Timely Tim

City Councilor Tim Cooney retires after 20 years on the board. Though his popularity was slipping, Cooney leaves on top Ñ and waves good-bye to a staid institution that could miss him dearly come November.

by Joe O'Brien

When I think of Tim Cooney, I remember my first day as a paramedic intern at St. Vincent's Hospital about five years ago. I was making the rounds of the coronary unit when I heard Cooney's unmistakable voice drifting into the hall. I had met him only once, several years earlier, but I boldly decided to step into his room to say hello. Little did I know, he was about to undergo his third heart catheterization to unblock his arteries. Yet there he was, chatting on the phone, taking care of city business. He waved me over, surprising me when he remembered my name and when he offered advice on my then-budding political career. It was classic Tim Cooney. Though facing life-threatening surgery, the Worcester at-large city councilor was still mucking it up with his voters. He's an undeniable, consummate politician.

Now, after 20 years, Cooney is stepping down, he says, to spend more time with his family and to devote himself to the Central Massachusetts Chapter of the National Safety Council, of which he's been executive director for 25 years.

Come January, local voters will say good-bye to the last of the council's old guard. He's one of the nice guys: an off-beat, occasionally nutty character who made a career out of focusing on constituent service. Though he often sided with the council's majority (and is considered a staunch Mayor Raymond Mariano supporter), he was not afraid to take risks, representing an at-times solo voice in support of contentious issues like needle exchange and a proposal to curtail police detail work. It was perhaps those very issues that led to Cooney's decision to retire as he saw his voter support steadily eroding in recent elections.

His departure undoubtedly will shift the council's balance of power as it will prompt a number of candidates to run for his seat. It could provide neophyte lawmakers the chance to win positions (as four did in the 1997 election) on a board that's viewed as a staid, if not an entrenched, 11-large institution. And city council watchers speculate that Cooney's retirement will affect Mariano, who could see his grip on the council's majority start to loosen.

"Mariano will have to struggle to get six votes in the future without Cooney," says one city council watcher.

THOUGH COONEY'S RETIREMENT hasn't made a big splash in local news, his story is one of those rare tales of how the good guy comes out on top. He was raised in a Vernon Hill three-decker and learned his love for politics from his father. Timothy Sr. owned a package store and served four years on city council and one term as a state representative. Politics was a constantly discussed topic within the Cooney home, he says.

Growing up, Cooney considered his first love basketball; he was a high-school star at St. John's and earned a scholarship to Assumption College. After graduation, Cooney studied to be a priest, but instead decided to serve as high-school teacher and coach. For a time, he was head basketball coach at Nichols College. After leaving Nichols he worked a series of jobs (in banks, within several more school systems, and at the Worcester Chamber of Commerce), but he began to think seriously about his career. Today Cooney muses that he had so many jobs, family members and friends would joke that "Cooney can't hold a job."

By 1975, Cooney was 34 years old with two young children, so he took a position as the director of the then-fledgling Central Massachusetts Chapter of the National Safety Council. During his quarter-century there, Cooney has overseen the growth of the West Boylston-based office, which has gone from four to 60 employees. He's expanded its highway- and traffic-safety focus; it now operates a youth driving school and runs several federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) programs and offers first-aid training. Cooney also commissioned the construction of the state's largest test track, where drivers are trained on forklifts, 18-wheelers, and city buses.

But, as he built up the safety council, Cooney never lost his passion for talking politics. In 1979, with his career established, he decided to run for city council after David Forsberg announced he was leaving his post. Cooney ran a tireless, organized campaign, capturing the endorsements of local unions and the powerful Citizens for Plan E (at that time the dominate force in local politics). With strong support from Irish-majority precincts and from his family's Vernon Hill neighborhood, Cooney finished a surprising fifth out of a field of 32 candidates (the council then was made up of nine at-large members).

When Cooney joined the board in January 1980, legendary figures like City Manager Francis McGrath and councilors Tom Early, Joe Casdin, and John Anderson -- West Side politicians who controlled much of the city's business -- dominated the debate and established an aura surrounding Worcester politics that has yet to be duplicated.

And Cooney soon found himself in the thick of it. Just days after Cooney was sworn in, he discovered he was the only member yet to throw his support behind one of three councilors vying for the coveted mayor's position (at the time, the council elected a mayor). Cooney shocked colleagues by declaring he wouldn't cast a vote until the candidates agreed to a public debate. Fellow councilors didn't like the suggestion one bit, but Cooney was lauded by residents who flocked to the City Hall chamber to watch the three city legislators duke it out. After the verbal sparring, Cooney cast the deciding vote for Jordan Levy, who despite finishing first in the polls had been repeatedly unsuccessful in his mayoral bid.

It was a vote that started a long and continued friendship between Levy and Cooney -- a friendship that has survived 20 years of political battles.

"Cooney was the swing vote that put me over the top, and he catapulted my career," Levy says.

It was a fantastic and dramatic start for Cooney, who would serve nine additional terms -- the highlight coming in 1987 when he was selected as mayor for a two-year term.

