During the past year the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) has received at least three complaints from relatively high-ranking Cambridge city employees alleging racial discrimination.

In a complaint filed last March, Mary C. Wong, executive director of the Cambridge Kids' Council, says she was threatened with the prospect of an "intolerable" work life if she did not resign her post.

When Malvina Monteiro, executive director of the Cambridge Police Review and Advisory Board, asked for a raise after three years of satisfactory service, she claims her supervisor dodged her request for another three years.

Cambridge library administrator Marion Hampton claims she was twice the victim of petty physical assaults from her fellow employees-and her superiors were unresponsive to her complaints.

Is three a crowd? Wong, Monteiro and Hampton are all female, all minorities, and all say their grievances with city officials show a trend of discrimination that spans several years and disparate city departments.

The women originally filed their complaints separately, but last month the three consolidated their complaints, stating that "the disparate treatment each has confronted reflects a broader pattern and practice of race discrimination in the City's management of its own workforce."

The consolidated complaint--the latest confrontation in a rash of minor conflicts in the past year--is a driving force behind a move to address internal tensions in the city. Tomorrow evening, School Committee Vice Chair E. Denise Simmons and the city's Human Rights Commission will hold a forum on ending discrimination by race and class in Cambridge. A public hearing on race relations will follow next Monday's City Council meeting.

"The need for dialogue and discussion on the issue of race and class is very real, and it has to go beyond a particular issue," says Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55.

Three's a Crowd

Of the six highest-ranking women of color in managerial authority in municipal government, three are suing, and another has recently resigned.

In addition to the consolidated complaint, last month saw the resignation of Gail Nordmoe, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Nordmoe, the highest-ranking person of color in the school administration, has said racial tensions had nothing to do with her decision to resign.

Nevertheless, some city employees say her resignation signals a broader dissatisfaction with the progress of diversity and tolerance in the city administration.

"We clearly provide a work environment in which people of color feel they are treated differently from others," says City Councilor Kenneth E. Reeves '72.

Monteiro, Hampton and Wong declined any further comment beyond their written statements, but their attorney Ellen J. Zucker, herself a longtime Cantabrigian, says she agrees with Reeves' assessment.

"It's not that people are walking around with Ku Klux Klan hats on--it's just that they're more comfortable working with people who look like them," Zucker says. "That's the nature of discrimination."