Please explain the difference between a city's (capitalized) Redevelopment Authority and its (lower case) community development department.  Or is this a subtlety perhaps found only in such municipalities as people's republics like Cambridge, MA, Berkeley, CA and Austin, TX?

Strangely, the Cambridge Redevelopment in Cambridge, MA is a private company which is listed under urban planning and consulting services. However,  although the employment contract and the salary of the Director is the responsibility of the City of Cambridge. Oversight of the appointments of members to the committee are the responsibility of the Governor & Cambridge City Manager, Robert W. Healy

For those of you who may not know:

Cambridge City Manager, Robert W. Healy, who lives in Lowell, received $336,317 compensation last year (2012). That is double what the highest-paid municipal managers in the state make. His retirement package is more than $5 million total, and one of the priciest benefits comes in the form of lifetime nursing home care, through a $400,000 long-term care insurance policy, that applies both to Healy and his wife, Jacquelyn.

p.s. For those of you who may not know:

Only about 14% of the Cambridge residents able to vote, actually vote for city councillors, because the city councillors only need 10% of the total vote to win election. The system can only be changed from within - and - those within the system refuse to change it.

Isn't it wonderful that public sector workers can retire as multimillionaires? A $400,000 payoff? A $200,000 salary to oversee APARTMENTS? WONDERFUL! No, no way public workers are overpaid! Plenty of private sector apartment managers make $200k plus $400k payoffs when they leave.....PLENTY! The state is run by employees FOR employees. The pay, pension and benefits equate to making most managers effective MILLIONAIRES upon retirement. All GUARANTEED by the taxpayer. And the taxpayers themselves? Well the vast majority of them don't come close to the routine, rich, compensation found from the most modest public sector employee up to management, do they? States and cities across the nation are already filing for bankruptcy. In bankruptcy the workers will not get their "promised" pensions any more than a private sector worker who's pension fund fails. By all means, keep scaming the public and eviscerating the future for your city and state. You get what you "deserve", ultimately. Kudos to the Globe for finally finding the guts to print these stories. Makes me happy to keep subscribing. 

@boatwrote The CRA is an independent authority created by the state legislature under CH 121A of state law. The Boston redevelopment Authority is another example. Other such authorities are MassPort and the Turnpike Authority.

@Cantab1 The CRA is not private. Contracts and salaries are set and overseen by the unpaid board of directors. The whole issue here is that by its charter the Authority IS the board, and for quite some time, perhaps going back as far as 2004 there has not been a functioning board. The Ex. Dir. was improperly acting as if he were the Authority with respect to all of the actions of the CRA.

@jag This article is the result of an email to the deitor on Wednesday of this week, not that they pay attention to our fair city. They rarely do.

aunion?

So bogus - The $400,000 Tulimieri received upon retirement included unused sick and vacation days.