A search for the next city manager described as being already behind schedule was slowed further last week despite the pleas of vice mayor Alanna Mallon, who is expected to coordinate the search and its public outreach process.
Until Jan. 1, the process had been led by councillor E. Denise Simmons – the same councillor who led last term’s bizarre, supposedly last-minute agreement to extend the contract of the current city manager. In the new council term, Mallon has been given leadership of the Government Operations, Rules & Claims Committee by the mayor, replacing Simmons.
The council saw a late policy order at its Jan. 10 meeting to designate Mallon as point person for the search, with the understanding that her first work would be to sign two local firms to handle public outreach. Though Randi Frank Consulting of Louisville, Kentucky, was identified last month as the best choice to run a search, it “does not have experience with Cambridge specifically, nor do they have experience with doing the extensive community outreach engagement that the search requires,” Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui said. The plan was to hear public priorities in selecting the next manager by bringing on consultants from coUrbanize, a community engagement specializing in real estate that was founded in Kendall Square, and Boston’s Cortico, which has a mission of “bringing underheard voices to the center of a stronger public dialogue.”
“We are very behind”
Simmons put a stop to that for two weeks – there was no council meeting Monday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday – by using her council “charter right.”
“I’d really like the opportunity to talk to the chair of government ops,” Simmons said Jan. 10, “and look to have the opportunity to talk to her about this more thoroughly.”
Mallon appealed to Simmons. “We are already behind in coordinating and hiring these two community engagement pieces,” she said. “If there was any way for councillor Simmons to remove the charter right and let us move forward with this tonight, I’d be happy to meet with her and any members of the City Council to go over next steps and how these community engagement processes will work.”
“We are very behind at this point. And if we don’t move forward with this tonight, I do wonder about our timeline, which is very tight,” Mallon said.
Simmons was unmoved.
Though the mayor responded by saying she would consider calling a special meeting at which the orders could be reheard and voted, as of this week there was nothing scheduled. The next public step on the city manager search is Jan. 26, when Mallon’s committee sits – two days after the next regular council meeting.
A notice for a special meeting was posted online briefly. It had to be taken down when the Law Department advised that one couldn’t be called solely to deal with a charter righted item, Siddiqui said Wednesday. It was unclear why – no such rule is stated in the latest rules of the City Council.
Keeping councillors involved
When councillor Patty Nolan spoke about the late policy order Jan. 10, she not only expressed urgency, but caution about how the search would be handled – that Mallon would coordinate logistics but leave the process as “something we all decide” in committee and eventually as a full council. “This is not saying the search will just go and vice mayor Mallon is taking over, but that if this passes she will be the coordinating force and will of course be communicating back and forth with all of us,” Nolan said.
Before the 2020 contact extension for City Manager Louis A. DePasquale, there had been extensive discussion in committee about how to undertake negotiations, but Simmons surprised other councillors Sept. 15 (at the end of a meeting lasting more than eight hours) by saying negotiations had been completed and a vote was required immediately on them or DePasquale might leave.
That was contrary to the terms of DePasquale’s existing contract, but councillors took the vote anyway.
DePasquale’s last day in office is July 5.
This post was updated Jan. 19, 2021, to add that a special meeting was called but canceled on advice of the Law Department.
A stronger
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This sounds so sketchy
Councilor Mallon has a habit of pushing things that benefit her agenda forward before full deliberation in the case of several policy orders and, now she is in charge of Government Operations, she is in the position to influence the direction Cambridge takes right down to pro-development policies with her activist allies with whom she commiserates on snarky twitter posts. She likes neat little orderly boxes. She has no patience for the sausage-making that makes for stronger policies, is in the hen house with her fellow new councilor, and is in position to guide council to the pro-development manager of her dreams. I do not see her representing ALL Cantabridgians, just her voting supporters. This is a slippery slope and I have yet to witness much fairness. And the current manager’s extension for three instead of a full 4 yr contract was weird in its own right.
I hope her fellow councilors hold her feet to the fire and challenge her. And by the way, since when is a consulting firm from Kentucky (home of Ran Paul and Mitch McConnell) a good fit to figure out a manager search for Cambridge? Thank you Mayor Siddiqui for paying attention. But is CoUrbanize, a community-engagement firm specializing in real estate founded in Kendall Sq. much better for the complex socio-economic, immigrant and historical character of Cambridge? I hope we find balance.
Pete,
No need to bag on Kentucky lots of fine things that aren’t Rand Paul or Mitch come from there.
That being said the Council historically bungles this process. Mallon is clearly not equipped to handle this but I wonder who on the Council is? Saying they are behind is a gross understatement. There is no way in hell a new manager will be ready to take the reigns this summer. They’ll either have to beg the current manager for an extension or appoint an interim and currently that talent pool is shallow.
Business as usual with The City Council i.e. all screwed up; don’t have a clue as what should be happening (or should have already happened).
De facto, the city manager is the real mayor of Cambridge, even if he/she is unelected (when will this city realize that Plan E is a terrible way to run this city?).
