The State of the City
My Full Final Comment on 3 more years of Eric Batista's Management
(Video at the bottom)
This was written for public comment 12-20-24
Special Meeting of City Council, at noon the Friday before Christmas, to vote on the city manager’s contract. I believe this particular one was not on the terms of the contract, just the next step - publishing the laws to reflect the changes in payment.
I know Worcester likes Catholic dads, and it's great that he's a representative of the Latino community, but
We need a city manager who defends reproductive rights, who advocates for equity, and who doesn't play nicely with the police union when it comes to findings of systematic abuse of power
I appreciate that the this is supposed to be a procedural quick meeting, but believe there is an opportunity here.
I think we all know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again,
expecting different results.
Promoting the person trained by the last person to interim
then giving them the actual job with another raise is the Worcester Way
Worcester has again and again simply promoted the person trained by the last person,
rather than searching for an unbiased candidate,
rather than being open to new or different ideas,
and it's not really working for the people of this city.
It's possible that the city manager and I can never be on the same page
Their job is to maintain the systems running this city.
while I'm advocating for some of these systems to be dismantled and rebuilt equitably
In the past few weeks, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Department of Justice have reiterated to this administration something it’s constituents have been saying for a long time -
our police departments is problematic, this city acts unconstituionally
Letting our solicitor go would be a great first step, if it wasn’t followed by a coordinated disinformation campaign, and no indication of actual responsibility being taken
Our city manager understands people need to cooperate to get things done, but has not cooperated with the human rights commission, or many different organizations that represents this city
He has not taken action on the problematic parks department
I know he inherited most of these problems from his predecessor. And all things considered, maybe he’s doing a good job.
But we don’t know, because there are not metrics or standards or goals or anything to determine
All we have to go on is the past two years.
And his word,
I don’t think Worcester is better now than it was two years ago,
and I don’t think he’s held to his word
This past Wednesday the department of Justice
explained that there is reasonable cause to believe in a pattern of practice of misconduct that violates the constitution
This was an investigation into the City of Worcester AND the Worcester Police Department,
City of Worcester AND the Worcester Police Department,
Not just the police department.
The pattern of practice of unlawful conduct compromises worcesters ability to provide public safety services constitutionally effectively
A well-managed city is one that is designed to be responsive to the natural environment, has a desirable public realm, and supports social needs.
This city is none of those, and I believe less supportive and less responsive and less desirable than it was two years ago
Might be kind considerate passionate
He might believe victims, he might be against violence, he might even believe in telling the truth - but we need to center impact, not intent.
I initially got involved in Worcester politics after watching Eric Batista defend justify and allow crisis pregnancy centers
Who need someone who is a man of their word.
Who gets stuff done
This is as far as I got in my two and a half minutes. I should have just kept going, even though Mayor Petty muted me. The meeting was under seventeen minutes in total, and I had my own cameras rolling.
Nothing from digital equity audit has been implemented?
I understand he backs the blue, crises pregnancy centers, and won't touch real estate matters.
Even if you believe he wants to do good things, you have two years of documented evidence, and plenty of data showing his effect on the city.
This year, Worcester had the most homicides in 24 years.
It had an unprecedented attack in city hall during a city meeting,
which it hasn’t pursued Justice on
The ballpark that the chamber of commerce and prior administration told us would pay for itself is costing us a lot of money, and he is just brushing that under the rug.
Worcester finally started complying with the public records law once Tom Marino petitioned
Headlines the past weeks refer to the ACLU saying you acted unconstitutionally, your police union is witness tampering, this city actively seems to condone political violcence, sexual assault paid for by tax payers, and he passionately worked to preserve crisis pregnancy canters
Roads are horrible, and infrastructure is literally falling apart
We've got a rat problem
The mill street fiasco
his administration did nothing about the pattern of racism from our Parks department,
Traffic committee took nine months to discuss reasonable safety measures while children were being killed
Safety committee didn't have one meeting to discuss the DOJ investigation.
He, and our thankfully now former city solicitor are named in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, due to their refusal to allow public discussion of racist practices
Homelessness is at an all time high, but this winter he’s only implemented the same thing he did the past two years
The housing affordability affordability has gotten worse and worse and worse and he hasn’t listened
I know continuity is important.
The question you're being asked to answer today, isn't about the hassle of finding a new manager,
But do we really want to continue on the route we're going?
He's failed to address political violence
He REFUSED to commit to creating a woman's shelter.
He doesn't have metrics goals or standards, but if he did I don't think he'd be meeting them.
It's if we want three more years of this management,
If we want to pay MORE to keep going the direction we're going.
I'm not happy with the direction we're going.
I don't think Worcester is better now than it was two years ago.
And I question the values of anyone who does.
If you need an excuse, take your pick.
You have an opportunity here.
Worcester knows how to handle this situation, it promotes the person under them as interim while they figure it out, just this time do an actual search.
Or cut to the chase and hire Hung Nguyen.
Maybe we can do an actual search, and find a fresh set of eyes and experience repairing the reputation of a city.
Or maybe finally have that charter review we've been talking about, and make this mess Mayor Petty's problem.
Considering there's only one item on the agenda, I ask for some lenience
The ACLU is telling y'all that since you allowed Councilor Bergmans pro-Israel petition laws year that it it is hypocritical and unlawful to deny the ceasefire petition, or to have silenced the hundreds of people there to speak.
To be honest,
It seems like most of what he does these days is put out fires he started.
I know he's not a bad guy, but we have something right now we didn't have when we hired him - options.
This is an executive body, and you are in charge of the manager. If you can't get the manager to do his job in the past two years, why are we going for another three?