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POR 2025-161

Update on Organizational Changes to the Equity & Inclusion Department

How it started
Nov 24, 2025 · Proposed by Councillor Nolan, Mayor Siddiqui, and Councillors Sobrinho-Wheeler, Wilson, and McGovern: a formal request from the Council to the administration. Introduced late, under Rule 36A: added after the agenda was published, so it reached the floor only on a suspension of the rules.
What happened
Nov 24, 2025 · ✅ Order adopted as amended, 5–3 (one absent)

Voted yes (5)

  • Marc McGovern
  • Patty Nolan
  • Sumbul Siddiqui
  • Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler
  • Ayesha M. Wilson

Voted no (3)

  • Paul F. Toner
  • Cathie Zusy
  • E. Denise Simmons

Absent (1)

  • Burhan Azeem
Roll call of Nov 24, 2025 · from the city’s record · photos: City of Cambridge
What’s next
No response on the docket: nothing has been filed back under this request's number. Answers sometimes arrive as other items; this ledger tracks only this one.
The document Agenda item attachment · 2 pages

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: the scope of work completed to date; the staff carrying out this work; any preliminary findings, frameworks, or decisions; and 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.

🗓 The meeting where this was taken up: Nov 24, 2025