Paying for Citizen Input

Paying for Citizen Input

[This letter was published in the Cambridge Chronicle on Tuesday August 14, 2007 online edition.]

Paying 150 students $7.50 per hour for about two hours each is a bargain at
any price. (Matt Dunning, "City to pay for kids" perspectives on violence,"
Cambridge Chronicle, Aug 10, 2007) Less than $2500 for 150 opinions is a great
investment. Usually the City pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for opinions
from experts with impeccable credentials who say little to help solve city
problems. They always write and print dazzling reports which impress the vacuous
politicians.
Are these students the young people who have negative encounters with the
police? Or will their opinions be second and third hand hearsay? Will these
students flatter the politicians telling them what they want to hear? Will these
students be able to tell the politicians and other public officials that it is
police role models and politician role models who teach young people that
obeying the law is for chumps?
What part of supporting and defending the Constitution and laws of the US
do these politicians not understand?

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

City to pay for kids' perspectives on violence
By Matt Dunning/Chronicle Staff
Fri Aug 10, 2007, 04:48 PM EDT
Cambridge -

The city plans to pay kids to get their perspective on youth violence in a forum
Monday night in conjunction with the Citywide Crime Task Force.

Members of the task force announced the Office of Work Force Development would
be co-hosting a youth forum at the Rindge and Latin Monday (Aug. 13) afternoon.

During a discussion about the forum Thursday night, Mayor Ken Reeves said
officials were expecting about 150 teens to attend the forum, all of whom would
be paid $7.50 per hour. Members of the task force will be reviewing the input at
its next meeting in September.

"The reason we anticipate that is that Ellen [Semonoff and the Office of Work
Force Development] have been generous enough to pay the kids to come," Reeves
said. The purpose of the forum. He said, was to give the city's youth an
opportunity to tell city officials how they feel about their relationship with
police, as well as violence and tensions between neighborhoods.

According to Semonoff, the assistant city manager of human services, between 100
and 150 teens - out of more than 800 participating in the city's Summer Youth
Employment Program - have signed up for the forum. Semonoff said the teens would
be paid the program's regular rate of $7.50 per hour.

"It's not a big departure from anything we normally do," Semonoff said. "Every
summer, we offer the kids a number of opportunities to participate in
educational forums and special events, and we pay them if they want to
participate."

"This forum next week is a chance for them to offer their perceptions of safety
in the city, ways in which they think city officials can make Cambridge a safer
place to live, and what role youths in the city might play in that," she added.
"It seemed appropriate to offer the kids the opportunity."

In the past, Semonoff said her department has paid for teen workers to attend
financial literacy and educational forums. Each of the more than 800 Cambridge
teens participating in the summer employment program received an invitation to
Monday's forum.

The 2007 Cambridge Youth Forum is scheduled for 2 p.m., Aug. 13 in the CRLS Main
Cafeteria.