Cambridge Charter Review Committee Likely to Retain City Manager, Establish Citizen Assemblies

The Cambridge Charter Review Committee is considering new citizen assemblies — but not the prospect of a directly elected mayor — as its end-of-year deadline for recommendations draws near.

The committee, formed in August 2022, comprises 15 residents who meet regularly to review the city’s charter.

Initially intended to last one year, the review process was extended at the committee’s request in April. Once the newly elected Council votes on the committee’s recommendations, they will be sent to the state legislature for approval before they can be voted on by Cambridge voters themselves.

One of the most important considerations on the committee’s docket has been the city’s executive.

Currently, Cambridge operates under the “Plan E” system adopted in 1940, with a democratically elected Council, a mayor elected among the councilors, and an appointed city manager who oversees the city’s various departments and agencies.

It has become increasingly clear over multiple meetings that the committee is unlikely to replace the city manager with a directly elected mayor.

James Stockard, a committee member and lecturer at the Graduate School of Design who supports the city manager system, said in an interview that the Plan E charter provides for valuable separation between the professional and political sides of government.

“I would like the person who runs our city to be isolated from politics, frankly,” Stockard said. “Our city manager is chosen by elected people; he or she can exercise some judgment about things that he or she thinks are the right thing to do, uninfluenced by particularly strong voices, particularly generous donors, et cetera.”

Other voices outside the committee were not as pleased with the charter review process’s likely outcome.

“I’m not seeing any real, substantive changes that are being proposed that would make a significant difference to the residents of Cambridge in terms of how well they are represented and how well they are governed,” said Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan.

“I think we should seriously consider a directly elected mayor, and that’s apparently not going to be considered,” he added.

While the committee’s recommendations will likely not include a directly elected mayor or changes to the city’s at-large council structure, those hoping for major change may have at least one cause for celebration. Citizen assemblies, if they make it into the new charter, will consist of several dozen residents randomly selected each year to decide or advise the Council on a set of issues before the city.

In addition to making the ballot proposition process easier, the citizen assemblies, Stockard hopes, will increase overall political participation among Cantabrigians.

“You get 50 more people who know how government works, and they’re informed about one particular issue,” Stockard said. “Those 50 people live in households. They tell some other people how that works. So you generally, over years, begin to get a much broader understanding among the general populace of how government works in this city.”

The Charter Review Committee will hold its next regular meeting on October 24.

—Staff writer Samuel P. Goldston can be reached at samuel.goldston@thecrimson.com.