E. Denise Simmons speaks Monday after her election as Cambridge mayor, comforted by wife Mattie Hayes as she speaks about the death of her daughter. (Photo: Marc Levy)

The New Year’s Day inaugural for the Cambridge City Council brought city councillor E. Denise Simmons back as mayor after a six-year gap and councillor Marc McGovern as vice mayor, as he was for Simmons in that 2016-2017 term.

The ceremonies at a freshly cleaned and decked-out City Hall were interrupted by a 20-minute protest about the Middle East that came just as the first councillor was headed to the dais to take the oath of office.

The event recessed while chanting took place, starting with a critique that the council was complicit in genocide for not passing an order calling for a cease-fire in violence in the Middle East. The protesters had been seeded among attendees at the inaugural, then stood at a signal and unfurled banners from the back of Sullivan Chamber and from its second-story seating. City Manager Yi-An Huang spoke with a protest leader, while politics watcher Robert Winters yelled down from the seating overhead. The group filed out with a promise to return.

It looked at first like Sumbul Siddiqui could return as mayor for a third consecutive term; after oaths of office, balloting for choosing a mayor from within councillors’ ranks began with three votes each for her and Simmons. Balloting also began with votes for McGovern and Patty Nolan, but those fell away as the election went to a second round, starting with McGovern changing his vote for himself into one for Simmons.

Protesters disrupt Monday’s inaugural Cambridge City Council meeting at City Hall. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Unanimous vote

In the end, the vote was unanimous: nine for Simmons, who is entering her 12th term in office but has been little seen in City Hall for the past three and a half years. She began attending meetings remotely in March 2020 during the Covid pandemic; she also dialed in from home to spend more time spent caring for daughter Atieno Adoyo Pilipa Steen Simmons, who died Aug. 23 of acute myeloid leukemia.

During her speech, Simmons faltered when referring to her daughter and was joined on stage by wife Mattie Hayes.

“I’m grateful to have my colleagues, each of you, for having returned me to this role for the third time. I’m humbled by the privilege to be of service in this capacity once again,” Simmons said. “I’m so proud to be here as an African American, openly gay old woman” – she paused for laughter for the “old” quip – “because it says a lot. It says a lot about the confidence of my colleagues and other citizens. But it also says in so many ways who is in our city and who we need to serve.”

Simmons promised a legislative “blank slate” at the start of the term, pledged to work “not for you but with you” and told the councillors that “we can do better when we do it together. We have come here in different trains, but we are all going the same direction.”

Balloting

Cambridge city councillor Marc McGovern speaks Monday after being elected vice mayor. (Photo: Marc Levy)

For the election of a vice chair, Nolan and newcomer from the School Committee Ayesha Wilson each began with three votes, McGovern with two and Burhan Azeem with one, but before the first round of balloting was closed there was a migration to McGovern: first first-termer Joan Pickett; then incumbent Paul Toner; then Azeem; Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, returning to the council after a 2020-2021 term, followed; then Wilson; and finally Siddiqui. McGovern was elected 8-1, with Nolan the holdout.

Speeches by McGovern and Simmons applauded Siddiqui for her leadership in hard times.

“It’s hard to get sworn in as mayor and be hit by the worst pandemic in 100 years. And she led us through that with grace at a time when information was changing every day and it was hard to know what the right call was,” McGovern said.

Simmons said of Siddiqui, “she’s done a tremendous job, and I’m honored to continue working alongside her.”

Getting to work

The mayor is also leader of the School Committee under Cambridge’s “Plan E” form of government, a weak-mayor and council system that puts the day to day running of the city in the hands of City Manager Yi-An Huang. The School Committee inauguration was scheduled for later Monday.

Simmons was also mayor in 2008–2009 term. When she returned to the office in 2016 it was as the immediate unanimous choice among nine councillors, a continuing relief after two recent terms’ worth of chaotic mayoral elections that took up to 10 ballots and lasted well into February. When a mayoral election is slow, it delays the appointing of committee leaders and therefore the work of those committees, where details of more complex or controversial ordinances are hammered out before being heard by the full council.

The election of McGovern as mayor and Jan Devereux as vice mayor in 2018 continued the trend of settling the seats during the inaugural meeting. When Siddiqui was elected mayor with vice mayor Alanna Mallon in 2020 and 2022, it was the fourth and fifth seatings during the first meeting of the year, and Monday’s balloting makes for an even half-dozen.

In addition to councillors’ family and friends, other residents and the protesters, the inaugural was attended by former councillors Devereux, Michael Sullivan, Larry Ward and Quinton Zondervan and state Reps. Mike Connolly, Marjorie Decker and Steve Owens.