Cambridge City Council Imitates The White House

This "dispute" within the Cambridge City Council is instructive in several ways. First it indicates that some of the Councilors decided that the goal is all that matters and procedure be damned. That is what the White House is doing with its executive orders acting contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States. Under the Obama-Holder doctrine selected individuals may ignore inconvenient laws. This appears to be what is happening at the City Council. Perhaps Mazen and Carlone enjoy special privileges under Obama-Holder, and the rest of the Council remains clueless. But also the Council itself ignores its own rules. 

The Council is obligated to run its meetings according to Robert's Rules of Order. For more than ten years I repeatedly petitioned the council to do so. But it failed then and it still ignores that rule of its own  making. The most used rule under Robert's Rules is to suspend the rules. That eliminates the need to even learn the rules which few of the councilors ever know. If there is so much concern with bypassing procedure submitting  an order to the council without first going through the Planning Board or the housing or ordinance committees, why are the other rules less important? That is called selective enforcement of laws, which is what the council did for many years and still does. 

With a lawless White House and Attorney General in Washington DC, it was only a matter of time before state and local officials, ordinary taxpayers and voters began to ignore the laws of the states and the US. Is that why the US military is conducting civil disorder control operations with local police? Is that why Homeland Security is stockpiling billions of rounds of ammunition? 

[From article]

In a 1-7-1 vote, the policy order failed on Monday with Mazen voting in favor and Carlone being absent. The order asked the council to refer the proposed amendment to the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee.
“There’s nothing collegial about filing a zoning amendment without consulting or at least giving the co-chair of the Ordinance Committee the benefit of a brief discussion,” Vice Mayor Dennis Benzan told Mazen on April 13. “There’s nothing collegial about a zoning amendment coming before this council without having at least a brief conversation with the chair of the Housing Committee. It’s becoming a way that yourself and Councilor Carlone are doing business before this council.”

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150415/NEWS/150417734

Cambridge councilors' actions fuel strong criticism from rest of board
By Sara Feijo
sfeijo (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Apr. 15, 2015 at 12:06 PM
Updated Apr 15, 2015 at 12:42 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle