Tough Times For the Task Force

It has been a tough three years for the Harvard Square Development Task Force. Only given the power to make plans for the Harvard Square area, the task force has been abused by almost every interest in the Square at one time or another.

However, with its publication of the Comprehensive Policy Plan for Harvard Square in December 1974 and its strong behind-the-scenes work in coordinating many of the anti-Kennedy Library neighborhood groups, the task force had suddenly gained the prominence that most planning groups never enjoy.

But with one 5-4 vote last week the city council threatened to take all that legitimacy away.

Mayor Walter J. Sullivan, leading the conservative onslaught, cited the task force's role in keeping the Kennedy complex out of Cambridge as his reason for asking that the task force be switched from the city manager's office to the mayor's domain.

The task force received a slight reprieve from politics Thursday night when the council changed its mind and voted to place the agency under joint control of the mayor and the city manager.

The better to accommodate more of Mayor Sullivan's choices, the council agreed to expand the force from 25 to 35 people.

But City Manager James J. Sullivan will still have 50 per cent of the say, through consultation, on choosing the new appointees.

It is hard to tell how politicized the task force will be with the additional new members and the new joint control, but task force member Pebble Gifford yesterday called the new arrangement "a very reasonable solution."

For most task force members the Thursday vote brought a sigh of relief--it may add a few appointees not so amenable to the task force line, but nonetheless, the vote will enable the existing members to continue their tenure on the force.