Cambridge postpones consumption site vote until after March byelection

Cambridge councillors have voted to defer any decision about the process the city would go through to plan for a consumption and treatment services site until after a byelection is held for a vacant council seat.

During Tuesday night's council meeting, councillors were voting on a process that would give the councillors the most say in where a site could go. 

For more than an hour, council heard from community members about a consumption and treatment services site (CTS), both for and against.

Following that, Coun. Nicholas Ermeta put forward a motion to defer any decision on the "contentious issue" until after the byelection for the ward 7 seat, which was made vacant after the death of long-time councillor Frank Monteiro.

"I know that we're not choosing a site, I understand that. But we're going in that direction, and I think it's just another step in the process and I think we should have all members of council here," he said.

Coun. Pam Wolf argued against waiting to make any decisions.

"I think if we get the process started, then we can have the new member look at any site selection. We need to get this process started," she said.

The motion defers the decision to the "council meeting after the ward 7 councillor takes their oath of office." 

The next scheduled council meeting after the byelection is April 21. If the new councillor takes the oath of office at the April meeting, then the motion would come back to the next council meeting on May 19.