The Council met on Monday and received a report regarding housing foreclosures in Cambridge, appropriated funds for the hybrid taxi program, passed an order asking the City to be part of a carbon disclosure project, and received a Committee Report regarding the City’s waste stream. The Council also met in Executive Session regarding a recent Court ruling. The Council will meet in a roundtable session next Monday with the MBTA on transit service in Cambridge.

 

The Massachusetts Biotech Council reports today that the State legislative conference committee report on the Governor’s Life Science Bill has been released. The Press release, titled Conference Committee Hammers out Final Life Sciences Initiative Language, Swift Approval Expected is available on the MBC website at www.massbio.org/news.

 

The Chamber’s Director of Government Affairs attended a US Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Conference last week. Look for a report on this conference in next week’s GAC Update.

 

The GAC will next meet on Tuesday, June 24 and our guest will be Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Hass.

 

As you have probably read, Rachel Kaprielian, who served one Cambridge ward since 2002 as well as Watertown since 2002, was named Registrar of the Registry of Motor Vehicles in late May. Rachel was a good friend to the Chamber during her tenure in the legislature and will be missed. The seat will remain open until next January and, because the filling deadline has past and no one besides Rachel had filed to fill this seat. Candidates will be running “sticker” campaigns in the September primaries.

 

On June 24, a number of organizations are sponsoring "Tools for a Greener Office: Making Offices More Sustainable and Cost Effective" at the University of Massachusetts-Boston from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. More information on this event is available at www.massrecycle.org/greenoffice.

Upcoming GAC Events

The 2008 Government Affairs program is sponsored by Genzyme.

June 24, 2008

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas will address the June GAC Meeting and Luncheon

Noon, Chamber Board Room

If you plan to attend please RSVP to Terrence Smith, Director of Government Affairs at tsmith@cambridgechamber.org or by phone at (617) 876-4213. 

 

June 9, 2008 City Council Meeting

 

The Council met on Monday. The City Manager transmitted a report on housing foreclosures in Cambridge that indicates the Cambridge housing market remains strong. The Council appropriated funds to provide subsidies to owners of taxi medallions to convert to hybrid taxis. The Council asked the City Manager to investigate the City’s participation in a carbon disclosure project and received a Committee Report regarding the City’s waste stream. The Council also met in Executive Session regarding a recent Court ruling. 

 

City Manager Agenda Item 13 is a report in response to a City Council Order regarding the purchase of foreclosed property for affordable housing. The report notes that a nine-unit building was recently purchased from foreclosure by a Cambridge nonprofit housing organization for affordable housing. The report also includes information on foreclosures in Cambridge relative to other communities. According to research done by the Community Development Department, Cambridge had eight notices of foreclosure in the previous 60 days while Boston had 337 notices and in the past six months. Cambridge had 39 foreclosed properties compared to 1,439 properties in Boston.

 

City Manager Agenda Item 4 requested the Council to appropriate $385,000 in revenue from the recent sale of a taxi medallion that will be used to provide subsidies for the purchase of hybrid taxis as well as for continued training of taxi drivers and other administrative expenses. The majority of the funds will be used to provide $10,000 grants to medallion owners for each conversion to a hybrid taxi.

 

The Council passed Policy Order 4 asking the City Manager to investigate whether the City should join the Carbon Disclosure Project. The Project asks cities and towns to calculate green house gas emissions and assess and manage risk for both the city or town and the community boundaries. This program has been used by corporations to assess greenhouse gas emissions and information is available at www.cdproject.net.

 

Committee Report 1 is a report from a meeting of the Council’s Health and Environment Committee regarding the City’s waste stream. The report includes information on the reduction in rubbish collected by the City and increase in recycling. The report notes that the City does not collect data on trash collected by private haulers from commercial and multifamily buildings. The report includes Policy Order 18 requesting a repot on compliance by the commercial sector with the recycling ordinance. The report also includes discussion of adding a regulation similar to the Parking and Traffic Demand Management Plan requirement for new building trash management.

 

The Council passed Policy Order 2 that requested the Council go into Executive Session at the June 9 meeting to discuss the court case Monteiro v. the City of Cambridge. The Council was in Executive Session for approximately one and a half hours and no votes were taken in that session.