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Divestment and the ethical procurement ordinance

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

About 50 residents spoke for three hours at the Sept 8 public hearing on the proposed "ethical procurement ordinance," and the Legislative Matters Committee took no vote and made no recommendation; the written record stayed open through Sept 11 and the ordinance is still in committee (Sept 8 digest). The hearing was forced by a 74-voter petition under Section 2-11 of the city charter. The ordinance, sponsored by Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen with Councilors Ben Wheeler, Will Mbah and Jonathan Link, would bar the city from buying from, or investing its retiree-benefits (OPEB) fund in, companies found to provide "material support" for illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide or violations of international humanitarian law, with Israel and Palestine named specifically. It is the binding follow-through on ballot Question 3, a non-binding measure that 59 percent of voters approved on Nov 4, 2025 (11,599 yes, 7,992 no).

The ordinance has sat in committee since June 11 without a vote. At its one committee session, June 30, City Solicitor Cindy Amara said prior law-department opinions concluded such a measure would likely be challenged and found unlawful, and nothing in the draft changed that; Ewen-Campen conceded drafting ambiguities and promised a summer rewrite. On July 9 the full Council ordered an economic analysis (vendors, bond rating, enforcement cost) for the summer. Neither the redraft nor the analysis appears in the Aug 27 Council record; its only related item was a resident's written comment on the petition (item 26-1266, placed on file).

The clock on it is now concrete. Two of the four sponsors won State House nominations in the Sept 1 primary — Ewen-Campen in the 27th Middlesex and Mbah in the 34th — and both are leaving the Council on Dec 31, 2026: Ewen-Campen sent his resignation letter Sept 3 and Mbah his on Sept 11, with Marianne Walles in line for Mbah's at-large seat (Somerville Times, Sept 12). An ordinance that has not moved since June loses its lead sponsor and one of its votes at the end of the year, and Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott, who chairs the committee holding it, resigns the same day (Somerville Times, Sept 3). See Three Council seats turn over for what happens to the three seats.

The story

Three measures, one thread

The sources use three names for three different things. Question 3 was an advisory ballot question on Nov 4, 2025; the city's results page labels it "THIS QUESTION IS NOT BINDING." The Nov 25, 2025 resolution was the Council's non-binding pledge to act on the question "in a manner that is practicable and legally feasible." The ethical procurement ordinance, introduced June 11, 2026, is the first binding step: an amendment to the procurement code that becomes enforceable law if ordained. The digests and opponents often call it the "divestment ordinance"; Legistar and the sponsors say "ethical procurement."

Question 3: the vote

The question as printed: "Shall the Mayor of Somerville and all Somerville elected leaders be instructed to end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies as long as such companies engage in business that sustains Israel's apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine?" The certified totals: 11,599 yes, 7,992 no, 1,231 blank, of 20,822 ballots cast. It carried all seven wards and every precinct but one (Ward 4, Precinct 1, 209 to 230). The same ballot elected Mayor Jake Wilson over then-At-large Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., 11,294 to 9,144.

Nov 25, 2025: the resolution, 9-2

Three weeks after the vote, then-Councilor Willie Burnley Jr.'s resolution supporting implementation passed 9-2 before an overflow crowd, with Strezo and Ward 7 Councilor Emily Hardt voting no and then-Councilor Wilson, three weeks after his election as mayor, voting yes. Ewen-Campen set the marker that still defines the fight: "There is no universe in which I will support an ordinance that violates constitutional rights, that is discriminatory based on national origin or ethnicity or religion."

Winter: antisemitism and the budget

At the Finance Committee's Feb 10 hearing on FY27 budget priorities, speakers on both sides invoked Question 3, some urging implementation, others asking that no city money be spent on it while swastikas recurred at the high school and Jewish residents' homes were vandalized. The FY27 budget, with its layoffs, is the backdrop for every cost argument that follows.

June 11: the ordinance arrives

Ewen-Campen and Wheeler introduced the ordinance to a chamber at capacity. Per the digest, it amends the procurement code so the city does not contract with or invest in companies profiting from serious violations of international humanitarian law, "with specific reference to Israel and Palestine," and applies "wherever such violations occur worldwide." Ewen-Campen said it "looks to organizations like the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Human Rights Council." Wheeler said it "is not a boycott of any government, any people, any civil society." Ewen-Campen, who is Jewish, said he has been told at public events "that I'm not a real Jew."

Speakers split. Somerville for Palestine members asked the Council to strengthen it by adding the American Friends Service Committee list; Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, urged the Council to file it, saying the campaign "has made members of Somerville's Jewish community feel unsafe and unwelcome." Mbah, Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait and Link voiced support. Strezo called the draft "discriminatory," warned it "will be challenged in court," and said litigation costs would drain money from schools and housing. It went to Legislative Matters by voice vote.

