A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 24-65, regarding the creation of a jobs training trust through Home Rule Petition

Telephone [phone removed] Facsimile [phone removed] TTY/TTD [phone removed] January 6, 2024 Yi-An Huang City Manager Cambridge City Hall 795 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Re: Response to Awaiting Report 24-65 of 11/18/24, requesting that the City Manager work with the Law Department to draft a Home Rule Petition for the creation of a Cambridge Jobs Training Trust Dear Mr. Huang: I am writing in response to the above referenced Council Order. Attached please find a proposed Home Rule Petition entitled An Act Establishing the City of Cambridge Employment and Job Training trust, for the Council’s consideration. The attached Home Rule Petition is consistent with the City’s existing special legislation that created the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust, and is similar to special legislation that the City of Somerville obtained for the Somerville Municipal Job Creation and Retention Trust. If the Council files this Home Rule Petition with the Legislature, and it is enacted by the Legislature, in the future the Council will need to amend Section 11.202 of the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance, the Incentive Zoning Provisions, to require payment of an employment and job training contribution and to set the rate of that contribution, in order to fund this proposed trust fund. Additionally, the contribution will have to be consistent with and supported by the City’s 2019 Nexus Study, and any future nexus study, in order to show an essential nexus between proposed development and the need for resident employment and job training, and to show that the contribution is roughly proportional to the impact the development will have on that public interest. I will be available to answer any questions the Council may have. Very truly yours, Megan B. Bayer City Solicitor Megan B. Bayer City Solicitor Elliott J. Veloso Deputy City Solicitor Kate M. Kleimola First Assistant City Solicitor CITY OF CAMBRIDGE Office of the City Solicitor 795 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Assistant City Solicitors Paul S. Kawai Sean M. McKendry Diane O. Pires Sydney M. Wright Evan C. Bjorklund Franziskus Lepionka Andrea Carrillo-Rhoads Public Records Access Officer Seah Levy