Cambridge City Council

Loaded: every full City Council meeting with a posted record from January 1, 2018 through October 5, 2026 (326 meetings: regular and special meetings, the inaugural meetings, and roundtables and public hearings where the council took a recorded vote). Committee meetings, the Special Committee of the Whole, the City Clerk screening committee and executive sessions are not loaded. The votes come from the City Clerk’s “Final Actions”, which give the result of each agenda item and, for roll calls, list the councillors under YEAS, NAYS, PRESENT and ABSENT. When those lists account for every councillor at the meeting, MassVoter shows each councillor’s vote (“present” votes are shown as present; councillors listed absent are left out of that vote). When the names and the printed count disagree, a councillor is listed twice, or a named councillor is not on the meeting’s attendance list, MassVoter shows the count only and adds a note. Results written with no count (“ORDER ADOPTED”, common in 2018 and 2019) and voice votes (written “VV9”) show the result only; MassVoter never assumes a vote was unanimous. “Affirmative vote of nine members” with nine councillors present is shown as each voting yes. Items only placed on file, referred, tabled or delayed by a Charter Right with no recorded vote are not listed. Resolutions (congratulations, condolences) and communications from the public that the Final Actions record one after another with the same result and the same roll call are listed as one vote, with a note naming the items. For 17 meetings in 2020 and 2021 the posted Final Actions file holds the meeting transcript instead of the results, for four others its text cannot be read, and for three 2019 meetings no Final Actions were posted; for those, the votes are read from the city’s iQM2 meeting page and each item’s vote record. The elections of the Mayor and Vice Mayor at the inaugural meetings come from the minutes and show the result only, with a note quoting the ballots. Not here: the January 6, 2020 and January 3, 2022 inaugural meetings and a few 2018, 2019 and 2022 special meetings and hearings, for which the city has posted no Final Actions or minutes, and the June 23 and August 6, 2026 meetings (not yet posted). The council’s narrative minutes (posted through June 1, 2026) also record procedural roll calls, such as closing public comment, that are not in the Final Actions; those are not loaded. We will ask the City Clerk about each noted vote.