While Cambridge’s City Manager has perhaps the greatest power in the city, the position is unelected and, in some sense, unchecked by the public. That changed this December when the Cambridge City Council conducted its first formal review of a City Manager. With an overall score of 3.14, manager Yi An Huang meets expectations. “The city manager had a successful first year,” Councilor Paul F. Toner stated at a December 18th meeting about the performance review.
The Cambridge City Manager usually works closely with the Council—the Manager routinely recommends policies to members and is in charge of implementing their ultimate legislation. This year, Huang managed to implement one such policy that has long been in the works: Universal Pre-K. During the meeting, Councilors mentioned that they were especially happy with Huang’s work on the matter, and were excited that the project will finally launch in this fall.
Huang was rated a 3 [met expectations] or above on almost every area of the rubric, with one exception: councilors gave Huang a 2.19 in terms of community engagement, placing him solidly in the “partially met expectations” range.
“The city needs to be inclusive and not dismissive. Residents need to feel that they are heard,” Toner explained at the meeting. “There is a desire to see the manager out and about in the community and building relationships with residents.”
Huang did set a goal to hire a Director of Community Engagement, but that position has yet to be filled. Councilors also encouraged him to create a more systemic community engagement plan to involve more citizens in city council issues that might personally affect them.
CRLS students agreed that communication from the district rarely meets the needs of students and families. “The city does not communicate up to par whatsoever,” Aby Saintclair ’25 told the Register Forum. “Especially in lower-income communities, they’re often left out.”
Communication between the Council and the City Manager, the report stated, could also be improved. With about 10 to 15 policies being passed by the council every week and pushed to Huang, it can feel like “it goes to this black hole,” described Councilor Marc McGovern at the meeting, explaining that in many cases Councilors get no response. “I think constituents get frustrated with that,” he said. “They are calling us, ‘What happened, what happened?’ We say, ‘We passed it, and now it’s sitting with the manager.’”
Finally, Councilors mentioned that they’d like to see the city government working more closely with the Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART), a nonprofit organization that aims to provide medical support and care in some crises instead of policing.
For many, this is a much-needed change. “I know many people who had to go through their parents calling 911 for mental health support and instead of helping them, they tried to hurt them and restrain them instead,” Masha Ulfat ’26 told the Register Forum. “Having actual professionals treat people will help for sure.”
Ultimately, “I continue to be very grateful for the honor and privilege to serve this council,” Huang said at the meeting. “This is a really nice way to sum up the year and think about what things we need to work on going forward.”
