 THE SEARCH FOR A NEW CITY MANAGER IS NOW IN THE FINAL STAGE This decision will determine the City's current and ongoing direction for the near future. This is one of those key times that Cambridge residents need to be alert and participating in the process! The Selection Committee has chosen four Finalists for Cambridge City Manager (one of the original five has since dropped out). The screening committee members who selected these four finalists for City Manager is listed HERE UPDATE: a “Meet the Finalists” forum will be held on Tuesday, May 31st, 2022, from 6-9 p.m., in the Fitzgerald Auditorium at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 459 Broadway, where members of the public will have an opportunity to hear from each finalist in person or on Channel 99 about their vision for the City and answer questions. Two of these four finalists could be considered to be "Inside" Candidates and two are "Outside" Candidates. Read all four bios and questionnaire answers HERE. (We also have included them individually for each candidate below). Please submit questions for the four finalists to [email protected] by Thursday May 26 at 12 noon for the May 31st public forum with the finalists. . All questions should be applicable to all four applicants. The City Council also will conduct public interviews with the finalists on Wednesday, June 1st, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in the Sullivan Chamber, 2nd floor of Cambridge City Hall, which the public can view in person, on 22-CityView (the municipal cable channel), and live online via Zoom. Please contact each City Councillor with your preferences & rationales (see below for contact information and ideas) WHO ARE THE FINALISTS? CCC has chosen to list the OUTSIDE candidates first because the aim in not renewing the former City Manager’s contract for many, including many City Councillors who voted to replace him as Manager, was to find someone from outside the Cambridge system to provide new insights and to help create a city that works far better than it has in recent years. THE TWO OUTSIDE CANDIDATES ARE: YI-AN HUANG. He was Boston Medical Center’s Chief Transformation Officer during the critical COVID period (2019-21) and is now BMC’s Executive Director of Clinical Operations (2021-present). He comes with considerable management experience, addressing issues of transformation in a difficult change period. He holds an MBA from Harvard University. You can read his letter and questionnaire response HERE NORMAN KHUMALO. He has been the Town Manager of Hopkinton since 2009. He formerly was Westford’s Town manager, and a Town Planner for Walpole and Wellesley. Prior to that he was a Transportation Project Manager Lawrence, Ma. He is the only candidate with an MA degree in Public Management (Carlton College) the standard degree for Town and City Managers). He also holds an M.Sc degree in Regional and Urban Planning, and previously served as the Africa Regional Manager for Oxfam. You can read his letter and questionnaire response on the right. He also is a finalist for City Manager of Watertown. HERE is their May 12, 2022 Council interview with him. And here is the one-hour long interview with all the Watertown candidates: His engagement is from hour one to hour two in their VIDEO. He and the other finalists are discussed HERE. THE TWO INSIDE CANDIDATES ARE: IRAM FAROOQ. She is the current assistant City Manager who also heads up the Community Development Department which has been heavily involved in the issues of up zoning to add more residents and density and increasing commercial (especially lab) development citywide, including in residential areas. Many residents have not been happy with CDD decisions and efforts on a number of issues. Ms. Farooq has been a presence in many Planning Board and other meetings. She holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s GSD program. You can read her letter and questionnaire response HERE CHERYL WATSON FISHER. She is a founding partner in the Cambridge law firm of Galluccio and Watson, one of the city’s most well-known firms for city Real Estate and Development interests. She remains the contact person for Galluccio and Watson and is also the current City Solicitor for Chelsea Ma. (2003 to present). Prior to that she served as Assistant City Solicitor for Cambridge from 1999-2003. She appears to be continuing her Cambridge legal practice outside of her Chelsea Solicitor work, but the city bio does not indicate the location or fields of her ongoing private legal case work. She holds a law degree from Boston College. You can read her letter and questionnaire response HERE WHO DO YOU WANT TO SEE IN THIS POSITION? An INSIDE Cambridge candidate who in many ways is part of the system we have today, or an OUTSIDE Candidate. Feel free to identify specific candidates you do support or don’t support. At this point one should not focus on city-specific political issues because the criteria for selection has already been set, and all four finalists are said to be equally viable from that stand point. However:
This likely will be the MOST significant decision of the next few Council terms. For some of us this decision is so important we may choose it as our #1 criteria in the next election After you have read and heard the candidates, please contact each Councillor individually with your insights: Insider or Outsider, Top choices. This decision should be one that one’s vote in the next City Council Election will likely in part be based on. Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui: [email protected] Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon: [email protected] Councillor Burhan Azeem: [email protected] Councillor Dennis Carlone: [email protected] Councillor Marc McGovern: [email protected] Councillor Patricia Nolan: [email protected] Councillor Denise Simmons: [email protected] Councillor Paul Toner: [email protected] Councillor Quinton Zondervan [email protected]
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |