Cambridge InsideOut - November 14, 2017
The Week After Election Day - Summing up the Municipal Election Season
Possible Topics:
1) Election Update and The Long Count
2) How We Elect Cambridge Officials: A Discussion on Proportional Representation (Nov 6 at the Library)
3) Nov 13 City Council meeting
4) Oct 30 City Council meeting
List of Candidates for City Council & School Committee - with sortable tables
Questionnaires and Endorsing Organizations - Who are they, WHAT are they, and what are they asking?
2017 City Council Campaign Receipts and Expenses
2017 Cambridge City Council Campaign Bank Reports
Index of all Cambridge City Council and School Committee candidates: 1941 to 2017
plain text version PDF version
Election Update: After including all of the auxiliary ballots on Wednesday, the election produced the same winners for both the City Council and School Committee races though the order of election changed for the City Council race. We're not quite done yet..... The Final Official Count takes place on Fri, Nov 17 at the Cambridge Election Commission when a small number of provisional ballots and overseas absentee ballots will be included and the computer tally is done one last time. Stay tuned.
City Council Unofficial Election Results (Wed, Nov 8, PDF, 2 pgs.)
Elected (in order of election): Simmons, Siddiqui, McGovern, Devereux, Zondervan, Mallon, Toomey, Carlone, Kelley
School Committee Unofficial Election Results (Wed, Nov 8, PDF, 1 pg.)
Elected: Nolan, Bowman, Dexter, Fantini, Kelley, Kimbrough
Round-by-Round City Council Unofficial Results (Wed, Nov 8, HTML)
Round-by-Round School Committee Unofficial Results (Wed, Nov 8, HTML)
Charts showing City Council election - round by round (PDF - best to save and open in Acrobat)
Charts showing School Committee election - round by round (PDF - best to save and open in Acrobat)
Bar Graphs of City Council and School Committee Unofficial Results Round-by-Round (CCJ Forum)
Round-by-Round City Council Preliminary Results (Tues, Nov 7, HTML)
Round-by-Round School Committee Preliminary Results (Tues, Nov 7, HTML)
City Council Preliminary Election Results (Tues, Nov 7, PDF, 2 pgs.)
School Committee Preliminary Election Results (Tues, Nov 7, PDF, 1 pg.)
Preliminary City Council Results (Nov 7, in order of election): Simmons, Siddiqui, McGovern, Devereux, Zondervan, Toomey, Mallon, Carlone, Kelley
Notes: (1) At the end of the 14th Count, Tierney had only 3 more votes than Toner; (At the end of the deciding 17th Count, Kelley had only 3 more votes than Tierney. The Unofficial Results on Wednesday when auxiliary ballots are included could change the results in several ways.
Preliminary School Committee Results (Nov 7, in order of election): Nolan, Bowman, Dexter, Fantini, Kelley, Kimbrough
Note: It is not likely that these results will change with the Unofficial Results on Wednesday when auxiliary ballots are included.
The total voter turnout has dropped over the years but has remained relatively stable for the last several municipal elections. It jumped in 2017.
How We Elect Cambridge Officials: A Discussion on Proportional Representation (Lecture Hall, Cambridge Main Library)
Short Description
Did you know we vote for Cambridge City Council and School Committee through a system called Proportional Representation (PR)? Discover how PR works and learn just how much your vote counts to be better prepared for the November 7th election.
Join us for a lively discussion with panelists Howie Fain (Co-founder of FairVote), Glenn Koocher (former Cambridge School Committee Member), Susana Segat (former Cambridge School Committee Member), and Robert Winters (founder of Cambridge Civic Journal).
Long Description
Cambridge municipal elections happen on Tuesday, November 7th. Do you find it curious that we rank our candidates numerically when we vote? Did you know that this process of voting is called Proportional Representation? Do you know how Proportional Representation works? Do you know how it came to be that Cambridge adopted this system?
Join us for a lively panel discussion with experts on Cambridge political history. Discover how Proportional Representation works in our city. Learn just how much your vote counts to be better prepared for the November 7th election.
