Pivotal Vote Before Worcester Councilors On City Manager Search

WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester City Council Thursday may take a potentially pivotal vote in the search for a new city manager.

On Wednesday, At-Large Councilor Khrystian King, the chairman of the Municipal and Legislative Operations committee, said he would use a special procedure to seek a vote at Thursday's meeting in pursuit of hiring a company to conduct a nationwide search for city manager candidates.

The full city council will meet in a rare Thursday session to continue a meeting that began on Sept. 20. King's item will ask councilors to vote to allow the City Clerk to report back on how the council can move forward with hiring the firm GovHR USA — the only executive search firm that submitted a bid to search for a new city manager.

Acting City Manager Eric Batista took the job in June after the departure of Ed Augustus Jr. But Augustus gave several months notice, allowing the council to start the search process in April. The Municipal and Legislative Operations committee has met 10 times since April to discuss the search.

Mayor Joseph Petty shook up the search on Sept. 14 when he said on the Talk of the Commonwealth radio show that he would be in favor of just hiring Batista on a three-year contract.

Petty spoke to Talk of the Commonwealth again Wednesday, saying that since his Sept. 14 comments, he feels like he's been accused of having an ulterior motive. He also said he didn't think the search process would still be going on at this point.

"I thought this would be done by now," Petty said on the radio show.

King on Wednesday appeared to address Petty's new comments, and the Sept. 14 comments about ending the search process. King said the search is on time, and has cleared a number of hurdles, including putting out bids for a search firm and collecting community input.

King said the search process has become "divisive," and he's heard some question if the search was detracting from Batista's status as the first Latino Worcester city manager.

"What's been going on undermines the credibility of the current and only candidate for permanent city manager," King said. "The last thing you want to do is tokenize this particular candidate."

Committee member District 1 Councilor Sean Rose said he understands why some people would want to cut the process short and just hire Batista, who has worked in City Hall for about a decade. But the council voted 10-1 in April to do a full nationwide search, he said, even if they just end up hiring Batista anyway. He also said most city residents aren't aware of all the meetings and work that's happened since the April vote.

"I want to stick to our word, and our vote," Rose said.

The full Worcester City Council will meet Thursday at 5 p.m. to continue the Sept. 20 meeting, and then again starting at approximately 6 p.m. to discuss new items — including the potential hiring of an executive search firm.