WORCESTER – Worcester City Manager Eric Batista enhanced his administration’s assault on the Human Rights Commission on Monday, with city staff informing the commission the city will not post its minutes from its last two meetings. It is not clear if it will do so in the future.
The Human Rights Commission was the only entity in the city government that reviewed police misconduct in a public setting until Batista restricted access to documents related to misconduct from being available to the commission.
The city’s Revised Ordinances of 2015, which establish the structure of city government, Article 15, Section 10 establishes the Human Rights Commission. While the ordinance established the commission “under the jurisdiction of the city manager,” the ordinance clearly lays out its duties and responsibilities.
The ordinance allocates the responsibility to investigate “the violation of the enjoyment and exercise by any person of his or her civil rights.”
An ordinance has the power of law within the city. The city charter, the foundational document of city government, exclusively allocates the power to create and pass ordinances to the Worcester City Council.
A similar dispute emerged between the commission in the city, leading to a lawsuit and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Human Rights Commission of Worcester v. Assad in 1976, which said, in part:
“Where a municipal ordinance which established a human rights commission gave the commission the power and duty to receive and investigate complaints of violations of civil rights, a complaint charging excessive use of force by police was within the scope of the commission’s authority to investigate.”
Despite the plain language of the ordinance, and the ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, Batista continues to unlawfully restrict the commission.
The Worcester City Council Standing Committee on Public Safety is the only other public entity that would have jurisdiction to review cases of police misconduct. During the tenure of Councilor Kate Toomey, the chair of the Public Safety Committee since 2016, the committee has never requested any report on police misconduct or reviewed an internal investigation report by the police department.
Editor’s Note: This piece originally said the city would no longer post the minutes of the Human Rights Commission to the city’s website. City employees told the commission it would not post its minutes, or the associated documents, for its last two meetings. Corrections were made.
