Politics & Government
Worcester Councilors Make Moves On Search For Next City Manager
City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. is leaving the job at the end of May, and a council committee will manage a wider search for a replacement.
WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester City Council on Tuesday handed a raft of orders related to the search for a new city manager to a council committee, setting in motion a process to pick the city's next chief executive officer from a candidate pool outside of City Hall.
The councilors agreed to send items tied to the city manager search — including forming an ad hoc selection committee, and hiring an outside firm to do a nationwide search — to the Municipal and Legislative Operations Committee chaired by At-Large Councilor Khrystian King.
City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. announced in late March he would step down in May after eight years in the job. A few days later, Mayor Joseph Petty asked the Council to consider appointing Assistant City Manager Eric Batista as the acting city manager. But At-Large Councilor Thu Nguyen asked Petty to hold the item, asking for a more public process to pick Augustus' successor.
Both Augustus and his predecessor, Mike O’Brien, were picked with varying levels of public input, according to blogger Nicola Apostola. O'Brien was hired by the council in 2004 after about four months of deliberation, and with no nationwide search, according to records compiled by City Clerk Nikolin Vangjeli.
When Augustus took over for O'Brien in 2014, he was hired on a nine-month contract, and had pledged to return to his previous job at Holy Cross at the end. The city did hire an external search firm at a cost of $37,000 and found three candidates — including former city solicitor David Moore and officials from Taos, New Mexico, and Edgartown — but Augustus later applied for the job and got it just as his nine-month contract was about to end.
The Council voted to hire Batista as acting city manager at the April 5 meeting. Separately on Tuesday, the council entered into a closed door session to discuss Batista's contract. He will take over for Augustus on June 1 until whenever councilors pick a permanent replacement.
The Municipal and Legislative Operations Committee will take up the city manager selection process at a meeting set for April 27.
