Our City Council is in the process of spending the extra $12.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding that they received in the past two years. They have allocated $450,000 to the Hyatt development to repair a bridge on their private road and are in the process of allocating over a million dollars to 30 non- profits in the City. While these are nice-to-do projects, they do not get to the core problems the City has been facing for years.
One big problem that has been ignored is the staffing and salaries of our City employees. For years, prior Councils have short-changed our City employees’ salaries in the name of budget shortfalls, while limiting revenue from property taxes though a process called Constant Yield. Constant Yield basically causes the City to absorb $250,000 a year in inflation increases.
This approach has led to critical staffing shortages, especially in the Police department, but it has also led to good employees in other departments leaving to get better pay. We now have 2 out of 3 vacancies in the top positions of the Police Department, no permanent Director of Public works, and understaffing in code enforcement and support positions. Our City engineer is retiring soon, and the assistant engineer position is vacant.
This Council has recently increased starting salaries to attract new employees, which is a good start but has led to “salary compression” where the stagnant salaries of upper level employees don’t reflect their greater responsibilities. It is easy to see why our senior and mid-level people leave. While everyone has stories about interactions with the City, it is hard to criticize our City workers when they are chronically understaffed, underpaid, and under increasing pressure to perform.
The Council should do away with the Constant Yield approach and use the extra $250,000 a year to pay for increased salaries and benefits for our City employees. The Council needs to act now before we lose more people. Remember, you get what you pay for in life – and in government.
Charles McFadden is the president of Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods
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