Worcester councilors express concern over proposed Polar Park oversight board
Photo | Grant Welker
Polar Park in Worcester
Worcester city councilors showed a broad reluctance Tuesday night to give up oversight over the Polar Park district as part of a power struggle with the city administration over the $132-million baseball stadium.
City Manager Edward Augustus has proposed a five-member board called the Worcester Ballpark Authority, whose members he would appoint and which would oversee management and public events at the city-owned ballpark, as well as monitor its finances. But councilors said Tuesday they don't want to give up control over the project to a new board.
"Be careful what you do, giving authority of the Worcester City Council to a group of volunteers who we don't have much say, or any say, in electing," Councilor Gary Rosen said, comparing the potential to new powers the council gave to the Board of Health, which he said has limited councilors' ability to dictate health restrictions or programs.
The council has little power over the creation of the proposed Worcester Ballpark Authority, which would also oversee a planned 340-space parking garage planned to be built across Madison Street from the stadium. The city administration has the power in the city charter to create the board and appoint its members. The city would be unable to create the Polar Park board only if the council votes against it, according to the city administration.
The authority would not report to the council in any way, an arrangement already in place with the Civic Center Commission, a body that's long overseen the city-owned DCU Center in the same way.
Still, that hasn't stopped councilors from arguing over the potential Polar Park board — including even the use of the word authority in its name. The name, said City Solicitor Michael Traynor, the head of the city's law department, doesn't imply any particular powers and could be changed to a commission, for example.
Augustus and Traynor stressed the Polar Park board wouldn't take away control of big-picture issues, including a lease with the Worcester Red Sox, a deal that's yet to be finalized with the team that's expected to begin playing at Polar Park next April. The board would instead take up smaller items, like the color of window drapes in a ballpark suite, Augustus gave as an example, or how the city may use the ballpark for the few days each year for its own events. It would also provide transparency through public meetings likely to be held once a month.
"I've been inundated with people who want to be on the ballpark committee since it's been announced," Augustus said.
The city council's economic development committee will give a closer review to the proposed board, though it doesn't need to approve it. The Polar Park board would automatically go into effect within 90 days regardless. Until then, councilors who have otherwise stuck closely by the city administration during delays and cost overruns related to Polar Park and an adjacent mixed-use development are now pushing back.
"I just get a little hesitant about creating another board," Councilor Donna Colorio said, adding she and other councilors have received lots of questions from the public about the ballpark and are able to handle them. "It just doesn't sit right with me."
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