A charter amendment to establish a human resources director for the City of Cambridge is being debated by the mayor and commissioners.
Elected officials discussed the proposal during a July 5 work session and heard from city workers about HR concerns. The proposed text of the charter amendment is below:
CambridgeHRCharterAmendment
The charter amendment would establish a human resources department, with a director who would be responsible for HR issues, including training, employee benefits, and hiring, in consultation with the city manager.
The HR director would answer to the mayor and commissioners as a body. Although functionally independent from the city manager, the director would have to perform human resources functions in consultation with the manager.
Cambridge Mayor Andrew Bradshaw outlined his thoughts on the charter amendment in a press release issued before the Monday, July 5, work session.
His letter is below:
BradshawHRCharterAmendment
James Brady says
This is disastrous for the hope of maintaining a professionally managed city government.
There’s no reason to have a separate department head reporting to the City council, and there’s likely no good candidate for the current city manager’s job who would stand for such a dysfunctional arrangement.
The city council and mayor are in no position to be refereeing hr disputes. Pick a good city manager and leave the he department to report to that city manager.