Committee Report CR-1
The Civic Unity Committee held a public meeting on July 31, 2008 beginning at three o’clock and forty-five minutes P.M. in the Ackermann Room. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of a department or commission to continually oversee and coordinate Sister City Agreements with support from each Mayoral Administration.
Present at the meeting were Councillor Marjorie Decker, Chair of the Committee, Mayor E. Denise Simmons, Councillor Sam Seidel, Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves, and City Clerk D. Margaret Drury, Brian Corr, Executive Director of the Peace Commission, Jeff Walker, Chief of Staff for Mayor Simmons, and Ini Tomeau, Public Information Officer, Also present were Michael Marashian, 855 Massachusetts Avenue #410, Jesse Burkhardt, 206 Franklin Street, Richard M. Boyajian, 87 Appleton Street, Quincy, MA, Philip Ketchian, Yerevan Sister City, 71 Elm Street, Belmont, MA, Suzanne Pearce, founding member of Yerevan Sister Cities, 247 Lakeview Avenue.
Councillor Reeves convened the meeting and explained that although he is not a member of this committee he has a perspective and information that he would like to contribute to the discussion. He provided some history of the origins of the program. There are some indicators of success, for example, an enthusiastic group in the sister city and in the Cambridge community.
At this time, Councillor Decker arrived and assumed the chair. Councillor Decker thanked Councillor Reeves for his introduction. She stated that currently there is a real issue of to whom people go to get information about a sister city. Councillor Decker said that the relationship is mostly determined by the interest of a particular political official. She is interested in how to broaden sister relationships. When she was in Cienfuegos, Cuba, there was a commonality of Cambridge and Cienfuegos and also Galway in the high-tech, biotech industries as important sectors of the economies of all three cities.
At this time Councillor Decker invited those present to introduce themselves and describe their connection to this issue.
Brian Corr, Executive Director of the Peace Commission, said that the Peace Commission has taken an active role with some sister cities such as San Jose Las Flores in El Salvador. The members of the Peace Commission are interested in playing a role in Cambridge’s sister city program; of course that is a decision for the City Council and the City Manager. He said that the organization Sister Cities International has suggestions for evaluating and strengthening sister city relationships. He distributed information for Sister Cities International and some preliminary research that he has done on Cambridge’ sister cities
Councillor Decker described the origins of the sister city relationship with San Jose Los Flores. It began as a political relationship, to protect citizens of San Jose, with a large amount of participation from community activists opposed to U.S. intervention in El Salvador.
She noted the need for a budget and an official “home” for the administration and also for the gifts that other cities have brought to the City of Cambridge. Some of them are incredibly beautiful, and without a permanent home, they can get lost.
Suzanne Pearce, 247 Lakeview Avenue, said that she is a founding member of the Yerevan Sister Cities Association and was president for 12 years. She said that the challenge has been maintaining the official government to the city government piece of the relationship. The Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association has U.S. Aid grant funds. To be able to get grant funds and to survive, a committee needs to have a healthy 501 (C) (3) structure. She agrees that having an official Sister City home is vital. She gave an example of the loss of early video programs because of the lack of appropriate archival storage.
Councillor Reeves said that every time this discussion comes up, the need for a budget is a big issue that is never solved.
Councillor Decker said she would like to see on part-time person housed at the Peace Commission who would be responsible for coordination and support.
Councillor Reeves said that the two most successful municipal support systems for sister cities that he has seen are in Chicago and Seattle. Seattle participated with cities in Japan and did economic development. He described an approach by some scientists who were interested in Cambridge establishing a sister city relationship with a city in China in which they wanted to do some questionable research. Adequate information and screening of proposals for sister city relationships are important.
Councillor Decker noted the problems with housing the sister city program in the Mayor’s Office because of the frequent turnover. Jeffrey Walker agreed with the difficulties of having the Mayor’s Office as the center. While there is mention of the Sister City as something that is funded by the Mayor’s Office budget, there is no specific allocation of funds.
Councillor Seidel said that he would like more discussion on the issues of moving the program from the Mayor’s Office to another Department.
Brian Corr asked about the possibility of having the functions split between the Mayor’s Office and another department to keep the ceremonial functions with the Mayor’s Office. Mayor Simmons agreed. Councillor Decker said that the Mayor’s Office would have to be involved in the ceremonial parts. Councillor Simmons agreed and also noted that since Mayors come and go, the administration program should sit in a department that will allow for continuity for many years.
Councillor Decker said that a part-time employee could work directly in sister city relationships, could work with other city developments, and could be a keeper of the historical records and items. Mayor Simmons said that she was very sad to see how many Sister City gift objects received from other sister cities were just sitting in the City Hall attic. Councillor Decker said that a staff person did organize this material. Mayor Simmons added that a staff person could arrange for the gifts to be displayed. Mr. Walker related conversations with citizens of other cities who emphasized to him how much a sister city relationship could offer in terms of economic development. Ms. Pearce said that she would like to see much more discussion/education on Cambridge as an international city, something that high school students could learn from.
Councillor Decker said that this has happened in the past when there was a teacher or other Cambridge Public School Department staff person who was involved in the particular Sister City Committee. If there were a staff person, that person could work on the development of the relationships.
Councillor Seidel asked Ms. Pearce to discuss her idea about relating sister cities to climate change activities. Ms. Pearce said that she would like to use the Cambridge/Yerevan Sister City Association to facilitate information exchange about possible collaboration on some of the green projects in which Cambridge is involved. Green projects are often city-based and there are more and more relationships among cities in this regard, for example, I.C.LE.
Ms. Pearce said that there are ways to help each individual sister city projects without much money, for example, using the website. Councillor Decker said that the Yerevan and San Jose las Flores Sister City Organization are very much people to people organizations. However, she has learned from her experience representing Cambridge at United Nations International Organization of Peace Messengers that even if a sister city organization which has the official city designation and is mostly citizen-based, there still needs to be accountability back to the city government. Councillor Decker said that some sister city organizations were really one-shot deals and not presently active; that; that is fine as long as the opportunity is there. In response to a question from Councillor Seidel, Mr. Corr said the City has a list of sister city organizations and there is contact information for some but not all.
Councillor Decker said that she will work with Mr. Corr on developing a questionnaire and survey for the sister city associations, and then there will be another committee meeting on this topic. She thanked all those present for their participation and congratulated the members of the Cambridge Yerevan Sister City Association on their successful work at maintaining a strong connection. The meeting was adjourned at five o’clock and five minutes p.m.