An imperial city manager? Coronavirus crisis should not override basic governing principles
I would like to discuss the Cambridge mask ordinance – not the merits of the ordinance, but the merits of the process used to put the ordinance in place.
The ordinance was an emergency decree by the city manager. While clearly there is the need for the city manager to have authority to deal with emergencies, I question whether this authority was appropriately used in this instance – since the emergency decree was announced minutes before the City Council was scheduled to have a discussion on this topic.
While the current crisis has led to major changes in our way of life, I hope that it does not lead to an overriding of our basic principles, which is to have public debate from our elected representatives about the measures that will affect our lives, especially when they involve substantial financial penalties.
If this were a single instance, it wouldn’t be of great concern, but the city manager has already used his authority to overrule the majority opinion of the council on another matter affecting the lives of Cambridge citizens – the closing of Riverbend Park.
If the city manager is hoping to exercise unfettered executive authority like some others, shame on him! If he is doing this with the support of members of the City Council, shame on them!
I hope that other Cambridge citizens will join me in demanding that the city manager respect the input and authority of our elected representatives.
Theresa Hamacher, Raymond Street
If you, or anyone for that matter, have issue with our CM having too much power. Then work to change our form of government (plan-E)! There have been many who have attempted to do so over the years. Ilan Levy comes to mind. Unless more then a handful of people step up to change our government. Nothing will change.
Manny is correct. Plan E has this to say about the authority of the City Manager: “The city manager shall have and possess, and shall exercise, all the powers, rights and duties, other than legislative, had, possessed or exercised, immediately prior to the adoption of this plan, by the mayor, board of aldermen, common council and all other boards, commissions and committees of the city and their members, severally or collectively, except such as are by this chapter conferred upon the school committee or are otherwise provided for thereby.”
What the City Manager promulgated was an emergency order, not an ordinance. Only the City Council can adopt an ordinance. Of course the Manager should listen to the City Council, but Plan E gives him sweeping powers (not quite the fabled Article II, but sweeping nonetheless). Outside of ordinances, the Council’s power over passing a budget and approving appropriations, and the Council’s power to hire and fire the City Manager, which they don’t seem particularly interested in flexing, he can mostly ignore them.
There’s a reason policy orders request the Manager to do things rather than ordering him to do them. A Council that made it clear that there were enough votes to exercise the power to fire the Manager would have some muscle behind those requests, but that situation hasn’t existed in decades. The Manager can flout the law with impunity because it’s too hard to sue and the City Council can be counted on to do nothing more than impotent hand-wringing or, if really provoked, make a speech about how unhappy they are about the situation.
There are two ways to change this. We can elect enough Councillors who are prepared to fire the Manager or we can change the charter to make the Manager subservient to the City Council. Either one requires more political organizing than anyone has been able to pull off, but neither is impossible.
Thank you Theresa, Manny and Heather for your comments.
I’ve lived in Cambridge for 20 years and have always thought the City Manager has way too much power. The power over the general population and the entire City Council make him more of a King instead of city manager.
Hopefully, someone, someday will have the fortitude and time required to challenge this. I’ll be there along with many others.