Update on Organizational Changes to the Equity & Inclusion Department

O-2 FIRST IN COUNCIL November 24, 2025 City of Cambridge COUNCILLOR NOLAN COUNCILLOR SIDDIQUI COUNCILLOR SOBRINHO-WHEELER COUNCILLOR WILSON WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge is home to a diverse system of more than fifty boards and commissions, each playing important roles in shaping City policy, advising City departments, and providing meaningful opportunities for civic participation; and WHEREAS: The City Council has discussed the need to review, standardize, and where appropriate consolidate or update these boards and commissions to streamline operations, eliminate redundancies, and strengthen resident engagement, and has expressed an openness to staffing changes, ultimately adding to the City Manager’s 2025 goals the directive to “review boards and commissions and produce recommendations on strengthening engagement with members who are serving”; and WHEREAS: On November 14, 2025 the City Manager submitted his annual performance review to the City Council, providing an update on this goal and noting that staff have worked to strengthen the processes for recruiting, onboarding, and engaging residents who serve; and WHEREAS: At the same time, the City has been navigating a challenging macroeconomic environment, with the City Council beginning public FY27 budget discussions at a November 10, 2025 Roundtable Meeting of the City Council and School Committee, during which the City leadership communicated the need to achieve $12 million in savings, including a targeted 2.1% departmental savings goal; and WHEREAS: On November 20, 2025 – less than ten days after the Council’s initial public budget conversation, and less than seven days after the update on the boards and commissions work – the City Council was notified of the decision to restructure a number of commissions, and to eliminate seven positions, the first round of layoffs in many years, described as part of a consolidation of certain boards and commissions under the Equity and Inclusion Department (EID); and WHEREAS: The City Council recognizes that authority for administration and staffing lies with the City Manager, and the Council and City Manager have also affirmed the need for collaboration in decision-making, especially where Council and City administration work intersect, such as in Commissions established by ordinance; and WHEREAS: A commitment to fair treatment of all employees is a shared Council and City goal, and transparency is further necessary in light of recent federal actions by the Trump administration that condition certain grants on ending or limiting DEI programs; now therefore be it

ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to provide an update to the City Council on the following: 1. Why a decision was made within the current fiscal year cycle and prior to delivering recommendations to the Council; 2. The decision-making process that led to the restructuring of positions within the Equity and Inclusion Department, including the rationale for eliminating the seven positions, for the treatment of the impacted employees, and the criteria used in determining which positions would be cut; 3. The current status of the boards-and-commissions review, including: o the scope of work completed to date; o the staff carrying out this work; o any preliminary findings, frameworks, or decisions; and o whether the November 20 staffing decision emerged from or is independent of this review process; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council clear and detailed responses to the questions outlined above, if necessary by executive session, by the special meeting for annual review.