Cambridge health department offices are squeezed into a second-floor space at 119 Windsor St. because mold makes its basement off-limits. (Photo: Marc Levy)
Mold in the former basement office space housing the city’s public health department has made the area unusable and forced most department employees to alternate days when they come into the office, city councillors were told Tuesday. Mayor E. Denise Simmons said the conditions in the basement at 119 Windsor St. were “really appalling.”
“If the health department’s in a building with mold growing in the basement, that’s just unacceptable,” Simmons said at a council Finance Committee meeting where councillors discussed next year’s city budget. She said she had found out about the problems when she toured the building.
Health department spokesperson Dawn Baxter said “the basement is undergoing major rehab with removal of existing carpets, walls and drop-ceiling tiles.” She said “some mold remains” but “long-term mold mitigation is tied to a rebuild of the HVAC system to create sufficient capacity to maintain all areas of the building at comfortable and consistent temperature and humidity levels.”
“This is part of the proposed renovation of the building,” Baxter said. It’s not clear that will happen anytime soon, but the conditions have been a problem since 2020. That was when the health department was forced to move to much smaller space on the second floor of the building because of mold and debris from the failed HVAC system, Baxter said.
Derrick Neal, the chief public health officer, said the lack of space had created “challenges with recruitment and retention of employees. About 50 percent of our workforce is unable to come in to work on a daily basis.” Baxter said employees alternate when they come into the office and work remotely on the other days, with a schedule that can be changed if needed.”Our services continue uninterrupted,” she said. “However, more staff would prefer to be working onsite regularly than can be accommodated at this time.”
The city hired an architectural consultant last year to assess the condition of the building but City Manager Yi-An Huang was noncommittal about the prospect of the city paying for work and Assaad Sayah, chief executive of the Cambridge Health Alliance, which operates the health department under a contract with the city, said it needs a “major upgrade” that CHA can’t pay for.
“Right now we’re doing our best with the resources that we have. But I can tell you, the Cambridge Health Alliance truly does not have the funds to really work on the infrastructure of that building, which is tremendous: roof, windows, HVAC system, electric system. It is a big number. We did do an assessment a couple of years ago that we shared with the city and I know that the city currently is doing their own assessment,” Sayah said.
“Some things just can’t wait”
Deputy city manager Owen O’Riordan said the city expects to present the consultant’s report and a cost estimate to councillors “within the next month or so.” O’Riordan pointed out that many needed capital projects “are unfunded.”
“Will we be able to afford all of the approved improvements? I don’t know. It’s something that we have to collectively consider,” O’Riordan said.
That did not satisfy Simmons. “But some things just can’t wait,” she said. “We just have to figure out how we do it expeditiously, because people cannot work there. And if they can’t work, they can’t serve, the people are being underserved.”
According to O’Riordan, the city’s lease of the building to CHA makes the Alliance responsible for repairs. CHA has paid for the preparation work in the basement. The building also houses a CHA primary care clinic, dental center and laboratory. Sayah said that four years ago CHA expanded the primary care clinic by almost 50 percent and put a new lab in, adding: “The dental services upstairs really need some work.”
He didn’t say who paid for the expansion.
Complicated operation
At the hearing, councillor Patricia Nolan also revived discussion of tensions caused by the fact that CHA operates the city’s public health department in return for a city payment. Nolan and former vice mayor Alanna Mallon sought a deeper examination of the relationship last year after the organization cut seven department positions as part of wider layoffs, and councillors learned they had no control over the decision.
Nolan again raised the issue of the Alliance and the health department’s regional reach, asking for a detailed accounting of how the city payment for the health department was spent and whether it financed services in other communities. In response, chief public health officer Neal and CHA chief executive Sayah said the Alliance and the health department operated regionally, but the health department focused on Cambridge. “It’s always a best practice for public health, to have not only that concentration in Cambridge, where we focus 99.9 percent of our resources, but also leverage the partnerships with neighboring communities,” Neal said, “so we can have a better impact on overall health outcomes when it comes to the citizens of Cambridge.”
Sayah also said the city grant – expected to be $8.6 million in the fiscal year ending June 30 and budgeted at $8.7 million in the next fiscal year – does not cover what the Alliance spends on the health department. Still, the city’s budget document for the health department includes no details, only the city contribution.
Effort to save jobs
After Nolan and Mallon raised concerns last year, Sayah promised a more detailed budget, and provided one. It indicated that the health department expenses would exceed revenue by $9.8 million this fiscal year and the city payment, then estimated at $8.5 million, would fall short of covering the deficit.
CHA spokesperson David Cecere was asked whether similar details about next year’s health department budget were given to the committee. “We did not provide any additional budget details to the Finance Committee, nor were we requested to do so,” he said in an email. He said CHA is still “working to finalize” next fiscal year’s budget for the public health department that will “continue the same level of services,” but the city payment again won’t fully cover the cost.
After the Alliance announced the health department layoffs last year, the city offered to pay extra to save the seven positions; Sayah agreed to accept money for four of them, saying it would not be fair to treat the health department differently than CHA.
Neal said at the budget hearing that the health department is just now recruiting for the four saved jobs. Baxter said the Alliance and the city had to amend their contract to cover the extra payment, the health department needed to “reconfigure” the positions and write new job descriptions, which had to be approved by CHA human resources.
