The Boston Globe
Working for Cambridge Metropolis Council usually means dealing with a large discipline of candidates. However Adrienne Klein didn’t anticipate to be at odds with metropolis leaders, too.
Shortly after Klein, a council aide, determined to launch her marketing campaign, metropolis officers enacted a brand new coverage forcing any council worker to both resign or go on unpaid depart whereas operating for elected metropolis workplace, arguing that doing each may create the looks of a battle of curiosity.
The scenario has shortly rankled Cambridge’s tight-knit political world and cut up ethics specialists on whether or not such a rule is critical, and even truthful.
Metropolis officers say it’s additionally pushed Cambridge’s already uncommon electoral system into uncharted territory: Klein isn’t solely vying for a spot on the nine-member legislative physique towards roughly 20 different candidates, but in addition her boss, Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui. That, Cambridge’s metropolis supervisor mentioned, creates the potential for a battle for an worker who’s working for a councilor with a particular coverage agenda that will differ from the worker’s personal as a candidate.
The town’s new coverage, which takes impact Monday, to date applies to solely Klein, who works because the director of constituent companies for Siddiqui, the council’s prime official, who’s operating for reelection.
The mom of a 22-month-old and her house’s sole breadwinner, Klein, 35, mentioned she had no intention of leaving her job whereas operating for workplace. She additionally doesn’t plan to withdraw from the race.
After consulting with metropolis officers, Klein submitted an ethics submitting disclosing the potential for an look of a battle. However she mentioned she’s additionally spoken straight with workers on the state ethics fee and the Workplace of Marketing campaign and Political Finance, and he or she doesn’t consider there’s a battle in operating for the workplace the place she at present works, a standard pipeline for brand spanking new candidates.
“This places an pointless barrier in place to operating for workplace,” Klein mentioned of the coverage. “It’s directed towards me — that’s been made clear — and it’s adversely affecting my employment, which impacts my skill to run. And that’s scary.”
Given they created the coverage after Klein determined to run, metropolis officers are ready to place her on paid depart for 30 days beginning Monday, after which she could be topic to the brand new rule and face being unpaid. Yi-An Huang, Cambridge’s metropolis supervisor, acknowledged that it’s “not an incredible scenario,” however he mentioned metropolis officers felt a duty to place a coverage in place that “protects the credibility of town authorities.”
Huang mentioned officers crafted the coverage after Siddiqui contacted him and requested “that we glance into this.” Siddiqui didn’t reply to a request for remark.
“It’s a advanced circumstance,” Huang mentioned. “We’ve by no means seen this occur earlier than, and we tried to be actually cautious and considerate about this.”
He argued that non-elected public staff already face extra stringent ethics guidelines than elected ones, and whereas an elected metropolis councilor should additionally juggle public duties with a marketing campaign when operating, there’s a “stronger battle if you’re working below an elected official whereas operating your personal competing marketing campaign.”
“If Joe Biden’s chief of workers stepped up tomorrow and mentioned, ‘I’m going to enter the Democratic major,’ I don’t suppose most individuals would take a look at that and say, ‘You must proceed to be Joe Biden’s chief of workers,’” Huang mentioned.
All 9 seats on the Cambridge Metropolis Council are on the November poll. Candidates have till the tip of the month to submit nomination papers, however greater than 20 have already signaled they’re operating. The 9 councilors are elected at giant by way of a system generally known as proportional illustration, through which voters rank their decisions. At one time, Cambridge was the one municipality within the nation to elect its metropolis council by way of such an at-large system, in accordance with a examine by the nonprofit FairVote.
The brand new coverage, which Huang signed on Thursday, states {that a} council worker who’s operating for a council seat ought to resign or go on unpaid depart as a result of in any other case the candidacy “may create the looks of a battle of curiosity” and trigger “confusion to the general public, reminiscent of confusion concerning whether or not somebody is appearing as a Metropolis worker on behalf of a present Metropolis Council or or appearing of their capability as a candidate.”
Workers on depart can then request to return to their job as soon as they “conclude all political exercise for a Metropolis elected workplace,” although that’s topic to town supervisor’s approval.
Jeanne Kempthorne, a former state ethics commissioner, mentioned typically, ethics regulators are nervous about folks misusing their workplace for personal acquire or to profit these near them. An worker merely selecting to run for the general public workplace through which they work creates “no inherent battle,” she mentioned.
“Wouldn’t then an incumbent must resign from workplace to be able to run, too? How is it totally different?” she mentioned. “You’re speaking about somebody in a low-level workers place merely operating. The general public curiosity undergirding such a coverage simply doesn’t carry a lot weight.”
Additional, she mentioned, placing up a barrier for sure folks to run acts as a “burden on democracy.”
“Is it solely wealthy individuals who get to run?” she requested.
George Brown, a former chair of the state ethics fee and professor emeritus at Boston School, mentioned he believes town is legally on strong floor in enacting the coverage. A present worker, he mentioned, may get pleasure from a “built-in benefit” for looking for the workplace that others don’t have.
“Is it someway creating an uneven taking part in discipline for anyone who’s at present [working in] there? My intestine says sure,” he mentioned.
One other Metropolis Council candidate, Dan Totten, additionally was a Metropolis Council aide when he determined to run. However Totten opted to resign, not due to the coverage, he mentioned, however as a result of he believes he couldn’t totally commit himself to each his marketing campaign and his job.
Totten mentioned he would have been “uncomfortable” each working and operating for the council concurrently.
“Everyone’s scenario is totally different and the boundaries to operating for Metropolis Council are immense,” Totten mentioned. “It’s vital to strike a steadiness between managing an look of a battle of curiosity and never disenfranchising individuals who actually need to run for workplace and who’re permitted to below state ethics and marketing campaign finance [rules]. The state isn’t saying no.”
Totten questioned why the coverage is aimed toward Metropolis Council staff and doesn’t prolong to an worker within the metropolis supervisor’s workplace who decides to run for Metropolis Council.
“I might contend there may very well be an inherent battle of curiosity, too,” he mentioned. “I ponder, why not?”