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Poll results

On May 31, Edward Augustus ended his eight-year run as Worcester's city manager, and former assistant city manager Eric Batista began his term as acting city manager. Worcester is somewhat unique among larger cities where the city manager is the top day-to-day executive in the city and not an elected position. Proposals to change Worcester's hybrid form of Plan E government to a strong elected mayor system has cropped up in the past and been defeated at the ballot box, as recently as 2005.

During this time of leadership transition, should Worcester again consider switching to a strong mayor form of government?
Yes (51%, 85 VOTES)
No (49%, 83 VOTES)
Poll Description

On May 31, Edward Augustus ended his eight-year run as Worcester's city manager, and former assistant city manager Eric Batista began his term as acting city manager. Worcester is somewhat unique among larger cities where the city manager is the top day-to-day executive in the city and not an elected position. Proposals to change Worcester's hybrid form of Plan E government to a strong elected mayor system has cropped up in the past and been defeated at the ballot box, as recently as 2005.

  • 168 Votes
  • 5 Comments
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5 Comments

  • Bernard Melican
    June 13, 2022

    Ahem! In Worcester, the business of governing is controlled by our sitting Congressman.

  • June 9, 2022
    The mayor in Worcester is only a figurehead. It's the city manager who runs the City with his department heads and approval of the City Council. Francis J. McGrath was City Manager for 34 years. His time in office built schools, the mall, the civic center among other things. I can't believe he was not mentioned in the May 2022 edition, City of Innovators.
  • June 6, 2022

    While in theory an elected chief executive sounds like a good idea, in practice it would both add election cycle pressure preventing the executive from governing effectively, and give additional influence to the small minority of citizens who give money to support the election process (or for that matter actually vote).

  • June 6, 2022

    Let the manager handle day to day operations and Mayor focus on direction for balance & growth based on peoples wishes …

  • June 6, 2022

    Worcester is doing better than ever. Why would we want to make a change now?