These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City Calendar and in the city’s Open Meetings Portal.
Future payments by Harvard
Economic Development & University Relations Committee, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday. This committee run by city councillor Paul Toner will get an update on and offer suggestions about city negotiations with Harvard for future payments in lieu of taxes (since so much of the institution’s land is tax-exempt). The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Council’s sole summer meeting
City Council special summer meeting, 5:30 p.m. Monday. The full list of topics for this special meeting midway between a July-August break isn’t posted, save for the city manager’s presentation of a surveillance technology impact report with discussion of cameras going up in Central, Harvard, Inman and Porter squares in an “overt” way – a response to calls for more surveillance after a few incidents of violence citywide. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Annual goals and evaluations
Government Operations, Rules & Claims Committee, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday. This committee run by councillor Paul Toner will hear from the city manager on progress in meeting annual goals, as well as the timeline and process for completing an annual evaluation of his work – and begin discussions for creating a process for evaluation of the city clerk and auditor, which are the only positions aside from the city manager that the council hires and oversees. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Education officials gather
School Committee, 5 p.m. Tuesday. An agenda has not been posted, but this is the first public committee meeting since the departure of superintendent Victoria Greer and selection of her interim replacement, district chief operating officer David Murphy. The committee meets in the Dr. Henrietta S. Attles Meeting Room at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 459 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Watchable online, including by Zoom.
Norris preschool, Harvard homes
Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. So controversial more than a decade ago as a former school being converted to homes, 40 Norris St., North Cambridge, is back on agenda to return to a use for children: turning a couple of basement commercial spaces into a preschool or the like. Also before the board is a request to extend a 2022 permit to put a three-story addition of 38 apartments on the Crimson Galeria at 57 John F. Kennedy St. by Harvard Square’s historic Winthrop Park. “The main reason that construction on the addition has not commenced yet is the significant increase in interest rates since the project was initially planned,” the developer told the board in a letter. “We plan to commence this project once we are able to obtain construction financing at a reasonable rate.” A two-year extension is asked. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Getting Covid aid to nonprofits
Finance Committee, 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday. This committee run by city councillors Patty Nolan and Joan Pickett looks for updates on American Rescue Plan Act funds, the federal Covid aid money that has been slow to get disbursed via the city – agonizingly slowly, some nonprofits have said – and in some cases canceled and clawed back entirely long after being promised. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
A stronger
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Finally, the city is looking at installing CCTV cameras. Do it! Better late than never.
Shameful how effective police propaganda is that we will give away privacy and permanently expand police surveillance power due to a few incidents (generally in which the police have demonstrated themselves to be at best incompetent).