City Council Discusses Discretionary Fund, Development at Meeting

The Cambridge City Council discussed the creation of a discretionary fund, issues related to municipal water billing, and a proposed requirement for developers to hold community sessions at their regular Monday meeting.

Though normally led by Cambridge Mayor David P. Maher, the meeting was jointly presided over by C.J. Dupont, a local sixth grader. Dupont, who was at the meeting in recognition of Cambridge’s decision to declare the month of October as Dwarfism Awareness Month, helped Maher during the opening portion of the meeting, which was held in the Attles Meeting Room at Cambridge Rindge and Latin Public School.

During the meeting, Councillor Nadeem A. Mazen proposed the creation of a discretionary fund as a means of providing the council with a way of responding to local traumas quickly, circumventing the regular bureaucratic processes.

Mazen characterized the fund as an innovative means of responding faster to emergencies, but Councillor Timothy J. Toomey Jr. said he was skeptical of allowing the council to make spending decisions.

“I would trust the expertise of the city manager before I place this into the political arena of the discretionary fund,” Toomey said. “The way we have been operating is the way to do it and its worked...the city taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be subject to the purviews of the city council.”

The council voted 5-3 with one absence to refer the motion to the finance committee.

The council also discussed two policy orders regarding bill payment and the local water supply. The first order involved a complaint against Cambridge’s local water provider and the method by which it was processed. According to Councillor E. Denise Simmons, one local resident was charged an unusually high water bill, and then charged an additional $1,000 to investigate the complaint.

The second order involved the accidental billing of residents for water lost to leakage. Councillor Craig A. Kelley said that he believed the technology was in place to prevent such mistakes and suggested the city reimburse the losses.

“With four [water meter] readings a day I just don’t understand why we haven’t fixed it,” Kelley said. “I don’t know if we can legally do it but it seems fair and if we can legally do it we should.”

Development also came up during the meeting, with Councillor Marc C. McGovern proposing that developers be required to engage with the local community before presenting their plans to the city.

“They’re encouraged [to come before the community], they’re not required. The flip side is that developers are also required to bring a fully designed plan to the planning board,” McGovern said, adding that this led to fully developed plans lacking community input.

“I think we’ve all heard about this being a major flaw in the process,” he added.

Though the council is also considering a ban on smoking in all Cambridge parks, they briefly discussed Vice Mayor Dennis A. Benzan’s proposal to investigate the feasibility of installing “no smoking marijuana” signs in city playgrounds. Due to Benzan’s absence, the council didn’t take further action.

—Staff writer Ivan B. K. Levingston can be reached at Ivan.Levingston@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @IvanLevingston.