City Councilors Outraged By Aborted City Manager Search Process
Friday, September 19, 2014
Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor
How long can Worcester convince Augustus to stay on as City Manager? |
While support for interim city manager Ed Augustus throughout the city is extremely strong, some city councilors are upset that they led a group of likely candidates through the search process, just to tell the final three candidates that they are not needed.
“This has nothing to do with Ed and all to do with me being ready to vote; I thought that Oscar Rodriguez was the best candidate,” said Konnie Lukes at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “I would like to say publically that I am disappointed – not in any person in particular – but this city is going to take a while to recover from this. In all my years of public service, this is the biggest fiasco I have ever seen; I feel bad for everyone involved.”
Beginning in April, the city of Worcester began to bring in potential candidates for the Worcester city manager position, narrowing the field from 30 candidates to three finalists: Oscar Rodriguez, Peter Graczykowski, and David Moore. After none of the three candidates sticking out as a clear winner, there was a massive outcry to try to bring back Augustus once more.
The Correct Process
Much has been made of the process – or rather the abandoning of the process – in selecting a new person for city manager. Those who are upset decry the decision to revert back to Augustus because not only had he had already turned down the job, but also the city spent a lot of time to find someone new, bringing in finalists from as far as New Mexico to potentially take the position.
According to city councilor Philip Palmieri, the city council should have at least taken a vote prior to taking the Ed Augustus approach, as there could have been a group consensus for one of the three finalists.
While there has certainly been outrage about the process in which the city council has decided to go, City Councilor Gary Rosen points out that the City Charter in no way describes how a new city manager must be chosen, it is just something that has to be done.
“We are now down to three finalists, and I haven’t heard a consensus decision about any of the three,” said Rosen. “Some would like us to believe that our hands are tied with one of those three finalists, but that doesn’t make any sense. All three finalists had pros and cons, but if one stood out then I feel that we would be choosing them.”
Lacking Minority Candidates
Another bit of criticism for the city manager search is that there were not more women candidates or candidates of color brought into the mix.
Rodriguez – one of the few candidates of color brought in – may have made it to the final three, but overall there was a lack of diversity in the selection process, something that is not reflective of the changing culture within the city of Worcester.
City Councilor Sarai Rivera was one of the many city councilors that has expressed her disappointment in the lack of diversity, but also pointed out that the city shouldn’t be looking for minority or woman finalists just because of their gender or skin color; its all about bringing in the candidate that can properly do the job.
“Our city is on the edge of moving forward,” said City Councilor Kate Toomey. “My only disappointment is that there were not more women or people of color. I was really hoping for more diversity.”