But it's never been about the big issues for Cooney as much as it has been about the small ones: the endless pot-hole complaints, neighborhood disputes, and traffic concerns. Such dedication has earned him the "best at-large district councilor" title by fellow board members who are quick to note Cooney receives more constituent requests than the city's five district councilors.

"He's king of the pink slips," says Mariano, making a reference to the pink forms the council staff use to record constituent complaints. While most councilors receive perhaps a handful a week, Mariano says, Cooney always has piles of them.

But don't let Cooney fool you. He's been a key leader on a number of huge policy debates.

Take the battle over the city's trash-bag fee. It was Cooney who led the effort to have residents pay for trash collection in tandem with a new curbside recycling program. Today it's a national model, but it wasn't politically popular back then.

And then there are the fun issues. As mayor, Cooney helped form the city's marching band. With former Councilor Gary Rosen, Cooney created the political event of the year, the St. Patrick's Day breakfast, where proceeds from the annual roast benefit the band.

Cooney, in his 20 years, has also contributed to the planning of the more than $1 billion in ongoing downtown construction projects. They're large projects that he believes will spur Main Street's economic growth; but ultimately Cooney finds comfort in his neighborhood work.

He stood out front in the fight to keep a trash incinerator out of Greendale, and he helped force a chemical company out of Quinsigamond Village. More recently he has opposed plans to run a new airport access road through south Worcester.

"I was always the councilor for neighborhoods and the city's people," he says. "I came into office as a neighborhood candidate, and I am going out as one."

IN RECENT YEARS, Cooney's support began to plummet; in fact, he finished last in the past two elections. Yet, Cooney says he's retiring on his own terms. And in the eyes of many he is leaving while still on top -- able to establish his record on contentious, but important, issues, he says.

Needle exchange, for one, is a fight Cooney says he's closest to, having spent three years watching his brother Joe, infected by the HIV virus, waste away. Ever since his brother's death in 1990, Cooney says, he's been committed "to do what I can to help people with HIV/AIDS."

Unfortunately, needle exchange has yet to be embraced by the council. What particularly disappoints him about this year's defeat was several of the new members who backed away from their support. Cooney also recalls his disappointment with his unsuccessful efforts to rein in the costs of manning every road-side work project with a police officer. Cooney was the sole vote in favor of studying how to cut back on police details; and it was a position that cost him dearly -- he lost the support of the police union and of other public employees.

Yet Cooney offers no apologies, which comes as no surprise to his colleagues. Mariano says that once Cooney decided his stance, "He would dig his heels in and no one could move him, not the mayor, not the newspaper, and not a hundred people in the audience." Levy and Mariano also say that unlike many councilors -- whom you knew how they would vote before the debate concluded -- Cooney remained uncommitted and very independent.

"He marched to his own drummer," Levy says.

But for those who know Cooney best, they always start and end their praise by saying Cooney is a lighthearted, fun guy who befriended the people he met and who rarely had harsh words to say. Perhaps that's his best legacy.

FOR SURE, HE leaves behind a council in flux. And a growing number of council observers wonder what effect Cooney's retirement will have on Mariano, whom Cooney calls a close professional and personal friend. Since Levy's retirement (Levy served on the board twice, most recently from 1988 to 1996), Mariano's enjoyed broad support. But this past election of four new councilors (Stacey Luster, Tim Murray, Joe Petty, and John Finnegan) and recent public feuding with one-time ally Michael Perotto have several councilors questioning if Mariano's power is diminishing. But Cooney maintains his departure won't influence the council's pro-mayor majority. And Mariano is also quick to dismiss such talk, citing the arts district and his "Downtown Vision" statement as two examples of his widespread council support.

But there's no denying that this year's failed attempt to launch a strong-mayor campaign has hurt the mayor's office -- particularly since City Manager Tom Hoover emerged victorious, and thus more powerful. Mariano has also experienced several close calls on recent council votes. The latest, the debate over where to locate a new courthouse, had Mariano "begging for votes," something that would have been unheard of in past terms, says one councilor.

And so far, of the 14 candidates who have announced campaigns for Cooney's seat (the filing deadline is July 27), none has strong ties with the mayor.

Political newcomer Dennis Irish could benefit the most from Cooney's departure because of his ethnicity, which has always been a key factor in local elections. Two other leading challengers, Juan Gomez and Al Toney, will also benefit from the open spot. Gomez has run before and thus has name recognition, but so far he remains low-profile. Community activist Al Toney, who jumped into the race before Cooney's announcement, should also be highly competitive. But he too has done little visible campaigning since his December kickoff. Other candidates like Neil Brosnan and Kassra "Sonny" Pazooki certainly can expect the vacant seat to help their chances of winning in November. And that's not to mention the potential votes Councilor Luster -- who, in her first term, has distinguished herself as a politician unafraid to take on unpopular issues à la Tim Cooney -- could pick up from his camp.

And that's all fine with Cooney, who believes he's leaving behind a council and a city headed in "the right direction."

If anything is in jeopardy, it's all those pink slips.

Joe O'Brien can be reached at joescastle@aol.com.