Future shock

Part 2

by Carolyn Given

There are plenty of substantive issues for the council to debate, yet the most intense council meetings focus on minutia and detail. Micro-management is often be a symptom of group dysfunction. Some political observers blame the malaise on Worcester's council-manager form of government (Plan E), which makes councilors responsible for deciding the city's direction without having the authority to implement plans. Regardless of the cause, debate abounds on non-issues.

According to several residents who watched a mid-March meeting, councilors debated for more than an hour on whether Worcester should maintain the Department of Public Works' $300 committee fee for post-parade cleanups.

A council meeting in April raised more ire when councilors Lukes, Cooney, and Griffin debated for two hours the selection of federal office space for a program to assist businesses dislocated from the Route 146-connector area, despite the fact that the city has no jurisdiction over the program's funding. The office will be housed at the Chamber of Commerce, in space leased by the Worcester Business Development Corporation, which administers the project's federal grant.

"Total micro-management," Lazzaro charges. "Instead of looking at the big picture, they focused valuable time on micro-managing the details. I want to challenge them on this. They get away with this kind of garbage."

Murray has his own ax to grind. "This past spring, the council spent three weeks in a row, an average of two hours each week, talking about cable rates. . . . The manager stood up and said, `I think this is the best contract possible,' and the council got up and said whether it agreed or disagreed. At that point, the manager is accountable, but to spend three weeks in a row talking about this issue [means] our priority-focus is a little skewed."

Why is this council so listless about the city's make-or-break issues?

Jordan Levy levels some blame for what he calls, "a show-up-on-Tuesday, don't-ruffle-my-feathers, easy-slide council" on today's buoyant economy, creating easier times. Since he hung up his gavel four years ago, the fiscal budget has grown by more than $70 million (schools account for $41 million of the increase). But it isn't just the absence of a fiscal crisis that has robbed the board of its voice. Insiders point to the control Mariano is said to impose on council meetings as "business-like," "efficient," even "intimidating."

"I see the mayor running meetings as proficiently as he can," says Levy. "And he's doing it so well, the council is in Sleepy Hollow."

Even Mike Troiano, an avid Mariano supporter, says, "I'd like to see open discussion. . . . Ray wants meetings more direct and to-the-point -- to address pertinent issues -- to get the job done."

Descriptions of this phenomenon by city residents include phrases such as "a stifled board," "a robotic entity," "a lot of wind," "the Ray Show," or "the Mariano City Council." Bill Coleman says he's running for the council for this reason alone. "This board lacks independence, motivation and fire. This is the most isolated board -- monolithic in thought. But you can't even say `in thought' because some haven't said 50 words this whole session that anyone can remember."

Councilor Janice Nadeau doesn't consider this board "stifled," but she does say Mariano rips through agenda items so quickly, "nobody knows what's going on. I know I have to mark my agenda spots so I can speak on them, because I know he's going to run right through the agenda."

Mariano's enforcement of the council's 10-minute rule, a long unused parliamentary rule which limits how long a councilor can talk on an agenda item, is a source of great frustration to several councilors. Councilor Lukes has demonstrated her frustration by bringing a stopwatch to meetings.

But Mariano explains that the 10-minute rule is enforced because, at some point, the council must move on to the next agenda item. "People make major speeches in 10 minutes. If you planned your thoughts, you could say an awful lot in that time. They don't need an additional 10 minutes. But if the council doesn't like it, at any time they can always suspend the rules. They've not done that, ever."

Actually, Councilor Wayne Griffin says he's asked successfully on numerous occasions to suspend the rules to speak at length on issues, "whether that issue was cellular towers in the neighborhoods, or adult entertainment, or assisted-living re-zoning issues."

Hennigan, however, says meetings are brief because Mariano intentionally orchestrates the council's performance. "When Ray became mayor, the issue of controlling debate became more important than open public discourse." He adds that today's council agendas are similarly controlled and narrow in scope.

Mariano rejects out-of-hand the notion that this council is passive with limited agendas. "Some folks you talk to," he says, "represent a more slanted view. This council is fairly effective. Frankly, the council understands its role and gets down to business a lot more effectively than what we've seen in the past. . . . Five to six years ago, the council was the object of great ridicule and scorn."

About his alleged squelching of board debate, Mariano responds, "This is the whining of candidates that can't seem to win.

"I've not met anyone on the street who says, `We'd like to see you throw more pies at each other.' We do enough of that," he says.

Mariano says he'd be intolerant of a board that wore "little toy hats and clown faces" at council meetings, adding he is "constantly told by citizens jokingly, `Gee, you've taken all the fun out of meetings.' It shouldn't be a joke. The council is a professional business body with debate and emotion. There is no stifling of debate."

City Councilor Paul Clancy partly considers the rash of council criticism an issue of rancor. "Have you seen British Parliament? They're like a bunch of Jordan Levys."

But Hennigan goes further, saying councilors are afraid to engage in debate because they are intimidated by Mariano, something few councilors admit. "They are very much intimidated by his mannerisms, his purported authority. I think they are intimidated because of his political skills."

Lukes supports the claim. "Ray is obsessed with political power, and he does intimidate this council," she says, adding that the council is afraid of what's known at City Hall as "The Hennigan Factor."

"You buck me like Hennigan, you get treated like Hennigan," says Lukes. In the 1993 mayoral race, Hennigan was soundly defeated due to what insiders consider poor campaigning, marked by little fundraising and a reliance on a sole platform that charged Mariano with exerting improper authority under the city's charter. Mariano, allegedly enraged by Hennigan's campaign, is said to have aligned himself with Councilor John Buell, whose sagging campaign picked up sudden momentum and efficiency. In the final election, Buell edged up to fourth place earning him a council seat while Hennigan was ousted.

Neither Hennigan nor Mariano will discuss that election's particulars, but Hennigan's concern for weakened democratic process lingers. "The mayor does a tremendous job of running efficient meetings," he says. "But the efficiency of the meeting comes at the expense of democracy -- of good, democratic debate."

Mariano, however, points to repeated examples of open, contentious disputes surrounding such issues as the opening of the convention center and the tax-increment financing (TIF) deal for Medical City. And he points to the ongoing debate over the Green Hill Park restoration.

But which board deserves credit for Worcester's revitalization efforts remains, for Mariano, a nagging political sore-point. "Med City was decided by this council. It was debated by this council. Sure, it was started by the previous council, but it was not anywhere near done. The four years where I've been mayor are the four where we did the most." Mariano adds that he went to Washington to get the check for $3 million to restore Union Station, an idea that was discussed for 20 years, he says.

"The actual implementation happened when I became mayor," he says. "These things require ongoing debate, ongoing support."

Mariano says a wide range of current city improvements (the small neighborhood initiative, the hiring of new police and community policing efforts, increased funding for public schools and improved standardized test scores, decreased unemployment, demolition of abandoned buildings, and urban beautification) are the result of the current board's work.

Part 3