The Boston Planning Department (BPD has hired another Community Engagement Manager (CEM), a position infamous among community leaders for not actually doing any meaningful engagement with the community.

The city’s new ghost is Grey Black, whose LinkedIn page says he started the role last November. Black is the latest addition to the city’s eight person CEM team.

“CEMs build relationships with residents and organizations that interface with the Planning Department through planning, development, real estate and design,” a BPD spokesperson said.

When asked how much a CEM is paid, the spokesperson directed The Boston Guardian to file a public records request. According to the request, the salary range listed for the position is between $86,000 to $118,000 per year, for 35 hours of work per week.

The new CEM has a background in “political, cultural, and arts organizing,” according to an introductory message sent to BPD email list subscribers. He has won multiple artist advocacy awards. However, according to the BPD website, his role in city government is to engage “small businesses and their employees.”

When asked a series of specific questions about his job, Black decided to respond to them “collectively” in an email. He wrote that this job was his way of figuring out why arts and cultural space is so limited in Boston after the pandemic.

“This position was a means of getting a better understanding for where the obstacles lied, what were people working on to address this problem and how I could help,” Black wrote. “Some years ago, the department realized small businesses were a group they did not hear from frequently in the planning process and my hiring was created in part to bridge that gap.”

He would not specify what geographical area, if any, he would focus on, and did not say why he wanted to work on small businesses.

The biggest problem area for business right now is Downtown, which Mayor Michelle Wu has established numerous incentives and programs to try to revitalize. These include a plan to turn empty spaces in the neighborhood into performance and art venues to create a cultural hub. Black said he is not directly working on this arts and culture district, but that he was excited by it and had “encouraged friends to sign up.”

Both Black and the spokesperson said a CEM’s role was to make sure residents had a voice in the Planning Department. But multiple community leaders have told The Boston Guardian on multiple occasions that they have had no engagement from CEMs.

Martyn Roetter, the chair of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, said he had not gotten any contact from CEMs or any proper communication from the city at all regarding new transportation initiatives in the Back Bay over the past several months.

“I think the number of Community Engagement Managers in City Hall is increasing with different responsibilities,” Roetter said. “Perhaps they will have to hire a Chief of Community Engagement Managers to coordinate all their activities. Sorry to sound so cynical.”