These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City Calendar and in the city’s Open Meetings Portal.
Family engagement and new board
School Committee Special Education and Student Supports Subcommittee, 4:30 to 6 p.m. Monday. This meeting chaired by member Luisa de Paula Santos looks at how to connect better with families of students with disabilities, particularly ones in out-of-district placements; gets an update on improvements to the special-education website; and meets new leaders for the Special Education Parent Advisory Council. Previous Sepac members faced complaints of failing to follow the law on giving notice of its meetings, posting minutes and holding elections in a timely way. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Condo law; helping the hungry
City Council, 5:30 p.m. Monday. With the federal government’s abandonment of antihunger efforts, Cambridge stepped up its own work to keep people fed; a report covers how nearly $2 million has been spent to keep people fed and says a second wave of aid begins in January. The council is warned that it will take four years starting in 2027 and $20 million to replace PeopleSoft, the city’s quarter-century-old personnel, management and payment system. (In April, staff said the obsolescent system still had employees walking from office to office with paper printouts.) The city says it has been beefing up its emergency preparedness in recent years and will keep it up over the next nine to 12 months with advice from a consultant. In a final item on the staff side of the agenda, the city accepts a $1.5 million grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to install 10 Bluebikes stations, deploy 370 e-bikes and buy 185 replacement bike batteries.
There’s a motion from city councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler to adopt condo conversion standards that are tougher than in state law to protect renters who will be displaced. The state law is for one year’s warning and a relocation payments of $750 for most people, a 90-day purchase period and a limit of up to 10 percent on rent increases. Bumped from a vote last week is a policy order by councillor Cathie Zusy to explore a development review process that allows a building to be torn down and its trees to be removed only when building permits are issues, avoiding needless or premature destruction.
Two animal- and pet-related orders come from councillor Marc McGovern for consideration, including seeking to add fish and crustaceans to a ban on pet stores selling mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arachnids. He also wants to move toward banning local use of anticoagulant rodenticides, which kill rats but then poisons animals such as raptors, coyotes and other scavengers that eat the rats. Somerville enacted a ban in September. Efforts to crack down on micromobility speeding continue, with councillor Tim Flaherty asking staff to look at how to slow e-bikes, motorized scooters, mopeds and the like around Cambridge Common and especially its Alexander W. Kemp Playground.
The council meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable online and by Zoom videoconferencing.
Reviewing the review board
Public Safety Committee, noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday. This committee run by city councillor Ayah Al-Zubi reviews reports from the Police Review and Advisory Board, the board established by city law in 1984 so citizens could provide oversight of the police department. The committee meets at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable online and by Zoom videoconferencing.
Rindge Avenue project design
Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Though an all-affordable 10-story, 92-apartment building proposed for 350 Rindge Ave. in North Cambridge can go through with no extra permissions under affordable housing overlay zoning, it still needs an advisory design consultation with the board – and the Ferro’s Foodtown grocery store will need a special permit to reopen at its base at 5,000 square feet. The by-right cap is 2,500 square feet, but Ferro’s is the only convenient food supply for thousands of residents. The board meets on the second floor of the City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