June 30: an hour in committee

The five-member committee (Scott chairing, with Davis, Mbah, Ewen-Campen and Strezo) spent over an hour on it and kept it in committee. Ewen-Campen said it targets conduct, "companies knowingly and materially enabling occupation, apartheid, or genocide," not any company doing business with a particular government, and that Israel and Palestine are named because of the ballot question. Amara confirmed the law department's prior opinions; Davis pressed on what "material support" means and whether the draft could sweep in any company doing business with the U.S. government, and asked for a written opinion on how the ordinance interacts with procurement law. Strezo's motion for an economic analysis passed 3-2, then failed on a revote after Mbah moved reconsideration; nine days later the full Council approved her order anyway, asking the Strategy and Development Department for a report on vendors, bond rating and enforcement costs over the summer. The same night the 74-voter petition (item 26-1185) was forwarded to the committee.

Sept 8: fifty speakers, no vote

The charter-required hearing ran about three hours in two-minute slots, with Scott noting more than two dozen hands still in the queue when it ended. No councilor deliberated or voted; Scott closed it with "This is what democracy looks like" and kept the written record open through Sept 11 (Sept 8 digest).

Supporters leaned on the ballot. Ward 7 resident Alex Mills put the Question 3 margin at 59-41: "The mandate is incredibly clear." Speakers named Caterpillar, Honeywell and HP as city vendors the ordinance would reach, and a bloc asked the committee to strengthen the draft by attaching the American Friends Service Committee's list of complicit companies. Jewish supporters, including Somerville for Palestine's Jewish Caucus and descendants of Holocaust survivors, rejected the antisemitism framing; former State Sen. Pat Jehlen said other municipalities are following Somerville's lead. Human Rights Commissioner Christopher Spicer-Henkel, speaking as an individual, said roughly half of the 83 complaints in city data related to Jews, Muslims, Israel or Palestine, split evenly between antisemitic or anti-Israel and Islamophobic or anti-Palestinian incidents.

Opponents described a city that has become frightening for Jewish residents: graffiti on the Community Path, school incidents, children frightened by masked protesters outside City Hall. Former Council President Judy Pineda Neufeld said being targeted while on the Council "absolutely went into my decision to leave," and that time spent on the ordinance takes away from housing, rats and street safety. Samantha Joseph, the ADL New England regional director, said the ADL and the Brandeis Center have warned the ordinance is unconstitutional, that the city's own law department found it likely unenforceable, and that Question 3's roughly 22 percent of registered voters "is not a mandate." Brian Sokol, a Human Rights Commission member speaking for himself, cited a five-year, $250,000 procurement disparity study as the scale of review implementation would need and estimated that switching student laptops from HP to Apple could cost about $2 million. One opponent, describing repeated theft of an Israeli flag from his property, said "you will see my second amendment," which later speakers condemned as a threat.

What the code says now

Procurement rules live in Chapter 2, Article VIII of the Code of Ordinances, where Sec. 2-369 makes every contract subject to Chapter 30B, the state Uniform Procurement Act. The code already has one values-based ban, on prison labor (Sec. 2-375), and a human-rights policy barring discrimination in "contracts, purchasing or public accommodations" on the basis of national origin (Sec. 2-237). Opponents say the ordinance does exactly that; sponsors say it regulates corporate conduct, not nationality.

What's next

  • Sept 29 — the next Legislative Matters meeting Scott previewed on Sept 15 lists short-term rentals and civilian oversight, not this ordinance (Sept 15 digest). The committee can keep it, recommend it or discharge it.
  • Pending, no date — Ewen-Campen's redraft; the law department's written opinion on procurement law and on the exact language; purchasing-department input on workload; the Strategy and Development Department's economic analysis. None surfaced at the Sept 8 hearing.
  • By about Oct 9 — Section 2-11 says the Council "shall act on the petition within 3 months of the date it first appeared on the agenda"; the petition first appeared July 9. By our reading that forces some Council action on the petition, though not necessarily on the ordinance.
  • Dec 31, 2026 — Ewen-Campen, the lead sponsor, Mbah, a co-sponsor, and Scott, the committee chair, all leave the Council; a Ward 2 and Ward 3 special election is expected in late January or early February 2027. The ordinance loses its champion unless it moves first. See Three Council seats turn over and State primary.
  • The thread resolves when the Council ordains or defeats the ordinance, or when a court answers the legality question the Solicitor flagged. See Who is who for the councilors named here.