Panelists include Howie Fain (Co-founder of Fair Vote), Glenn Koocher (former Cambridge School Committee Member), Susana Segat (former Cambridge School Committee Member), and Robert Winters (founder of Cambridge Civic Journal).
Howie Fain
In 1992, Fain Co-founded Fair Vote, a nonpartisan champion of electoral reforms that give voters greater choice. He served as the President of the Fair Ballot Alliance of Massachusetts from 1991-1997. Fain has been a consultant to the Cambridge Election Commission, authoring the 1994 report, Computerizing a Cambridge Tradition. Fain serves as an Executive Committee Member of VoterChoice Massachusetts and is a science teacher in the Worcester Public Schools.
Glenn Koocher
A native of Cambridge, Mass., Koocher served on the Cambridge School Committee from 1974-1985. He was the budget chair during the implementation of Proposition 2 1/2 and was actively engaged in the city's multi-year desegregation effort. Koocher was the founding host of Cambridge InsideOut, a weekly TV show on CCTV focusing on current events that aired from 1989-2000. He has written extensively on the political history of Cambridge. Koocher is currently the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
Susana Segat
Segat was a member of the Cambridge School Committee from 1996-2001. From 1999-2008, she served on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. A longtime union official, Segat was the President of the Local Service Employees International Union (SEIU) from 2003-2009. She is currently the Chief of Staff for the President of MassArt.
Robert Winters
Winters is the founding editor of the Cambridge Civic Journal, an online news source that monitors the Cambridge political scene. Starting in 1989, he spearheaded the campaign to bring curbside recycling to Cambridge. He ran for City Council several times in the 1990's. Since 2013 he has been the co-host of CCTV's Cambridge InsideOut, a remake of Glenn Koocher's original TV show, focusing on Cambridge politics. Currently, Winters is a Lecturer in Mathematics at MIT and the Harvard Extension School.
Featured Items on the Nov 13, 2017 City Council Agenda
Manager's Agenda #2. Transmitting Communication from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of $2,274,829 from Free Cash to the Mitigation Revenue Stabilization Fund. Funds appropriated to the Mitigation Revenue Stabilization Fund will be used to fund specific projects which will require individual appropriations by the City Council for the related projects in the future. Manager's Agenda #5. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to a recommendation from the Planning Board to adopt the Alexandria Zoning Petition regarding Innovation Space in the PUD-3A and PUD-4C Districts. Manager's Agenda #14. A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report 16-86, regarding a report on which public campaign finance options are legal for municipal elections in Cambridge; and Awaiting Report 17-84, regarding potential plans and options, responsive to community concerns, for creating a program of tax revenue financing for candidates running for City Council and School Committee in the City of Cambridge. This is a topic that deserves a lot more discussion than was ever permitted in either the NLTP Committee (no idea why it would even be discussed as part of "neighborhood and long-term planning" or "public facilities" or "arts and celebrations") or the Government Operations Committee. It's not something Cambridge could even do without approval from the State Legislature and it's not at all clear that such approval would be forthcoming. In addition, there has been no indication of what scale of funding would be asked - and that's important in light of the fact that the total campaign expendtitures for the recent City Council election now totals about $600,000 and climbing. The correlation between campaign spending and electoral results is also not at all clear. The cost per #1 vote as of today among successful City Council campaigns runs from a low of $9.75 to a high of $33.50 (these numbers will rise). It's also worth noting that MANY Cambridge voters are now consulting the Cambridge Candidate Pages and other resources to learn about candidates, and that costs NOTHING. Indeed the number of visitors to the Cambridge Candidate Pages last week went like this: Nov 4: 1,082; Nov 5: 1699; Nov 6: 6,632; Nov 7 (Election Day): 11,058; Nov 8: 3,584; Nov 9: 941. That's a lot of visits for an election that had about 22,600 voters, and the Cambridge Candidate Pages aren't even linked from any City website. Charter Right #1. That the City Manager is requested to appoint a Transportation Task Force to develop a large and comprehensive street safety and education plan that speaks to the needs of bicyclist, motorists, and pedestrians, and that can be easily disseminated and understood by all citizens. [Charter Right exercised by Mayor Simmons on Oct 30, 2017] At this point I'm leaning toward the belief that we should transition toward a single Transportation Board that has subcommittees for transit, motor vehicles, bicycling, and pedestrians. Single issue advocacy has become King and ideas like balance and collaboration among stakeholders has become all but lost. It's become militant with single-issue advocates using social media to pack any and all meetings. I gave up going to these meetings. It's become just Bad Political Theater at this point and, contrary to claims of relative safety, it's really all about turf - establish a beachhead and then defend it even against reasonable criticism. Order #1. That the City Manager is requested to work with the relevant City departments and report back to the City Council with an update on the City’s plans to expand the curbside composting program citywide. Councillor Cheung Committee Report #1. A communication was received from Donna P. Lopez, City Clerk, transmitting a report from Councillor Dennis J. Carlone and Councillor Leland Cheung, Co-Chairs of the Ordinance Committee, for a public hearing held on Oct 12, 2017 to discuss a Zoning Petition filed by Christopher D. Smith, et al., to create a new Section 13.913 Graduate Student Housing Production Requirement. This petition would require new graduate housing to be built in conjunction with the development of commercial uses in the proposed Planned Unit Development 7 District as well as a phasing plan to implement graduate housing development. Everyone agrees with the idea that MIT and other universities should provide adequate housing options for their students. As we saw with the recent Volpe Petition, this has been acknowledged by MIT and they are planning accordingly. This Smith Petition, on the other hand, is not only moot but misdirected. - Robert Winters |
Wishin' & Hopin' & Thinkin' & Prayin' - Oct 30, 2017 City Council meeting agenda
Charter Right #1. Right of first refusal 2 [Charter Right exercised by Councillor Cheung on Oct 23, 2017] This was one of three interrelated Orders submitted last week. The first, Oct 23 Order #6, was a statement of support for House Bill 3017 that would give tenants the Right of First Refusal in the event that a property is put on the market for sale. The second, Oct 23 Order #7, is a proposed Condominium Conversion Ordinance that would, among other provisions, also grant a right of first refusal to existing tenants. Both of these Orders were referred to the Housing Committee. The third, Oct 23 Order #8, calls for Home Rule legislation to adopt a local Right of First Refusal Ordinance in Cambridge independent of any action the State may or may not take. Order #7 and Order #8 both appeared as Late Orders at the Oct 23 meeting. Personally, I believe any longtime-owner-occupied property should be exempt from any such proposed regulation. Such homeowners may choose to offer long-term tenants a chance to own, but that should be their choice and not a government mandate. Order #1. That the regular City Council Meeting scheduled for Mon, Nov 6, 2017 be changed to a Roundtable/Working Meeting to discuss the Comprehensive Housing Policy that was forwarded to the Housing Committee on Sept 18, 2017. Mayor Simmons Honestly, few if any of the six councillors who are seeking reelection will be focused on this topic or any other topic unrelated to their reelection, and that's perfectly understandable. Order #2. That the City Manager is requested to confer with the appropriate City Departments to develop a document explaining how to ride a bike safely in Cambridge, and post in visible locations, on every Hubway station in the city. Vice Mayor McGovern, Councillor Devereux, Councillor Kelley That's a document I may wish to write. I would make it a multi-part project with several sections: (1) How to Drive Safely in Cambridge (and elsewhere); (2) How to Bike Safely in Cambridge (and elsewhere); and (3) How to Walk Safely in Cambridge (and elsewhere). The City's answer to all of these questions during the past year generally involved white plastic posts, minimal public process, and segregation. Judicious use of green paint on the pavement in Inman Square, in contrast, has done more to enhance safety than any of the "demonstration projects" or future proposals to relocate cyclists onto busy sidewalks. Order #4. That the City Manager is requested to convene a Comprehensive Arts Working Group, comprised of people from across the broad spectrum of ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds in our community, in order to begin drafting a Comprehensive Arts Planning Framework that shall help better incorporate the Arts into City planning and update the City Council on progress made toward appointing the members of this working group by the final City Council meeting of this term. Mayor Simmons Art by committee is unlikely to inspire anyone, but it would be good to give more thought to the aesthetics of new and reinvented urban spaces from the very start along with the function of those spaces. I don't mind all the murals, but we could do a lot better than just murals. - Robert Winters |
Oct 8 - I just ran some experiments with the 2015 City Council ballot data to see what the effect of limiting the number of rankings would have been. I had previously truncated the rankings to 15 and there was not a single change. I had also limited the rankings to 9 and found only minor changes in the round-by-round results. Tonight I limited the rankings to 7, then 5, then just 3 to see what would happen. In all cases the same 9 candidates are elected, though in the most severely limited case of allowing just 3 rankings only 6 candidates reach the election quota (but are still elected, of course, since all other candidates have been defeated). The interesting observation from the experiments is that some candidates are consistently more greatly impacted by the loss of deeper rankings. - RW
I also (upon request) just updated my record of voter success. The table below indicates the percentage of ballots for which the #1 ranked candidate was elected; the percentage of ballots for which the #1 or #2 ranked candidate was elected; and the percentage of ballots for which the #1, #2, or #3 ranked candidate was elected.
| Voter Success in Cambridge Elections | ||||||||||
| Election | elect | candidates | valid | invalid | total ballots | Pct #1 elected | Pct #1 or #2 elected | Pct #1, #2, or #3 elected | Pct none elected | Pct blank |
| 1997 Council | 9 | 19 | 16879 | 350 | 17229 | 88.7 | 96.2 | 97.6 | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| 1999 Council | 9 | 24 | 18777 | 384 | 19161 | 76.5 | 92.5 | 95.5 | 3.0 | 0.5 |
| 2001 Council | 9 | 19 | 17126 | 562 | 17688 | 83.8 | 94.0 | 96.2 | 2.8 | 1.1 |
| 2003 Council | 9 | 20 | 20080 | 878 | 20958 | 72.7 | 87.0 | 91.0 | 6.7 | 2.0 |
| 2005 Council | 9 | 18 | 16070 | 132 | 16202 | 78.7 | 93.4 | 96.1 | 2.6 | 0.5 |
| 2007 Council | 9 | 16 | 13633 | 88 | 13721 | 79.3 | 93.2 | 96.0 | 2.9 | 0.4 |
| 2009 Council | 9 | 21 | 15995 | 118 | 16073 | 75.1 | 90.9 | 94.1 | 4.3 | 0.6 |
| 2011 Council | 9 | 18 | 15845 | 126 | 15971 | 77.8 | 92.6 | 95.5 | 3.3 | 0.5 |
| 2013 Council | 9 | 25 | 17743 | 103 | 17846 | 68.6 | 87.8 | 93.0 | 4.9 | 0.4 |
| 2015 Council | 9 | 23 | 17854 | 105 | 17959 | 71.7 | 90.4 | 94.8 | 3.3 | 0.3 |
| 1997 School | 6 | 8 | 16386 | 285 | 16671 | 83.3 | 96.4 | 97.6 | 2.4 | 0.1 |
| 1999 School | 6 | 13 | 17961 | 307 | 18268 | 76.0 | 91.1 | 94.4 | 4.7 | 0.1 |
| 2001 School | 6 | 10 | 16489 | 1160 | 17649 | 76.2 | 90.5 | 92.6 | 7.1 | 4.8 |
| 2003 School | 6 | 8 | 18698 | 2210 | 20908 | 81.9 | 89.7 | 90.0 | 10.0 | 8.8 |
| 2005 School | 6 | 8 | 15470 | 719 | 16189 | 77.4 | 90.6 | 93.1 | 6.9 | 4.2 |
| 2007 School | 6 | 9 | 13276 | 433 | 13709 | 77.0 | 91.2 | 92.7 | 7.1 | 3.0 |
| 2009 School | 6 | 9 | 15423 | 549 | 15972 | 72.6 | 90.1 | 91.6 | 8.4 | 3.3 |
| 2011 School | 6 | 11 | 15290 | 614 | 15904 | 77.6 | 90.3 | 92.2 | 6.9 | 3.6 |
| 2013 School | 6 | 9 | 16592 | 1128 | 17720 | 80.9 | 90.0 | 91.2 | 8.5 | 6.2 |
| 2015 School | 6 | 11 | 16797 | 1062 | 17859 | 69.2 | 84.7 | 88.0 | 11.1 | 5.7 |
Note: Almost all of the invalid ballots were blank ballots. It's common that some voters will vote only the City Council ballot and cast a blank School Committee ballot.
