FAILURE OF MANAGEMENT

City Manager Augustus             

Failure of Management

Introduction

On March 21, 2018 a resident of the City of Worcester was ticketed for violating the Winter parking ban. It never snowed on March 21, 2018 and the plows never came out.

In February 2016 the Assistant Commissioner of the Worcester Public Works stated in a local newspaper that the City of Worcester policy regarding the Winter Parking Ban was that no cars would be ticketed until it started to snow and the plows came onto the streets.

The  resident of Worcester appealed his ticket and brought the newspaper article to the Hearing before the Parking Administrator as his substantive evidence. The Parking Administrator told the Appellant resident that the City had changed its policy of not ticketing until it started to snow subsequent to the publication of the newspaper article.  The Parking Administrator dismissed the Appeal.

The resident then filed in Worcester Superior Court a request for judicial review of the Administrative Hearing of his ticket. This review is governed by Standing Order 1-96 which allows for discovery.

As a part of the discovery the City of Worcester and the Parking Administrator argued against providing any additional evidence. Their argument came in the form of an Opposition Memo to the Plaintiff’s Motion to present additional evidence to the Court.

City Has No Policy

Curiously the Defendants’ Opposition Memo stated that the City had NO written policy regarding the ticketing of vehicles during a Winter Parking Ban. See photo. The inference of not having a written policy is that the 2016 newspaper article has increased weight as substantive evidence. The Assistant Commissioner does not deny the newspaper article and the City has written that there is no document to contradict the newspaper article.

Since a Parking Administrator does not make policy, there was no City policy upon which to base her decision to dismiss the Appeal. The Parking Administrator, based on the newspaper article, could have allowed the Appeal. Instead it seems that she exceeded the authority of her Department by making new policy which is also not written anywhere for anyone to see.

Failure of Management

The confusion regarding Policy is clearly the blame City Manager Augustus as both the Parking Administrator and the Assistant Commission of Public Works report to him. The excesses of the Parking Administrator is due partially to failure of management by the City Manager.

 It is ironic that the city Manager good high marks and evaluation from the City Council recently.