Mr. DePasquale is gone in a few months. The Council is talking about bringing in consultants from community engagement (sic) specializing in real estate? What does specialization in real estate have to do with picking a city manager?
The city manager is the critical part of the government in this city. It shouldn’t be so, but it is. Community engagement? “bringing underheard voices to the center of a stronger public dialogue.”
Come on folks. All those unheard (and heard) voices don’t even bother to vote (as I recall, a little over 30% in the latest municipal election).
No one should care about those voices. The city council should in its infinite wisdom (sarcasm intended) hire an expert consultant, interview the candidates and make a decision… a decision based on the best candidate without regard to race, color, ethnic origin, sex, sexual preference or any other criteria other than he/she has ability to successfully manage a very complicated city.
The Council could appoint an interim manager this Summer. That would buy them time to find the best person and allow them to bargain from a position of strength.
It’s a pleasure to add to such astute comments. I want to take issue, however, with Sam’s dismissal of resident voices. I’m open to considering all sorts of means of encouraging people to take notice of local government, which has possibly the most effect on our day-to-day lives and which we can and should have the greatest ability to affect. I have little reason to believe that the City Council knows or cares any more about choosing a good leader for the city than the residents do, and the fact is that this is about our only opportunity to weigh in on the characteristics we’d like to see in the person who really runs the show, as long as Plan E is our form of government.
I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether the toxic atmosphere that too many City Councillors have helped create (with a whole lot of help) has contributed to the lack of interest in voting and other forms of engagement in our little experiment in self-governance. I continue to note that only two Councillors and, as of a few days ago, one School Committee member have deigned to sign on to an apparently threatening promise to treat each other and the people who appear before them with respect.
Heather,
I agree with you on almost all of the things you said.
Where we disagree is whether the residents know more about choosing a good city manager than the City Council does. I believe neither group has the ability.
Clearly, there are some people in this city who have successfully run large companies and non-profit organizations. If you were to combine that entity with the recommendations of a competent search firm, and use that as a basis for a recommendation to the Council, it would probably be the most effective way to hire our next city manager.
Most people in this city have little knowledge of what is really needed to run a complicated business. Essentially, that is what Cambridge is… a very complicated business with many different stakeholders. It’s clear, as you imply, and I agree with, that the Council members really don’t have a clue. None of them has run a large organization.
Before I retired from my prior business, I had looked closely at thousands (no exaggeration) of large companies, and interviewed hundreds of CEOs and CFOs. I’ve been on many a factory floor, and in many corporate headquarters. I would be totally unqualified to run any medium or large organization, but I’ve seen how well run companies, as well as poorly run companies, operate.
The first thing, of course, is to find a person who is honest, not self serving, and most importantly can handle myriad operational and financial aspects of a company, while at the same time be able to competently deal with all the different stakeholders.
If one looks at how well run companies operate,
if an internal candidate is not chosen (which, if it can be done, is the best thing that could happen), the first step is letting competent search firms propose a list of candidates, any one of whom would be a good leader. Then the board of directors (in this case the City Council) can decide.
IMHO, this is what the City Council should do.
Why do I not think this is going to happen?
And while The Council is at it, they should also name an ombudsman to see to it that the incredible waste, in the millions of dollars, that exists in the city agencies, is curtailed. This money could be used to help those in Cambridge who need a helping hand.
Sam, I think we may be partly talking past each other. Cambridge is complex, yes, but it should not be treated as a business. Government exists to do things society needs done that we can’t do for ourselves and that no business would do because it’s not profitable. Cambridge has been run too long by people with more of a bean counter mindset than a public service mindset (in my opinion, Rich Rossi was starting to tip the balance more toward the public service mindset, while keeping enough of the bean counter, but he was an anomaly) and very little interest in being accountable to the law or the people.
I think it matters what the residents of Cambridge, who have to live with the decisions the City Manager makes, want those decisions to look like. The City Council still has to decide which candidate is most likely to do that, but I have no faith in their evaluation of what we need because I think too many of them are steeped in ideology rather than sullying themselves with reality. If that sounds like a faction currently stinking up the national scene, it’s not an accident. They’re becoming more and more explicit about the selfishness and self-centeredness of their vision for Cambridge and how little they understand about the forces that have gotten us where we are. I think (or at least hope) that most of us care about the larger community, and that’s what I’d like a search firm to search for. I think the right choice can bring out the best in us instead of the worst, but that requires listening to the community and not just the people like you and me who already speak out.
This is all so bewildering for us citizens of this fair city. What gives with Making Mallon, a person who actually was not elected but made it on because she got other people’s votes, (that’s our proportional system for you) this all important honor? Aren’t we entitled to know what qualifications she has for this important t appointment?
Also it would be good if she could please clear up the whispers about her husband’s connection to electric bikes in the interest of full disclosure. We have a right to know if it is just a stupid rumor or the truth and this is her opportunity to enlighten us. Given her position on the current “bike lane” mess, it is important for her to disclose this since she is in a position to affect the outcome. This is NOT an accusation, I am simply asking a question, that is all. There should be no problem with that. Allana can put this rest once and for all!