Imbalance in Cambridge

Operating a city under Plan E is like a balancing act. The tension between an efficient, business-like city manager and a group of city councillors who must respond to political currents--a tension which is quite natural to begin with--can grow to unmanageable proportions unless each side keeps strictly to its own function.

For ten years, the Cambridge administration has kept this balance with consummate success. What once was an utterly corrupt city government was thoroughly reformed. Yet a glance at the article below will show that such success is not self-perpetuating. City Manager John B. Atkinson has overstepped his authority--he has neglected his duties and ignored the City Council.

He has upset the balance, and the result has been an onerous situation where Cambridge can neither get rid of him, nor bring him into line. The CCA itself has split over the question, one faction insisting on Atkinson's immediate reelection, the other on his dismissal. Actually, the anti-Atkinson group is merely trying to threaten the city manager as a means of forcing him to submit to the Council's authority. But because the Council cannot agree on a candidate to replace Atkinson, the threat is a watery one indeed. So Atkinson continues on his way with little fear of reprisal from Cambridge's legislature.

Thus the tendency of most Plan E governments to impoverish the legislative body's authority has been fulfilled in Cambridge. The separation of authority that is basic to the system has been violated, and there is little that Cambridge voters can do about it for the moment. But for the future, at least one solution presents itself: limited tenure for city managers. The proper time limit is, of course, problemmatical. It must be of sufficient duration to allow a manager enough time to gain experience and put it to use, and yet it must be short enough to prevent him from becoming a petty tyrant. We suggest ten years would satisfy both requirements.

An arbitrary ruling, however, hardly ensures successful relations forever after; regardless of rulings, the system cannot work if both the legislative and executive are not willing to mind their own business. But a time limit would minimize the number of deadlocks such as the one paralyzing Cambridge government now.