From The Port

Cambridge Mayor Ken Reeves to Conveign Neighborhood Safety Committee Meeting in Star Chamber?

After much spoken, writen and public testimony from residents from several Cambridge neighborhoods, the City Council ordered In City Council on Aug 2, 2006, a "special committee or task force be formed" to address the unchecked violence and crime. I myself sent a letter outlining my views on how to deal with these problems.

However, in spite of many neighbors complaints, and testimony In City Council last week, neither the Mayor nor the City Manager has appointed enough representitives from neighborhoods on "the peoples committee," therefore another order was submitted In City Council last week. Mayor Ken Reeves "Charter Righted" the order, therefore it was o the agenda again this week, and I testified In City Council last night that Persons With Disabilities should be represented on this committee, and were not. I pointed out seniors and PWD's did not have their reports of crime taken seriously.

Mayor Ken Reeves accused Councillor Simmons of being influenced by an editorial by the Cambridge Chronicle. She denied it. Last evening, during discussion, Councillor Simmons said, "This is not the City Manager's Committee. It is not the Mayor's Committee. It is the City Council's committee."

Will the meeting scheduled for Wednesday Feb. 14, 2007 will violate the Open Meetings law unless it is open to the public and a notice is posted outside of the clerk's office? I have asked the City Clerk for clarification on this, and am awaiting a reply. Meanwhile, this questionably accessible route to the office of Mayor Ken Reeves looks like a slipery slope on the way to STAR CHAMBER politics to me.

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Tuesday, February 13, 2007