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Together Rebuilding Democracy

My Democracy Pledge

***** Direct Election of Mayor *****
​1*. Select as Mayor the Candidate with the first highest #1 vote count.
2
*. Select as Vice Mayor the Candidate with the second highest #1 vote count.

***** Term Limits *****
3. Serve no longer than 3 terms of 2 years, or a cumulative 6 years as City Councilor.
​
***** Publicly Financed Campaigns *****
4. Spend no more than 15,000 dollars during my campaign, and donate any excess to the charity of my choice.​

***** People Power for Equity and Justice *****
5*. Place people and environment before money.

6. Demand accountability and transparency of elected officials, the City administration and its processes.

7. Work to reinvent our local Democracy to better serve the needs and ambitions of the citizens of Cambridge. 
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VOTE  Nov 5, 2019

We must address systemic racism.

11/1/2019

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​I wrote this in response to a discussion on a listserve.  

We must understand that our systemic set of Plan E makes it almost impossible to effectively address the endemic racism. Plan E is a corporate set up, with a CEO, the appointed City Manager, a Board of Director, the City Council, the board amongst themselves choose the Mayor. We do not elect our Mayor. Very much like in any corporation, the power lies with the CEO. The board is purely advisory. Although it has the power to fire the City Manager, it is challenging and requires a significant mistake by the City Manager. The role of the City Manager is to make money and ensure we can offer the basic service, i.e., education, infrastructure maintenance, etc … The set up makes the decision-makers unaccountable to the people because what is considered a significant error is only tied to the financial success of the City. So any decision made as long as it doesn’t affect the bottom line will not have any consequences. Racism doesn’t affect the bottom line. Hence, it can remain unsolved. Despite our collective will to seriously address the issue. The work done over the last few years by BSU has been extraordinary, especially considering the context. But our systemic set up has not evolved one iota. We are still where we were five years ago, with very little progress. Cities around us have done a far better job. 

Cambridge is systemically racist and gender-biased, and we need to address the issue.  Suffice to look at how a white man was selected as Mayor, despite two minority women having won the popular vote in the last election.  When was there ever a minority or/and woman City Manager, the decision-maker?  When was there ever a minority or/and woman  CFO, the holder of the purse? Unfortunately, I’m not yet convinced we are willing to take the necessary steps to do so.
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