The city’s Legislative Matters Committee recommended approval of the DSNC to the City Council.
~ Photo by Tim Sackton, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

 By Harry Kane

The law has spoken, and the proposed Davis Square Neighborhood Council could include residents from neighboring cities, according to City Attorney Cynthia Amara. And, at the Legislative Matters Committee meeting on September 15, members voted to recommend approval of the DSNC, which will go to the City Council for formal recognition.

While City Councilors are in support of the DSNC, they voiced concerns about the “red circle” area that includes areas beyond the geographical limits of the city. This inclusion may result in issues for synergistic collaboration among members who share differing opinions on potential upcoming development and revitalization projects in Davis Square.

Somerville’s Law Department provided its opinion as to whether the DSNC can allow membership and voting eligibility of individuals who reside within a half-mile of the neighborhood, referred to as the catchment area, that would include the neighboring cities of Cambridge, Arlington, or Medford.

The answer from the City Attorney was that the membership criteria are left to the discretion of the neighborhood council, and that people who live outside of the boundary of Davis Square or across city limits could indeed be part of the DSNC.

“The neighborhood council should have discretion,” said City Council President Lance Davis at the Legislative Matters Committee meeting, where he spoke at length on the issue, along with other members who talked about the parameters of Chapter 7, Article IX of the Somerville Code of Ordinances that govern the neighborhood council recognition policy and community benefits.

At the meeting, Davis said the catchment area is beyond what he “envisioned or anticipated,” and explained the City Council recognition process will decide the limits of the area.

“I think it’s going to be unwieldy,” said Davis. “I think it raises lots of questions about whether it’s sort of consistent with what we collectively as a City Council intended when we created this ordinance.”

Davis says the decision raises a bigger question about what the City of Somerville feels is “appropriate” for any neighborhood council.

The “red circle” area.

In a letter addressed to Somerville City Council President Lance Davis on September 14, City Attorney Cynthia Amara wrote, “The neighborhood and membership could be defined to extend beyond the geographical limits of the city.”

City Councilor Wilfred Mbah said this decision may set an important precedent. He echoed what Councilor Davis said and asked to review the ordinance.

City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen expressed concerns that the catchment area may dilute the legitimacy of the DSNC by giving power to constituencies with different priorities from outside the square.

“From my perspective, what we are trying to guard against with this ordinance is a quote on quote, random group of people who call themselves a neighborhood council but really don’t take in the perspective of their neighbors, don’t listen, don’t have transparent meetings, don’t allow for elections,” said Ewen-Campen.

He worries that the general public may think this recognition process confers a new legal authority to neighborhood councils, but said, “The headline is: ‘No, it does not.’ The recognition process does not grant a new legal authority to a nonprofit.” He later added, “This does not create some new quasi-governmental body.”

Ewen-Campen made it clear that if the organization is open, transparent, and democratic, they deserve recognition. He reiterated that the City Council shouldn’t dictate the bylaws or catchment area of the neighborhood council, but that it may be time to review the ordinance.

City Councilor J.T. Scott explained that bylaws and catchment areas are “fluid,” and added that the current ordinance exists as a result of the necessity to “match the language of a contract” from a prior administration that required a recognized neighborhood council to be engaged with a developer.