Worcester City Council has voted to appoint acting City Manager Eric Batista to the job permanently, ending months of uncertainty about who will be the next chief executive of the city.
Batista has served in an interim capacity since May, when Worcester's last manager stepped down. City councilors originally planned to keep Batista in the position until they completed a nationwide search to find a permanent manager. But a majority of councilors called off the search after agreeing that Batista deserved the job.
Born in Puerto Rico before moving to Worcester as a child, Batista is the first person of Latino heritage to run the city. Under Worcester’s form of government, his position carries the political weight and responsibilities of mayors in cities like Boston and Providence.
“I look forward to sharing my thoughts, my ideas, my vision and direction in terms of what the city is moving toward in the next two to three years,” Batista said after the 8-3 vote Tuesday night. “It’s an honor and privilege to take this role.”
Although Councilors Etel Haxhiaj, Thu Nguyen and Khrystian King agreed Batista should have the job, they voted against his hiring because they believed the council was flip-flopping on the nationwide search. They argued a decision to forgo the search would be short-sighted and amounted to the council not fulfilling its duty to hold a fair and transparent search process. Their votes reflected what was a long, tumultuous hiring process that divided the Worcester community.
In April when city councilors voted to make Batista acting city manager, they also agreed to launch a nationwide search to find a permanent one. Prior to the recent debate about scrapping the search, council members were considering hiring the recruitment firm GovHR USA to review potential candidates.
However, in September, Mayor Joe Petty began saying the search was no longer necessary because Batista deserved the job. He said going forward with the process would be a waste of time and taxpayer money — sentiments he repeated before the vote on Tuesday.
“Over the past several months, he’s proven to me he has a handle on all the issues,” Petty said. “I don’t think we’re going to find anyone better.”
A majority of councilors agreed with Petty, arguing they preferred to hire someone from the city who they already trust than an outsider. During public testimony, members of Worcester’s Latino community also testified favorably of hiring Batista, saying he’ll represent the voices of people who don’t always feel heard.
As in past meetings, several other councilors pushed for the search to continue despite agreeing Batista's background made him an ideal candidate.
King argued council hasn’t even requested an application from Batista and the public hasn’t had an opportunity to hear about his plans for the city. Sarai Rivera added she was confident Batista would come out of the search as a top candidate. Appointing him without it, she said, could undermine him if the public views his hiring as a sham.
“We don’t need to give him a leg up. … He was going to shine, but he was never given that opportunity,” she said. “I feel that this is a cloud that’s always going to hang unfairly over his head.”
Although Rivera and Councilor Sean Rose demanded the city have the search, they realized they didn’t have enough votes to make it happen. As a result, they joined the majority in voting to make Batista’s position permanent.
Batista still needs to negotiate and agree to a contract with City Council before he becomes the long-term city manager. Council also voted to have him hold a series of meetings with city residents to share his priorities and hear people’s concerns.
In an interview with GBH News after the council meeting, Batista acknowledged the hiring process created fresh divisions among councilors and residents. He pledged to do as much as he can to help the community heal.
“I pride myself in having the ability to bring people together to have open and honest conversation,” he said. “It’s something that I invite and I am willing to do for the better of what we do here in the city.”
Batista has been on city staff for a decade, rising up ranks from project manager to chief of operations and management before becoming an acting city manager. In the six months he’s been serving in the interim role, he’s had to navigate the city’s affordable housing shortage and address complaints of a racially toxic workplace at Worcester City Hall, among other issues.
As he becomes permanent city manager, he’ll have to deal with the fallout of another recent development: the U.S. Justice Department’s investigation of Worcester police for discriminatory policing and excessive use of force.
