John Hawkinson

3 Sept

Good morning from the Moakley Courthouse, outside Courtroom 9, where we'll have the 9am preliminary injunction hearing in League of Women Voters v. Trump and California v. USPS. It's pretty rainy in Boston today and I think I biked through the worst of it.

#cambma City Council has a special roundtable 4pm meeting "to discuss the FY28 budget planning process and ongoing macro-economic trends in Cambridge." with the School Committee starting…now. (no regular meeting at 5:30pm).

19h

CZ asks at what point austerity mechanisms become necessary. YAH says that we're hoping to never get there and that, for most communities, that happen when you hit the Prop. 2½ levy limit.

19h

SS says there's be plenty more opportunities to engage on this stuff in the coming weeks, and moves adjournment. Good night.

We do get her video eventually.

EDS now asks about early retirement buyout, and she says "almost an incentive" (which is weird, because it *is* an incentive). YAH says you only realize savings here if the City were contemplating layoffs, which they're not.

Supt. Murphy (DM) talks about how little of the school budget — the vast majority of which being personnel costs — is flexible because of contractual commitments, in response to questions from ECPH.

EDS, who we get as voice-of-god without video, asks what the public outreach plan is going to look like. "…If you don't tell it, it makes people feel worse."

AAZ asks about potential increases on the revenue side, including Payments In Lieu of Taxes. YAH: No substantive updates on PILOT.

Luisa de Paula Santos is tentatively asking how the free cash balance is set and is getting…the wrong kind of answer. I think the answer she needs is, "It's the money left over from the budget that was not spent, plus the free cash balance from last year."

Also, we have a bit of the confusion over packet page numbers and presentation page numbers.

In response to the "pessimistic" slide for FY28 and further, CZ asks/talks about lowering the budget, and cutting more than the $7M that was suggested earlier this afternoon. "I think it just makes sense going forward."

Claire Spinner gave a very long answer which was a little short on numbers, but noted that commercial/residential are 34%/66% but might become either 35/65% (base case scenario) or 37%/63% (pessimistic). [ Not sure that tells us what resident tax bill changes will look like. ]

(Questions and answers are continuing.)

I guess the Biggest Deal from the Finance Dept's presentation is that there's a 5.5% target for both the levy limit and the FY28 budget, which is less than the 8.1% from FY25 more than the 3.8% and 4.1% in FY26 and FY27.

PN (finance chair) notes here own tax bill went up 7% this year, and wonders whether the 5.5% rate increase might turn out to be a 10% bill increase next year, or similar.

I'm certainly not going to livepost all the slides, but this one is particularly depressing (deck here: cambridgema.primegov.com/Public/Compi...)

Also, the TV folks have gotten snazzy with their picture-in-picture and soforth:

Good morning from #cambma 's first ever Civic Assembly.

One gets the sense that not everyone is here yet (it starts at 9am)

And also that maybe the interested members of the public are gonna watch on Zoom from home?

#Calderon settlement disputes at the margins continue, with speed records: 6:39pm ACLU seeks a stay of removal for Carlos Monseratte; "counsel believes his flight is scheduled to depart at any moment." 6:58pm PBS grants stay of removal.

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Good morning from another #Calderon++ settlement enforcment hearing, back in Judge Saris's courtroom. Today is as to Nathalya Alves da Silva and Mr. Victor Alexander Granda Jimenez, who filed their motion to enforce back on Aug. 17.

Oh, did I miss my chance to joke about the CM/ECF filing event? You don't move to vacate the notice of a hearing, you move to vacate the hearing itself! Ah well. I mean, we all know what she means, but…still. They got it right in the PDF of the motion.

Anyhow, the last of tonight's filings is the Gov's opposition to Darwin Cruz. Cruz left the country and re-entered, making him in a different category from Calderon class members, and he'd he ineligible for the I-212 waiver process anyhow, they say. I dunno, we'll have to see. (I think I'm done.)

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Several other #Calderon++ updates, too. Back at the Oct. 16 hearing, we had the question of who/what-DHS-component signed Nathalya Alves da Silva's expedited removal order, because a paper was blank. Apparently the answer is…nobody, and she doesn't have a final order of removal at all.

Here's what the Government had to say about da Silva's expedited removal order back at the beginning of September:

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Judge Saris scheduled a (emergency?) hearing for Monday morning at 9:30 via Zoom.

cambridgeday.comJudge denies request for Cambridge to issue permitBut the city is ordered to make a decision on granting or denying the application.

So, UPDATE in #Calderon++ /Carlos Monserratte: Judge Saris's order and the removal flight "occurred nearly simultaneously" but Monseratte "is still in ICE custody" and will be returned "this weekend." Apparently he was never detained by ICE Boston, [just some other more unfriendly ICE office.]

John Hawkinson reposted

Cambridge Day

@cambridgeday.com

Judge denies request for Cambridge to issue permit But the city is ordered to make a decision on granting or denying the application....

In a 1-paragraph decision dated yesterday, Judge Ellis denies OND 1740's preliminary injunction but throws them a bone, ordering Cambridge to adjudicate the 1740 Mass Ave. building permit by Friday November 6, "11 business days." [ we waited three+ for that…kind of anticlimactic. ]

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Just out of the OND 1740 v. Cambridge PI hearing in Middlesex Superior. No answer yet, but the judge took it under advisement.

Also, yes, the Judge got the date of the hearing wrong in her endorsement. It was Tuesday September 29, not September 28. (not that it matters)

cambridgeday.comJudge denies request for Cambridge to issue permitBut the city is ordered to make a decision on granting or denying the application.

My writeup for @cambridgeday.com: bsky.app/profile/camb...

Cambridge Day@cambridgeday.com

Judge denies request for Cambridge to issue permit But the city is ordered to make a decision on granting or denying the application....

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Just out of the OND 1740 v. Cambridge PI hearing in Middlesex Superior. No answer yet, but the judge took it under advisement.

[ Err, 3+ WEEKS, I meant to say. Sigh… ]

Also, I really should have used alt text in that image, let's try again:

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Like, has there been any instance of ICE concluding that removal from the United States could happen without removal from the District of Massachusetts? Oh yeah: Any Lopez Belloza. That is: what if ICE already removed Monsaratte from Mass. between 4:25pm and 6:58pm? This prevents further removal.

(I guess if we're thinking like that, one has to also wonder about turning flights around, ala Judge Boasberg and J.G.G. Although the narrative from the motion does make it sound like it'd be going directly from Hanscom(?) to Senegal? I dunno.)

John Hawkinson@johnhawkinson.bsky.social

Chronology: 1am: counsel requests joint motion to reopen under the Calderon settlement (non-citizen spouses of citizens attempting to adjust status) 2:24pm ICE denies because PDF pages are different sizes, Brookline rent is low? 3:43pm explanations 4:25pm ICE denies again 6:39pm Motion filed.