CAMBRIDGE — Cambridge residents packed the Chesapeake Grove Intergenerational Center Thursday night to hear from the Cambridge Waterfront Development Inc. Board of Directors, its executive director and project partners.
At the community update meeting, CWDI representatives talked about various aspects of the Cambridge Harbor — a project to develop the space along the Cambridge waterfront — before launching into a question-and-answer segment.
Resident Lauren Mross called CWDI’s presentation “polished.”
“I felt like they had many of the right answers,” she said. “But I don’t feel that they paid attention to the actual questions.”
CWDI has been a major topic of conversation in the city recently, including on social media.
On March 18, Cambridge City Manager Tom Carroll submitted his resignation and said he was resigning over concerns with the Cambridge Harbor project. Two days later, residents lined the conference room of the Dorchester Chamber of Commerce for a CWDI Board of Directors meeting, where multiple residents asked questions and voiced concerns during public comment.
Two days before the community update meeting Thursday, Cambridge Mayor Stephen Rideout held a meeting where he proposed amendments to CWDI’s Articles of Incorporation. As mayor, Rideout is the sole member of CWDI. Similar to the a shareholder of a company, under Maryland law, a non-profit can have a member or members that represent the group which founded the nonprofit, Rideout said in an interview. As sole member of CWDI, Rideout has the authority to make amendments to the articles.
After the community update Thursday, Mross said she is excited and optimistic about the idea of the project but has concerns with the transparency of it. She called Carroll’s resignation disappointing.
“I also thoroughly respect Steve Rideout,” she said. “I trust his opinion on what’s going on, and I want his transparent involvement in the project.”
Before answering questions submitted for the event, CWDI addressed various parts of the project, including the plans for the project’s first and second phases, funding and proposed tax increment financing, or TIF.
The TIF would increase taxes on the property as it gets developed to pay for two $30-million bonds taken out by the city and county.
Much of the presentation included information that has already been made available to the public through CWDI reports and previous presentations.
Dorchester Chamber of Commerce President Bill Christopher, who led the question-and-answer portion of the event, said 65 questions — including repeats — were submitted by 20 different people. He said most of the questions fell into two categories: the YMCA and the Board of Directors. Christopher read nearly 20 questions Thursday.
YMCA
The first question Christopher read was about the current status of the YMCA and why CWDI would consider putting a nonprofit on the waterfront.
Many residents have expressed concerns about the possibility of Cambridge’s YMCA, currently located at 201 Talbot Ave., moving to Cambridge Harbor. In late August, CWDI included a design for a new YMCA facility in its 2023 mid-year report.
At the meeting Thursday, CWDI Executive Director Matt Leonard said CWDI is not negotiating with the YMCA at the moment. He said the YMCA came to CWDI with an expression of interest that CWDI put out two years ago.
“They submitted to us what they would like to do and why they would like to do it,” Leonard said. “We reviewed them like we did every other potential government partner or investor.”
YMCA of the Chesapeake CEO Robbie Gill, who was at the community update Thursday, said in an interview after the meeting that he was at the event to learn, and there were no new developments with the Cambridge YMCA.
When asked what would happen if the YMCA did move locations, Leonard said he thought it should become residential to match the rest of the neighborhood. He said that is something CWDI could help with if it “needs to be done.”
Part-time Cambridge Resident Steven Van Dorpe said the clarification that CWDI was not negotiating with the YMCA was “interesting.”
“But it seemed like it was still a little bit vague as to whether or not they could come back into the equation,” he said.
BOARD APPOINTMENTS
Another question asked at the meeting was whether the CWDI Board of Directors is responsive to the bodies that appoint them.
The seven-member board is made up of one governor-appointed member, two county-appointed members, three city-appointed members and one CWDI-appointed member. Currently, one of the county-appointed seats is vacant.
Board President Angie Hengst said part of a board member’s job is to relay information to their appointing body, but their main responsibility is to CWDI and its mission. She said she hopes the appointing bodies have chosen representatives that they have full confidence in.
“At the end of the day, we are the board members of CWDI, and that’s (who) we’re really beholden to for any decisions that we’re making,” she said.
Board Vice President Shay Lewis-Sisco said she is responsive to her appointing body, the city. She said she has been in constant communication with the city manager and Cambridge City Council and called it “unfortunate” that press has gone out that does not make that clear.
Carroll, Cambridge’s city manager, said in an interview that he has had a couple meetings with Lewis-Sisco, but she hasn’t listened to his suggestions, which include making sure the project benefits Cambridge’s workforce and its disadvantaged community.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Another question brought up at the meeting had to do with Cambridge City Council Commissioner Brian Roche’s connection to an attorney at a law firm that represents CWDI.
The question asked about a lack of disclosure regarding a council member and their brother-in-law, an attorney for one the law firms representing CWDI.
Leonard said CWDI uses three different law firms, including Miles and Stockbridge. He said he believes that “one of the hundred or so” Miles and Stockbridge attorneys “may be related to one of the city council members.”
Leonard said it was not a conflict of interest and quickly moved on to talk about what one of the other law firms CWDI uses has provided.
In an interview Friday, Roche confirmed that his brother-in-law, Mike LeMire, is an attorney with Miles and Stockbridge.
Roche said that when he learned of the potential conflict of interest, he reached out to City Attorney Patrick Thomas.
“There’s been no votes or anything that would be, according to (Thomas), a conflict,” Roche said. “But I was very careful. I take that allegation very, very seriously.”
Roche said he has followed protocol with this, including getting an opinion from the Cambridge Ethics Commission to determine if it is a conflict of interest. He said the Ethics Commission has called and asked him questions, but he has not received a statement from them.
Roche said the City Council is aware of this potential conflict of interest.
LeMire did not immediately answer phone calls for comment.
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
Regarding Rideout’s proposed amendments to CWDI’s Articles of Incorporation, Leonard said CWDI appreciates when a concerned person comes forward with ideas to help the project.
Leonard said the CWDI Board of Directors will look at Rideout’s suggestions at its meeting on May 22 to determine whether the amendments are necessary for improving CWDI and accelerating its mission.
At the meeting where Rideout proposed the amendments on April 16, Rideout said he would convene another meeting in the next 10 days to make his final decision on the amendments.
In an interview, Carroll said Leonard’s comments at the community update indicate the board won’t comment before Rideout convenes another meeting on the subject.
“So we will have no feedback on them,” Carroll said about the amendments. “So it will be up to the mayor to decide what he does.”
Overall, Carroll said the questions that needed to be answered by CWDI at the community update weren’t. He said the city’s fundamental questions still remain unanswered.
“I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know,” he said.
Van Dorpe said he thought the questions were answered well. He said CWDI should have done more of these events in the past.
“Just kind of be open and direct,” he said. “It’s always about communication.”
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