The City Council: Compromise

THE LIBERAL majority of the Cambridge City Council, by its continued inability to agree on a new City Manager, is demonstrating to the people of this City that supposedly reform-minded politicians can be just as stubborn and selfish as their entrenched, conservative counterparts.

These five Councillors endorsed by the Cambridge Civic Association promised in their campaigns that one of their first acts upon reaching office would be to remove incumbent City Manager John H. Corcoran, who has appointed notably mediocre people to fill important vacancies in various City departments. Corcoran's record on such issues as school construction and housing clearly indicates that he does not have the imagination or initiative required to work with the Council in launching much-needed reforms in Cambridge.

The Council, after a long and arduous search, is now considering two candidates for the job--Neil Peterson and James Johnson. Although the fact that one is white and the other black has injected an unnecessary racial factor into the debate, the fact is that both men are well qualified and either would be a real asset to the City government.

However, it is Peterson who twice won the enthusiastic endorsement of community leaders after being interviewed with other candidates by a citizens' panel on March 25 and May 13.

Councillor Henry F. Owens III is the only one of the CCA-endorsed Councillors who refuses to vote for Peterson. Yet at a special Council meeting on May 4, Owens said that if his candidate, Johnson, were allowed an interview with the citizens' panel and those citizens still preferred Peterson, then he too would vote for Peterson.

AFTER BOTH men had their interviews, the citizens' panel expressed its preference for Peterson on May 13, but Owens then reneged on his promise. Either he does not really want a new City Manager, or he only wants one with a black skin. Even if, as Owens contends, Johnson does have a better record, Owens should fulfill the promises he made last fall and this spring, and he should abide by the outcome of the citizen participation process, joining with his liberal colleagues in making Peterson the new City Manager of Cambridge.