that arose in March preempted the presentation, DePasquale said: “We were a victim of Covid-19.”
“For a million dollars, we should hear from our consultant on why this is not the best investment for the city,” DePasquale went on, saying that if the council ultimately disagreed with a study he would “take the blame for not having done that earlier, but it is in the middle of the Covid. I would hope we would at least get that consideration.”
Councillors shook off the explanation, pointing out that years have passed since a city-convened task force suggested a study in 2016. The lack of response has sparked the creation of a citizen group to press for it and several council orders that have been largely ignored. And blaming the pandemic for a delay didn’t please councillors who said it was the other way around: The pandemic was harder for residents because municipal broadband had been delayed.
Results of a lack
“Many of our students are left behind. Many of our residents are left behind. Many of our residents are financially struggling to make payments for their Comcast Internet,” vice mayor Alanna Mallon said.
With students forced to learn remotely at home, the school district has been providing around 400 wireless hotspots at $40 a month to households that lack adequate Internet.
Though city data may show that 96 percent of residents have online access, “they haven’t on their phones, right? And so it’s not really about that, but about reliable, affordable access, and that there is a much broader gap,” councillor Marc McGovern said.
It was McGovern’s first time rejecting a council budget item as a protest.
More in the budget
Last year, when the full budget came to a vote, dissatisfaction over school district funding resulted in 7-2 approval, with the minority formed of Quinton Zondervan and then-councillor Craig Kelley. Voting in favor but under “protest” was E. Denise Simmons.
The city’s full, $715 million proposed operating budget for the coming fiscal year is up $35 million (or 5.1 percent) over the current year; $214 million of it is for school district funding. There’s also $312 million in capital projects proposed for the next fiscal year.
The $2.9 million Information Technology budget includes around $328,000 for new positions. Patrick McCormick, who joined around six weeks ago as chief information officer and department director, said they were a physical security expert and a network engineer.
The Information Technology department will also be taking steps to improve public meetings run on video conferencing platforms, as in-person meetings weren’t expected anytime soon, McCormick said.
The vote against
The vote against the department budget had Mallon, Carlone, McGovern, Nolan, Sobrinho-Wheeler and Zondervan against. Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, Simmons and Tim Toomey voted to approve.
Members of the citizens group, Upgrade Cambridge, reacted to the hearing on social media. Christoper Schmidt noted that DePasquale “has not presented a shred of evidence of [his] claim” to having advice from a consultant against broadband. Saul Tannenbaum called the council vote “extraordinary.”
“It’s as close as Cambridge comes to a vote of no confidence,” Tannenbaum said. “And, for the manager, it was well earned. He’s had years to make his case against municipal broadband and chose not to.”
Did anyone point out the refusal to consider laying conduit that could hold fiber in the future as the City has been digging up roads for sewer separation and the like?
As to the Zoom meetings, I’ve made my opposition to the use of webinar mode rather than meeting mode quite clear to the City Councillors and the City Clerk. It appears to me that city officials whose identities haven’t been shared with me have been spreading misinformation about the differences between the two modes, especially with respect to what protective measures are available to the host in each. The way the meetings have been conducted has been increasingly hostile to public participation and clearly favors people with higher-end equipment over others.
On March 12, 2020 Council Government Operations, Rules & Claims Committee received “from Councillor Simmons, transmitting a letter from City Manager Louis A. DePasquale, who is serving formal notice of his desire to enter into formal negotiations with the City Council to extend his contract with the City beyond January 2021.” From CambDay 2/26/20: “DePasquale told councillors Jan. 30 that he wanted to extend his contract beyond its expiration in nine months, and councillors met Feb. 19 in committee to begin consideration of the request. ‘I believe that I have worked effectively with the City Council to make significant progress on its priority areas and goals,’ [DePasquale] said in a letter. ‘There is much work still to be done and I would like to continue to collaborate with the City Council and residents to achieve further progress in several priority areas.’
“[The City Manager’s letter to Council] went on to list 11 bullet points, including more affordable housing and ‘major capital infrastructure projects,’ but did not mention municipal broadband.
“The terms of [DePasquale’s employment] contract set in 2016 pay him $322,865 this year [2020] after starting four years earlier at $292,500. DePasquale would be likely to return for higher pay in a second term.”
The City has had only 9 City Managers since 1942, when Plan E government officials took office. Under Plan E elected 9-member City Council’s sole accountability is to hire the City Manager, who oversees almost every facet of the government. As the chief executive, our City Manager is responsible for enforcing laws and ordinances, advising the City Council and implementing their decisions, appointing city officials, and crafting the city budget, which includes the School Committee’s budget.
Since 1981 the City Council has appointed only 3 City Managers: • Robert Healy (1981-2013), 7th CMger;
• Richard C. Rossi appointed 8th CMger (2013-2016) by 2013-Council on Healy’s retirement, by retirement having worked for Cambridge for 4.5 decades–Camb Deputy CMger from 1981 (all of Healy’s 32 years);
• Louis A. DePasquale, 9th CMger, appointed by 2016-Council members the day before Rossi’s retirement; served under Healy as Cambridge Budget director (1982-2002), under Healy and Rossi as Assistant City Manager for Fiscal Affairs (2002-2016). “Before that, he … worked in other capacities in the city’s budget and treasury departments.” — 11/07/2016, CambDay
Seriously? “In the 15 years preceding Robert Healy’s [1981] appointment as [city] manager, the average tenure for a [Cambridge city] manager was just under three years.” — 5/24/2012, The Crimson
Decades of one city manager times 3 spanning 2 centuries? Hiring/firing City Manager is the City Council’s SOLE accountability under Plan E §103 government [https://www.cambridgema.gov/publications/documents/p/planecharter/].
“If the city intends to continue DePasquale’s employment beyond 2021, it must signal so on or before Sept. 14, 2020, according to the contract.” — 11/07/2016, CambDay
Long past time for the 2020-21 Council members to state publicly where each stands on Cambridge Council’s sole accountability RE hiring/firing the City Manager: “he [the CM, sic] shall be appointed on the basis of his [sic] administrative and executive qualifications only, and need not be a resident of the city or commonwealth when appointed.”
By 2021 Louis A. DePasquale will have been in City Hall C suites for 39 consecutive years over 2 centuries. As the May 26, 2020, piece makes clear–and according to 6 out of 9 Council members–just on Digital Age issues, DePasquale has not been addressing our 21st-century residents’ needs.
For the record, current Council members who voted to appoint Rich Rossi City Manager in 2012 are E. Denise Simmons and Timothy Toomey. Today-Councilors who voted to appoint on Sept. 29, 2016 Louis A. DePasquale City Manager are E. Denise Simmons, Tim Toomey, Marc McGovern, Dennis Carlone.
Registered voters take note: 2021 is our municipal election year.