After three years of committee processes, the proposed language for Cambridge’s first charter revision in eight decades is on the agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting, ready for submission to the Legislature. The new charter keeps characteristically Cambridge aspects: The city is run by a professional city manager selected by the council, not by a mayor; the councillors are elected at-large through ranked choice voting, known as proportional representation.
If the council acts to approve the changes as a home rule petition, as recommended by the city clerk, the revised charter – which is a complete rewrite of the language and not simple edits – will be sent to the state Legislature, which will take as much time as it wishes to approve the new charter for a vote by Cambridge citizens on a ballot, likely at the November municipal election.
“I really feel we had the A-Team,” said former councillor Kathleen Born, who chaired the Charter Review Committee. “I think the charter review committee did a terrific job.” She also praised the work of the staff and the Law Department and the special committee of the City Council that took up the work after the Charter Review Committee.
The committee submitted its final report in January 2024, and since then a special committee of the council has worked on language in concert with the Law Department.
The special committee last met March 28 and voted a number of changes to charter, leaving the Law Department to develop final language. It is that language on the agenda for action at the Monday council meeting.
In what appears to be an administrative error, no redline showing the final proposed changes appears on the public city website, merely final-form documents with explanations of changes. Despite that, the City Clerk’s Office and Law Department provided a Microsoft Word document (with annotations) which could be used to generate a redline of the most recent changes.
Changes include:
• Empowering the School Committee to elect its own chair (today it is automatically the mayor, elected by the City Council)
• Broadening the scope of city manager appointees who are subject to council confirmation. Not just “boards and commissions,” but now most multiple-member bodies.
• Giving power to the mayor (not the council) to conduct annual reviews of the city clerk and city auditor.
• Restoring the option of citizen “referendum measures,” signed by 15 percent of all registered voters (around 11,000 residents), which had been omitted because the Charter Review Committee had proposed a different mechanism that the council did not adopt (citizen assembly).
• Removing the option for alternative methods of selecting a (largely ceremonial) mayor who runs council meetings. The Law Department advised the council that its proposals to change this may not pass muster.
The council’s regular meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Monday in Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, and is televised and watchable online and via Zoom.
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