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Denise Simmons

Cambridge - City councilors voted Monday night to make Denise Simmons the new mayor of Cambridge.

Simmons, a member of the council since 2001, is the second consecutive mayor who is black and openly gay. She is the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor since Sheila Russell held the office from 1996-1997.

Councilors voted Brian Murphy vice-mayor.

“It feels really great,” Simmons said. “When I first came to the School Committee, one of the things I always said was that I wanted to be mayor.”

This was the second time councilors voted after they were deadlocked last Monday. Simmons received three votes last week, the most out of any councilor, followed by Tim Toomey.

Though the vote was unanimous, it wasn't a smooth process Monday night. In the first vote, Simmons — who spent nine years on the city’s School Committee from 1992 to 2001— received support from herself, Ken Reeves, Sam Seidel, Henrietta Davis, Craig Kelley and Brian Murphy. Last week, only Seidel and Kelley voted for Simmons.

“She has a lot to bring, in her experience with kids, to the school system,” Davis said. “I think that will be very helpful. I think she’ll make a great mayor.”

Initially, David Maher continued to support Toomey for the position. Maher said he felt Toomey’s “institutional knowledge” and heavy interest in East Cambridge made him his first choice in both rounds of voting. Maher eventually changed his mind, and said he wanted the council to vote unanimously in support of Simmons.

“I felt that if there was ever a time to have an added voice for East Cambridge, it was during this term,” Maher said. “That’s largely the reason I voted for [Toomey], but I congratulate Councilor Simmons on her win.”

The wild card Monday night was Marjorie Decker. At first, Decker did not vote in Monday night’s election, and changed her vote only after Simmons had received a majority of the councilors’ nominations. Decker said she worried the city’s system of electing a mayor undermined the city’s education system.

“I think it’s really important that the people of Cambridge find a process that allows them to hold whoever the mayor is accountable to educational policy,” Decker said. “This process we have right now by which we choose a mayor is not a good process. It’s not always done in the best interest of educational policy.”

“Certainly, I don’t begrudge Councilor Simmons, and that’s why I switched my vote to support her, which has not always been the case,” she added.

Asked if the impending vote on school Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn’s contract had any bearing on her holding her vote back, Decker answered only by saying, “I don’t know what the mayor’s going to do on that.”

Indeed, one of the biggest tasks facing Simmons as she takes office will be casting a vote in the School Committee’s decision whether or not it will renew Fowler-Finn’s contract. Last week, the committee met behind closed doors to discuss the superintendent’s future with the city, and plans to meet again Wednesday night in open session.

“The School Committee is going to have to decide, and my job as the chair is going to be to sit down with the committee and figure out what [they] want to do, and who’s the proper person, our current leader Fowler-Finn or is it someone else?” Simmons said. “That’s a decision that’s made not just be me, but by the entire School Committee.”

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/homepage/x1925662189

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