Sullivan Appointed New City Manager

After a five month search, Cambridge found a new city manager this summer.

Though the City Council had received applications for the post from across the nation, they finally selected a man from the Greater Boston area. James L. Sullivan, 42, was serving as Chief Administrative Officer of Milton, when the Council appointed him to the manager's post on June 27.

Born in Somerville, Sullivan graduated from St. John's High School in North Cambridge, and received a bachelor's degree in Government and a master's degree in Administration from Boston College. He has, eleven years' experience in public administration.

No Unanimity

The vote to appoint Sullivan was not unanimous. Like his predecessor, Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29, who served as manager from January, 1966, until Janury, 1968, Sullivan holds only a 5 to 4 majority on the council. DeGuglielmo was fired by the council last January when he lost two of his five votes in last November's elections.

The three former DeGuglielmo supporters still on the council--Bernard Goldberg, Daniel J. Hayes Jr., and Cornelia B. Wheeler--voted to hire Sullivan. They were joined by Thomas H. D. Mahoney, and Barbara Ackermann, both of whom had voted to fire DeGuglielmo, saying at the time that he lacked the professional expertise needed for the manager's job.

Sullivan's hiring was opposed by Mayor Walter J. Sullivan (no immediate kin), and Councillors Edward A. Crane '35, Thomas W. Danehy, and Alfred E. Vellucci.

The new manager serves at the pleasure of the City Council and thus can be dismissed at any time by a simple mapority vote of the council.

After the firing of DeGuglielmo, the Council said it hoped to appoint a new manager within 90 days, by the middle of May. The Council was deadlocked on the manager issue for nearly twice that period, however, until the new coalition, breaking across old pro- and anti-DeGuglielmo lines, came together to hire Sullivan. Public Works Commissioner Ralph J. Dunphy, who served as Acting City Manager for the interim, has returned to his former post.

The Council has also voted to pay Sullivan an annual salary of $25,000, as compared with $20,000 that DeGuglielmo received.

Council Meetings

Sullivan has made one notable change in the operation of the manager's office since he assumed the post. He now attends the weekly Council meetings, which are always at least two hours long, and sometimes run for five or six hours into the night.

Previous city managers had not attended the meetings, and it is said that one city manager of 20 years ago "ran as soon as he saw a meeting beginning--and you never could find him." DeGuglielmo usually remained in his downstairs office, coming upstairs to the council chambers only if called before the body.

Last Monday, Sullivan was at City Traffic Director Robert E. Rudolph's side when Rudolph underwent one of his periodic interrogations by the Council. The manager helped to field some of the questions which Alfred E. Vellucci, a perennial Rudolph foe, directed toward the traffic director. Rudolph, who previously underwent the grillings solo, appeared calmer than usual.