Cambridge mayor and city councillor still at odds over encampment motion

The public back-and-forth between the Mayor of Cambridge and the Ward 7 councillor continues.

Jan Liggett and Scott Hamilton are at odds over claims Hamilton made on The Mike Farwell Show on Aug.1, where he said the mayor removed a notice of motion from the council agenda.

Liggett responded to the claims in an eight-minute video posted to Facebook last week, where she called Hamilton’s comments “disingenuous at best, coming dangerously close to political opportunism.”

Hamilton returned to The Mike Farwell Show on Tuesday to try to clear the air.

“In regard to the words of the mayor, I can’t choose how anyone else chooses to speak. I can only choose how I want to move forward, and that’s to advance the goals of the city and it’s to get this notice of motion and motion back to council as soon as possible so we can address the issue. It’s an important one and it’s only going to get worse unless we deal with it now.”

This situation began with a letter to Cambridge council from federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle. In that letter, Houle expresses her concern about reports that the city was handing out homeless encampment eviction notices during extreme weather events.

Hamilton and fellow councillor Ross Earnshaw began working on a motion calling for council to ban evictions during extreme weather events all together.

But, after consulting with city staff, including legal counsel, Hamilton and Earnshaw decided it would be best to have staff look into the complexities of encampment eviction. So the notice of motion was changed to ask for the report.

In her video, Liggett said the corporate leadership team agreed that more information would be needed before a debate could occur.

She went on to say, “It is not enough for councillors Hamilton and Earnshaw to have the advantage and the privilege of information or staff advice and not all of the rest of council. This would or could have put council in a compromised legal position.”

Typically, a notice of motion is tabled, to give councillors time to read-up on an issue in advance of an eventual debate and vote.

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So, Liggett instructed city staff to create a report and present it to the whole of council so everyone would be on the same page.

Hamilton said the notice of motion that was to be on the July 22nd agenda would have done just that. And, given that council is on a summer break, there would be plenty of time for councillors to get up to speed.

“There is no information that councillor Earnshaw and I had that other councillors did not, and certainly no information that would be inaccessible by simply asking staff or using that 40-day period to reach-out and receive that information.”

If the notice of motion had been tabled on July 22nd, the earliest council would get to see the motion and debate on it would have been September 2nd.

Hamilton said all he really cares about is doing what is best for the city and making sure unhoused individuals have their human rights respected.

He has said he will continue to try to get the motion on the table but doesn’t know when that might happen.