It's Mayor Siddiqui Again

Jan 3, 2022 - The newly inaugurated 2022-23 Cambridge City Council today unanimously elected Sumbul Siddiqui as Mayor for the 2022-23 City Council term. The vote for Vice Chair (traditionally referred to as Vice Mayor) was 5-2-2 for Mallon-Simmons-Nolan. Mallon again elected Vice Mayor.

BA=Burhan Azeem, DC=Dennis Carlone, AM=Alanna Mallon, MM=Marc McGovern, PN=Patricia Nolan, SS=Sumbul Siddiqui, DS=Denise Simmons, PT=Paul Toner, QZ=Quinton Zondervan

It's Mayor Siddiqui

Jan 6, 2020 - The newly inaugurated 2020-21 Cambridge City Council today unanimously elected Sumbul Siddiqui as Mayor for the 2020-21 City Council term. They also elected Alanna Mallon as Vice Chair of the City Council (traditionally referred to as Vice Mayor).

Jan 1, 2018 - The 2018-2019 Cambridge City Council was inaugurated this morning in the Sullivan Chamber of City Hall. After each elected councillor took the oath of office, the new City Council took care of its first order of business - the election of the Mayor. Though the eventual outcome was already known to many in the room for the last few weeks, there is always at least some drama due to the possibility that an alternate deal could be struck in the interim. However the vote went more or less as predicted with Marc McGovern being elected as Mayor for the 2018-2019 term. The initial vote was 7-2 for McGovern with Councillors Simmons and Toomey casting their votes for Tim Toomey, but Councillor Simmons changed her vote to McGovern to make the final vote 8-1.

After a speech by the newly elected Mayor McGovern that stressed themes of unity the Council then elected Jan Devereux to serve as Vice Chair of the City Council for the 2018-2019 term. That vote was initially 5 votes for Jan Devereux and 4 for Denise Simmons, but Allanna Mallon and then Craig Kelley changed their votes to Devereux to make the final vote 7-2 with Councillors Simmons and Toomey voting for Simmons.

Jan 4, 2016 - The Return of Mayor Simmons

In the first unanimous first ballot election for as long as anyone can remember, the new City Council elected E. Denise Simmons once again as Mayor of Cambridge. After Mayor Simmons was elected, the City Council initially voted 6-3 to elect Marc McGovern as Vice Chair of the City Council (generally referred to as Vice Mayor). Here's a rundown for both elections (using the initials of councillors and mayoral candidates in the tally):

Congratulations to Mayor Denise Simmons and to Vice Mayor Marc McGovern! - RW

Jan 6, 2014 - It's Mayor Maher

It was a rollercoaster of a mayoral vote this morning, but the new City Council finally did get the job done. Here's a rundown (using the initials of councillors and mayoral candidates in the tally):

It is worth noting that at the end of Ballot #3, Denise Simmons could have once again changed her vote to herself (giving her a majority) but chose not to do so - perhaps due to the belief that this would lead to just another cycle of vote changes.

After Mayor Maher took the oath of office, the City Council then proceeded to the vote for Vice Chair. Though not initially unanimous for Dennis Benzan, Denise Simmons moved that the vote be made unanimous and there was no objection.

Congratulations to Mayor David Maher and to Vice Mayor Dennis Benzan! - RW

Feb 22, 2012 - The Cambridge City Council tonight unanimously elected Henrietta Davis as Mayor and E. Denise Simmons as Vice-Chair of the City Council. The 5th and deciding vote was cast by Councillor Minka vanBeuzekom. After that, the remaining councillors changed their votes to Henrietta Davis to make the vote unanimous. Denise Simmons was then also unanimously elected as Vice Chair of the City Council.

Feb 22, 2010 - The Cambridge City Council tonight unanimously elected David Maher as Mayor and Henrietta Davis as Vice-Chair of the City Council.

Jan 14, 2008 - The Cambridge City Council today unanimously elected E. Denise Simmons to be Mayor and Brian Murphy to be Vice-Chair of the City Council. For the record, the mayoral vote (the 2nd ballot officially) initially had Davis, Kelley, Murphy, Reeves, Seidel, and Simmons voting for Denise Simmons; Maher and Toomey voting for Tim Toomey; and Decker voting “present” (I won't even bother trying to figure that one out). David Maher then asked to change his vote to Simmons and make the vote unanimous. Decker then changed her vote to Simmons and City Clerk Margaret Drury gaveled the vote closed before Councillor Toomey had a chance to weigh in - declaring the vote unanimous even though no such vote was taken. I suppose you could argue that the vote was actually an 8-1 vote for Simmons since the rules are clear that the vote is final when the gavel drops. Nonetheless, Councillor Toomey did ask to have his vote changed to Denise Simmons after she had already been sworn in. Let's just call it unanimous, regardless of the technicalities.

The vote for Vice-Chair of the City Council (traditionally called Vice-Mayor) came next. In the initial vote, all councillors except Decker voted for Brian Murphy. Decker again voted “present”. Only afterwards did she join the others as she changed her vote to Murphy to make the vote unanimous.

Jan 2, 2006 - The Cambridge City Council today elected Kenneth E. Reeves to be Mayor and Timothy J. Toomey to be Vice-Chair of the City Council. The mayoral vote went like this:
Davis, Kelley, Murphy, Simmons - voted for Denise Simmons
Decker, Galluccio, Reeves, Sullivan, Toomey - voted for Ken Reeves
Murphy, Davis, and Simmons then changed their votes to Reeves. Final vote: 8-1 to elect Ken Reeves

The vote for Vice-Chair went like this:
Davis, Kelley, Murphy, Simmons - voted for Brian Murphy
Decker, Galluccio, Reeves, Sullivan, Toomey - voted for Tim Toomey
Murphy, Davis, Kelley, and Simmons then changed their votes to Toomey. Final vote: 9-0 to elect Tim Toomey

Later in the day, the School Committee unanimously elected Fred Fantini as Vice-Chair.

Jan 5, 2004 - Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
The Cambridge City Council today once again elected Michael A. Sullivan to be mayor for the 2004-2005 City Council term. Mayor Sullivan was once again elected on the 1st ballot. The initial vote went like this:
Voting for Sullivan: Decker, Galluccio, Reeves, Sullivan, Toomey
Voting for Davis: Davis, Maher, Murphy, Simmons
Once these votes were on the table, Brian Murphy changed his vote to Reeves. Denise Simmons then did so as well. If one more person (other than Reeves or Decker) had also changed to Reeves, things may have become quite interesting, but that third vote did not materialize. If it had, one could surmise that Reeves might then have voted for himself, and I would expect Decker to have then provide the 5th vote. In the end the final tally was:
Sullivan (5 votes): Decker, Galluccio, Reeves, Sullivan, Toomey
Davis (2 votes): Davis, Maher
Reeves (2 votes): Murphy, Simmons

After Mayor Sullivan was sworn in, the Council elected Marjorie Decker to be Vice-Chair of the City Council. The initial votes was:
Voting for Decker: Decker, Galluccio, Reeves, Sullivan, Toomey
Voting for Simmons: Davis, Maher, Murphy, Simmons
At this point, Brian Murphy and Denise Simmons changed their votes to Decker, and David Maher then moved to make the vote unanimous.
After the inauguration, the usual political chatter ensued about deals having been made and broken - nothing that we haven't heard before. It does, however, seem to be the case that the votes for mayor were only finally decided in the hours before the election.

Addendum - Later in the day on January 5, the Cambridge School Committee unanimously elected Richard Harding to be its Vice-Chair.

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