CIVIC CALENDAR
6:30pm Planning Board meeting (2nd Floor Meeting Room, City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway)
General Business
1. Update from the Community Development Department
2. Adoption of Planning Board meeting transcripts
Public Hearings
6:30pm PB# 331 - 1385 Cambridge Street – Special Permit application by Commonwealth Alternative Care, Inc. to convert existing space into a Registered Marijuana Dispensary pursuant to Sections 11.800 Registered Medical Marijuana Dispensary and 10.43 Special Permit. (Notice) (Materials)
7:30pm Harvard Square Overlay District Rezoning Zoning Petition by Peter Kroon et al., to amend Section 20.50, “Harvard Square Overlay District”. (Notice)
8:30pm Beekeeping Zoning Petition (continued) Zoning petition by the City Council to allow Beekeeping in the City of Cambridge. (Notice)
General Business
3. PB# 329 - 3-5 Linnaean Street – Request to extend the time for a public hearing on the Special Permit application and for the issuance of a decision. (Letter)
4. PB# 330 - 55 Wheeler Street - Request to extend the time for the issuance of a decision. (Letter)
3:30pm The City Council's Ordinance Committee will conduct a public hearing to discuss a Zoning Petition by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., to create a new Section 13.59.11 Floor Area Ratio and Gross Floor Area Exemption for Up to 10,000 SF of Innovation Office Space and would apply to the PUD-3A and PUD-4C Districts only. This hearing to be televised. (Sullivan Chamber)
4:00pm The Cambridge Election Commission will meet to finalize the 2017 Cambridge Municipal Election results, including any provisional ballots and overseas absentee ballots. (1st Floor Meeting Room, 51 Inman St.)
4:00pm COUNTING OF PROVISIONAL BALLOTS
5:00pm COUNTING OF OVERSEAS BALLOTS
The Official 2017 Election Results will be tabulated, certified, and announced after these ballots are included.
A series of events for alumni and staff of CHLS, CRLS and Rindge Tech beginning Sat, Nov 18, 2017 through Sun, Nov 27, 2017.
EVENTS:
REUNIONS:
Details and Tickets for Musical Here Event Updates Here
5:30pm City Council Roundtable/Working Meeting to receive an update on Envision Cambridge. No public comment. No votes will be taken. This meeting to be televised. (Sullivan Chamber)
5:30pm The City Council's Ordinance Committee will conduct a public hearing to discuss a zoning petition filed by Peter Kroon, et al., to amend Section 20.50 of the Zoning Ordinance “Harvard Square Overlay District.” This hearing to be televised. (Sullivan Chamber)
5:30pm Cambridge Election Commission meeting (1st Floor Meeting Room, 51 Inman St.)
I. MINUTES II. REPORTS 1. Executive Director's Report 2. Assistant Director's Report 3. Commissioners' Reports |
III. PUBLIC COMMENT IV. ACTION AGENDA Old Business 1. 2017 Municipal Election Final Official Count New Business |
5:30pm City Council meeting (Sullivan Chamber)
5:30pm City Council meeting (Sullivan Chamber)
5:30pm City Council meeting (Sullivan Chamber)
8:00am-9:30am Recycling Advisory Committee (Sullivan Chamber, City Hall)
5:30pm City Council meeting (Sullivan Chamber)
10:00am Inaugural City Council meeting and Election of Mayor (Sullivan Chamber)
For the moment at least, all six incumbents who ran to retain their seats seem to have been reelected. We'll know for sure on Friday (Nov 17) unless the closeness of the results warrants a recount. In the meantime, here are a few items of interest on this week's agenda.
With the 2017 municipal election just a week away and the Volpe Petition settled last week, it's doubtful that more than a handful of people are even paying attention to this meeting. Here are the items that piqued my interest: