Seven employees were laid off from the City of Cambridge’s Equity and Inclusion Department last week in a restructuring. The layoffs were not on account of funding or federal concerns, the city said, but instead attributed to a consolidating of workforce to be more efficient.
The restructuring, which took effect Thursday, was done to create a “more coordinated and sustainable approach” to the work done by the department, according to an internal memo from city manager Yi-An Huang. This includes the integration of several boards and commissions, the centralization of administrative support, the consolidation of roles and responsibilities and the establishment of an executive director structure.
Of the seven employees laid off, three were from the Commission on the Status of Women; two were from the Human Rights Commission and the LGBTQ+ Commission (including the director of operations and a program leader); and two were supporting the Peace Commission, Police Review & Advisory Board and the Office of Equity and Inclusion in administrative and research roles.
The department will continue to oversee the same commissions, and their missions will remain unchanged. These include the police board, Human Rights Commission, Commission on Immigrant Rights and Citizenship, the Minority Business Enterprise Program, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Peace Commission, Domestic and Gender-Based Violence initiatives, the Commission on the Status of Women (formerly the Women’s Commission), the LGBTQ+ Commission and the American Freedmen Commission.
The Commission for Persons with Disabilities moves to the Equity and Inclusion Department from the Department of Human Service Programs.
Additionally, the Language Justice Division transitions to the Communications and Community Engagement Office from the Human Rights Commission.
Redundancies discovered
The restructuring came from findings that “each commission was carrying out similar sets of administrative tasks,” said Deidre Travis Brown, chief of Equity and Inclusion. The consolidation is expected to lead to more consistent service, clearer leadership and improved response capacity, she said.
The public will not experience changes in resources, and events, programs and commissions will continue operating without interruption as the department transitions to the new structure, said Jeremy Warnick, city spokesperson. Residents may lose familiar contacts due to staffing changes.
“The employees that are now responsible for the commissions – either in new or adjusted roles – are committed to enhancing what has already been established relationshipwise with the city and the respective commissions,” Warnick said in an email to Cambridge Day.
The offices are consolidated in the city’s recently acquired building at 689 Massachusetts Ave. in Central Square.
City still expanding equity work
Where each commission had an executive director, the consolidation reduces the number to five.
- Carolina Almonte: Police Review and Advisory Board, Human Rights Commission and Immigrant Rights and Citizenship
- Rachel Tanenhaus: Commission for Persons with Disabilities
- Saffana Anwar: Minority Business Enterprise Program, Equity and Inclusion and the Peace Commission
- Shameka Gregory: Domestic and Gender-Based Violence initiatives, the Commission on the Status of Women and the LGBTQ+ Commission
- Vacant: American Freedmen Commission
While cost savings were not the motivator for the restructuring, there have been some, though specific numbers are not yet available, Warnick said. The Equity & Inclusion Department’s annual budget is $1.9 million, with the bulk allocated to it and the Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative as managers of most of the programmatic work. Most of the department’s budget is personnel-driven, while the rest covers training materials, program contracts, accessibility tools and public events.
The city is still expanding its equity work since EID’s formal establishment in 2023, Warnick said. The department oversees civil rights enforcement, language access, training and cultural programming and rewrote the city’s discrimination and harassment policy, redesigned the Minority Business Enterprise Program, and helped create the American Freedmen Commission. Outcomes will continue to be tracked through quarterly reporting and public dashboards, Warnick said.
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Did city employees participate in the restructuring? Were some employees locked out of their offices without prior notice? There is no evidence presented that documents how this restructuring will lead to more consistent service and clearer leadership. There was a director of the Women’s Commission, now there is not. How is this clearer leadership? When the city denies, in the opening “explanation” of restructuring, that the restructuring had nothing to do with federal concerns, that is a red flag indicating the opposite