Dr. Ravi Perry: Why Worcester Must Adopt “Plan A”

Friday, May 25, 2012

Dr. Ravi Perry, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Dr. Ravi Perry, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Here we go again!

It’s high time for Worcester citizens, public officials and business leaders to support a serious effort to change Worcester’s form of government. Plan A, as it’s known in Massachusetts, would allow for a strong mayor and city council.

Plan E – what we’ve got now, really hasn’t worked as intended since Worcester's first city manager, George Merrill, who took office in 1950. And even he failed disastrously by not getting a Worcester exit on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Not since Fair Share in the 1980s has the question of Plan A garnered serious attention. While Voters in Charge, a citizen action group, called for a Plan A in the immediate aftermath of the Hoover administration as city manager in 2004, that effort failed. For more information, click here.

In 1985, the charter commission produced by Worcester Fair Share, developed a compromise that has been labeled perennially “unstable,” wherein” we kept a "strong" city manager but allow voters to directly elect the mayor—a post that is merely ceremonial.

Meanwhile, Plan A remained the preferred goal of the Fair Share movement in the 1980s, and the Voters in Charge movement of 2004. However, as time goes by and complacency sets in, we’ve regularly compromised to the system we have now.

Supporters of the city manager form of government often say Plan A will lead to machine politics and that “Strong Leadership” is said to be needed, not a “Strong Mayor.” But, what people don’t seem to get, is that you can’t really have strong leadership without a strong mayor. And, if you have term limits, the machine politics argument is solved.

While our current district-council-manager form of government was an improvement from the mid twentieth century, the past thirty years has shown the system of government to be no longer defensible. No matter how you try to spin it, leadership from the city manager’s office – regardless of the occupant - has not solved the problem.

All signs point to how important this system is needed. The recent news regarding tax hikes, business certificates, and construction projects demonstrate the need.

The lack of a strong communications and media market for central Massachusetts also demonstrates the need as Plan A would offer greater opportunities for the public to be informed of city affairs and business.

Most important, Plan A is important because it will allow citizens to hold all public officials directly accountable to the voters. This is likely to result in greater citizen involvement in local elections and municipal matters and would generate an even stronger (and diverse) pool of qualified applicants to run for local positions, as the pay would rightly increase for the mayor and city councilors.

Finally, Plan A would also allow for four-year terms. This is important so citizens actually have time to evaluate the actions and inactions of public officials. With a two year election cycle, politicians are essentially running for office constantly. It’s a burden on them and their families and it’s a burden on pace of business in city hall.

While manager-council forms of government have its merits, Worcester never really took advantage of those merits. For example, neighborhoods have little involvement in key city decisions such as the budget, which is the case for most other manager-council forms of government nationwide.

We no longer have time to wait for Worcester to get a form of government right that’s been in place since 1950. There’s too much at stake.

And, frankly, having an elected mayor with the power to hire and fire all city hall department heads would also increase opportunities for diverse, qualified hires, and create more scrutiny on who’s hired (or fired).

Worcester remains the largest city in New England to still have a model of city government that dates back to the 1800s. It would be one thing if the model demonstrated increased citizen involvement or effective management. However, given Worcester’s fiscal history in the past thirty years, the system leaves much to be desired.

Assuming the Fair Share and Voters in Charge constituencies of the 1980s and early 2000s remain, and given the increased diversity of the city, Plan A should pass.

If you claim to care about Worcester long-term success, let’s put Plan A on the November ballot as a binding referendum.

Dr. Ravi Perry is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of Ethnic Studies at Clark University where he specializations in Black politics, minority representation, and urban politics. He concentrates his research, oratory, and activism in areas such as the new generation of civil rights debates, public policy, and urban politics public service delivery to persons of color. His activism, commentary and oratory have been featured in media outlets nation-wide.