commentsOnPizza t1_jcl00ft wrote on March 17, 2023 at 4:24 PM

It makes me sad that we have so many unelected officials that control so much of Cambridge. The City Manager is hired by the council, but then appoints BZA members that are kinda unaccountable. The City Manager appoints the Cambridge Historical Commission members who can veto changes in a large portion of Cambridge and are also unaccountable.

> I also asked councilors to make clear to the city manager that all BZA members who voted in favor of shutting Starlight down will NOT be approved for reappointment

Does the City Council have that power? The Zoning Ordinance just says they're appointed by the City Manager and doesn't mention anything about approval by the City Council. Maybe something else overrides that?

https://library.municode.com/ma/cambridge/codes/zoning_ordinance?nodeId=ZONING_ORDINANCE_ART10.000APVASPPE

cos OP t1_jcl50ka wrote on March 17, 2023 at 4:55 PM

I'm fairly sure BZA members up for reappointment can be rejected by a council vote. Nonetheless I both emailed and called the city manager to request the remove the BZA members who voted to shut down Starlight. You could also do that. But if the city manager hears from the council, that would definitely help.

matthew0517 t1_jcmx7wd wrote on March 18, 2023 at 12:09 AM

FYI: the ability to reject is new this cycle. I think that was a ballot amendment, meaning the current bza was not subject to much of a democratic process.

IntelligentCicada363 t1_jcylxjd wrote on March 20, 2023 at 3:41 PM

I completely agree with you but the city council uses the BZA and other unelected boards as a scapegoat. The council could, at any time, make these people powerless by changing the city laws. They don't. It is a feature, not a bug.