City Council looks at adding more staff, possible City Council legal counsel

WORCESTER — As the city continues to grow in population, City Council is taking steps to add more City Council staff to help with the council's needs and constituent services.

Thursday, the Municipal and Legislative Operations Standing Committee discussed creating at least two new City Council staff positions.

Ways for the City Council to receive its own legal counsel were also discussed Thursday.

Councilor-at-large Khrystian King said the city budget includes about $250,000 carved out for two positions, according to a video of the Thursday meeting.

While some councilors may wish for as many as 10 aides to individually assist each city councilor, King said starting with two extra roles is the right speed to work out any kinks in creating additional City Council staff.

"It's important that we're able to ensure that our chief of staff, when supervising or managing these positions, has an opportunity to work out the bugs before we move forward," King said.

Currently, City Council has one full-time staffer, Chief of Staff Erica Cawley, and an employee in the city clerk's office who aids the council part time.

City Clerk Nikolin Vangjeli studied a handful of other city council staff in Boston, Cambridge and Springfield. Boston has over 100 support staff members; Cambridge has two staffers for the whole body and eight staffers who each work for an individual councilor and Springfield has three full-time staffers, according to the meeting video.

King also asked for Vangjeli to create a survey so city councilors can provide feedback on their needs for City Council staff.

District 3 City Councilor George Russell, the committee vice chair, agreed that there was a need for more City Council staff, relaying that a Boston city councilor he was talking to was surprised to hear the limited staff Worcester City Council had.

"He looked at me and he said, 'How do you get anything done?'" Russell said.

Saying the new staffers faced the risk of having to answer to 10 bosses on the City Council with different priorities, Russell suggested the possibility that each individual councilor receive somewhere around $25,000 for staffing purposes that they could potentially pool with other councilors to hire committee- or caucus-oriented staff.

District 2 City Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson, who attended the Thursday committee meeting, said she believes Cawley and her predecessor had both done a good job working with 10 city councilors and she wanted to see the additional staff members receive competitive salaries similar to employees in other departments. She said other departments in the city have larger staffs as the budget has increased.

"I look at all these other communities, but moreover I look just with our four walls in City Hall," Mero-Carlson said. "There's a lot of people who have a lot of staff to support them as they should."

Mero-Carlson also called for a home rule petition to allow for the City Council to be charged with evaluating its staff positions.

In addition, Resident Yenni Desroches urged the City Council to hire their own counsel outside of the city solicitor so the City Council can have assistance drafting ordinances before they reach the council floor.

King said it appeared likely that there is an appetite for City Councilors receiving their own legal counsel.

Russell agreed City Council needed legal advice and having just the city solicitor could create a difficult situation when there are differences of opinions between entities like the City Council and the city administration.

"Sometimes in the form of government that we have there are conflicts of opinion not only between councilors ... sometimes from the administration, the city manager versus some members of the council, sometimes it's the mayor versus some members of the council," Russell said.

However, Russell said he was unsure about adding a position to the bureaucracy and suggested retaining outside legal counsel.

King submitted three chairmen's orders:

• To request the city clerk work with the city solicitor on a report about the language required to equip City Council with its own legal support, along with salary parameters and job descriptions.

• To request the city solicitor be tasked with providing City Council draft language for a special act granting City Council hiring authority over City Council support staff to send to the state Legislature.

• To request the city clerk provide a staffing survey to the City Council with the purpose of City Council filling out the surveys to aid the city clerk and director of human resources in creating staff job descriptions. The clerk would then provide City Council with a report detailing potential job descriptions for these roles that the City Council will finalize.

The orders are scheduled to go before the City Council Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'How do you get anything done?': City Council looks to add more staff