A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 24-66 regarding an automated parking enforcement draft home rule petition

Telephone [phone removed] Facsimile [phone removed] TTY/TTD [phone removed] March 25, 2025 Yi-An Huang City Manager Cambridge City Hall 795 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Re: Response to AR 24-66 of November 18, 2024, requesting that the City Manager be and hereby is requested to work with relevant City departments to prepare a draft home rule petition to authorize the City of Cambridge to implement automated parking enforcement technology; and to continue to work with the City of Boston to collaborate on the home rule process. Dear Mr. Huang: I am writing in response to the above-mentioned Council Order. On October 21, 2024, the Law Department responded to AR 24-51which requested an opinion as to whether the City could use automated parking enforcement technology, such as camera-equipped automated license plate reader bollards. In that opinion, we recommended that the best approach would be to submit a Home Rule Petition seeking special legislation to authorize the use of automated parking enforcement technology. On November 18, 2024 the Council passed AR 24-66 requesting that the Law Department prepare this Home Rule Petition, and requesting that we work with the City of Boston to collaborate on this process. We have prepared the proposed Home Rule Petition and are submitting it to the Council for approval. We have also worked with the City of Boston Law Department over the past several months, but Boston is not ready to move forward with a Home Rule Petition at this time. Therefore, we recommend including language in the Council’s vote to approve the Home Rule Petition that allows for the Legislature to amend the home rule petition so that if Boston decides to pursue a parallel Home Rule Petition, the Legislature has the ability to add some consistency between the two cities. The language of the vote is attached. 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