In the second meeting of the current Worcester City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 20, the council considered several orders from Dr. Satya Mitra, one of four serving their first term on the council.
I can’t say I had writing support for Mitra on my bingo card, especially this early in the term, but these orders are reasonable requests for practical changes to the operations of the city council.
They are also unlikely to happen.
Mitra comes from the business world, where things sometimes operate in ways that make sense. While I’m sure he understands that he is in government now, I’m not sure he understands the reality of Worcester’s government and the reality of the role the city council remands itself to.
Brief Background
Mitra founded The Guru Tax and Financial Services, Inc. in 1990, which he still operates. Mitra also served as a board member at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce for several years, including a stint serving as chair of the board. He has also served on the City of Worcester Planning Board , the Worcester Public Library Board, and the Worcester State University Foundation Board.
Before immigrating to the United States in the late 1970s, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in biochemistry in India in 1976.
In short, the man is experienced, smart, and has achieved some success. Those are valuable traits, even if your politics differ from his.
Orders for Basic Information
During the city council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, Mitra had three orders that appear like common-sense asks for most other organizations.
Information on Reports
In item 9j, Mitra asked for a report on the processes the City Manager’s office uses to track the endless requests for information reports by city councilors. During the meeting, City Manager Eric Batista said the backlog of outstanding reports is around 1500, going back many years, with some originated before the council appointed him.
The city manager’s office couldn’t possibly fulfill the volume of reports requested. This allows the manager to choose which reports the administration returns to the council. As the manager can be terminated only by a majority vote of the council, the majority’s needs naturally receive priority. It also allows the manager to ignore reports for information that he doesn’t want public, for whatever reason.
The root cause is the non-functional city council committee system. Council committees do very little, if any, oversight of the operations of city government. If committees demanded that department heads appear before their committees and sought data, not reports, directly from departments, they could obtain information.
The dictator-like powers of committee chairs contribute to the problem as they have total control of the agenda of each committee.
Quarterly Report on Council Orders
Mitra’s order, 9k on the agenda, asks the city clerk to “provide City Council with a quarterly report outlining the various City Council Orders adopted over the previous three (3) months.”
Another request that seems simple, but not in Worcester.
The city clerk’s office in Worcester has plenty of responsibilities. It is the office of the clerk, not the council. The responsibility for this request should fall on the city council staff.
The problem: the city council refuses to do anything about its funding, which is embarrassingly low. The mayor’s office has two employees, and the other 10 members of the council have a support team of three.
Three employees for 10 councilors. Completely absurd. It also reflects the council majority’s views on what little responsibility it has.
Goal Setting
Item 9h on the council agenda asked for a report on the feasibility of establishing SMART Goals ” to standardize and track residents needs in a transparent and effective manner.” Mitra’s order asked for these goals to “include but not be limited to issues such as the amount of potholes that can and should be fixed in a month, providing services for homeless individuals, determining appropriate speed hump locations, and improving public safety outcomes.”
Some reasonably view SMART Goals, an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound, first introduced in 1981, as outdated. PACT Goals, Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable, are arguably more popular today after their introduction in 2019.
City Manager Eric Batista responded, saying, in summary, that departments in city government under his authority have implemented KPIs (key performance indicators) and as a means of measuring outcomes. There is no reason to dispute that, I’m sure they do.
What wasn’t said is that if any means of measuring performance involves reporting to the council, reports delivered to the council become part of the meeting agenda and easily accessible to the public. The last thing a majority of councilors want is any measurable outcomes made public. That’s not in their interests.
This highlights a fundamental flaw in the city’s system of government. The city council hires and appoints the city manager. They chose him, so negative outcomes reflect on them. While councilors do often use the manager as a shield to absorb criticism, as he doesn’t need votes to stay in office. However, they have every motivation to prevent measurable outcomes from public view.
The same reasons illustrate why the majority of councilors refused to even allow a search for the next city manager when they appointed Batista. Councilors can’t argue they made the best choice for the city. They couldn’t possibly know that, as they didn’t bother to look. They did what was best for them.
That’s a consistent theme of this city council majority. After all, the election just happened in November, but the next one is only two years away.
Unfortunately, Dr. Mitra is going to have to learn how to operate within nearly total dysfunction.
