Council Discusses Water, Budget

Boston’s water crisis and the newly-submitted budget for fiscal year 2011 were among the topics of discussion at the Cambridge City Council meeting Monday night.

While a major water main break that occurred on Saturday left around two million Boston-area residents without consumable tap water, Cambridge remained unaffected by the leak because it has a separate water system.

Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 requested that City Manager Robert W. Healy clarify how the city came to have a separate water system from the one serving the Boston area, which is managed by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA).

Healy attributed the creation of a separate water system to the foresight of the Cambridge city fathers in the 1800s, who worked with the Massachusetts Legislature to acquire Fresh Pond, which became the city’s water source.

“Cambridge has situated an extremely fortunate position with its water reservoirs,” said Healy. “This is an asset that not many communities can lay claim to.”

Healy added that in case of a water emergency, Cambridge also has the capacity to switch to MWRA water.

“We have a back-up,” he said, noting that the communities affected by the water main break do not have a similar alternative.

In addition to discussions of the water crisis, Healy also gave an overview of the budget for fiscal year 2011.

He said that the new $459 million budget marks a 3.1 percent increase over the previous year’s budget, the result of a 3 percent salary raise for employees, a 7.4 percent increase in employee health insurance, and other increased costs such as debt servicing.

He also addressed “a very weird phenomenon” in which certain city employees, such as police officers and firefighters, who get paid on Thursdays will account for another $1.2 million increase in the budget due to a 53rd pay week in fiscal year 2011.

A reduction in state aid and the increase in the city’s budget will result in a “modest” property tax increase, Healy said. He added that his goal over the next three months is to reduce the tax levy impact, which he hopes will amount to less than 6 percent. The precise percentage increase will be determined in September.

Councillor Marjorie C. Decker, chair of the Finance Committee, added that, despite the drop in state funding, the city’s school system will remain a priority to ensure that “every child regardless of their wealth or lack of it will have an education.”

Public hearings to discuss the fiscal year 2011 city budget will begin today and continue throughout the month of May.

—Staff writer Joanne S. Wong may be reached at joannewong@college.harvard.edu.