No public job review for city manager; Vote will be reconsidered.

• Author: Kotsopoulos, Nick
• Position: Local

Byline: Nick Kotsopoulos

WORCESTER -- The City Council will not hold its annual evaluation of the city manager's job performance this year.

The council Tuesday night voted to remove the public job review from its June 24 agenda. A majority of councilors felt there was no need to go through with such an exercise given the unusual circumstances that exist at City Hall regarding the chief executive's position.

City Manager Edward M. Augustus has only been on the job since Jan. 6 and he will leave Oct. 3 when his nine-month contract expires.

Given that, several councilors said, it made little sense to go through with the city manager's evaluation next month.

The vote to cancel the evaluation was 7-3, with Councilor-at-Large Michael T. Gaffney, District 2 Councilor Philip P. Palmieri and Councilor-at-Large Frederick C. Rushton voting in opposition. Councilor-at-Large Konstantina B. Lukes was not present for the vote.

But after the council meeting, Mr. Gaffney filed a motion to reconsider the vote; it will be taken up at next week's meeting.

"Whether or not the city manager gets a review should be on the agenda for pubic assessment and comment,'' he said.

Those who opposed canceling the evaluation said they felt there should be at least some sort of abbreviated job review done by the council so it complies with the city charter and because the public expects it.

"There's some history to it,'' Mr. Palmieri said. "The city deserves it; the manager deserves it. I don't want to say we shouldn't have it at all.''

Mr. Rushton, meanwhile, said the evaluation done by the council is not about just one person, but about the entire city government. He said having an abbreviated evaluation could provide the city administration with some guidance going forward.

But Councilor-at-Large Morris A. Bergman said the purpose of an evaluation is...