page_title: Cambridge, Massachusetts
section_title: City government
hierarchical_section_title: Cambridge, Massachusetts / Government / City government
caption_attribution_description: English: Cambridge Massachusetts - City Hall - Mid 1980s Photo by alcinoe
context_page_description: Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and part of the Boston metropolitan area as a major suburb of Boston. As of July 2019, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, and Lowell. According to the 2010 Census, the city's population was 105,162. It is one of two de jure county seats of Middlesex County, although the county's government was abolished in 1997. Situated directly north of Boston, across the Charles River, it was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, once also an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders.
  Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lesley University, and Hult International Business School are in Cambridge, as was Radcliffe College before it merged with Harvard. Kendall Square in Cambridge has been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet" due to the high concentration of successful startups that have emerged in the vicinity of the square since 2010.
context_section_description: Cambridge has a city government led by a mayor and a nine-member city council. There is also a six-member school committee that functions alongside the superintendent of public schools. The councilors and school committee members are elected every two years using the single transferable vote (STV) system. Cambridge is one of a small number of local governments in the U.S. to use ranked-choice voting; by 2019, the State of Maine and about 18 local governments have adopted similar systems.
  The mayor is elected by the city councilors from among themselves, and serves as the chair of city council meetings. The mayor also sits on the school committee. The mayor is not the city's chief executive. Rather, the city manager, who is appointed by the city council, serves in that capacity.
  Under the city's Plan E form of government, the city council does not have the power to appoint or remove city officials who are under direction of the city manager. The city council and its individual members are also forbidden from giving orders to any subordinate of the city manager.
  Louis DePasquale is the City Manager, having succeeded Lisa C. Peterson, the Acting City Manager and Cambridge's first woman City Manager, on November 14, 2016. Peterson became Acting City Manager on September 30, 2016, after Richard C. Rossi announced that he would opt out of his contract renewal. Rossi succeeded Robert W. Healy, who retired in June 2013 after 32 years in the position. In recent history, the media has highlighted the salary of the city manager as one of the highest for a Massachusetts civic employee.
  * = current mayor
  ** = former mayor
caption: Cambridge City Hall in the 1980s
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