WORCESTER – The City Council voted Tuesday to allow the Worcester Ballpark Commission to continue overseeing Polar Park rather than transfer care, custody and control of the ballpark to the Department of Public Facilities.
The council made the decision in an 8-to-1 vote, with Councilor At-Large Khrystian King making the dissenting vote.
Mayor Joseph Petty called for the special meeting because he said he didn’t want the council to be in a position where it couldn’t take a vote.
The council had 90 days to make a decision after City Manager Eric Batista sent a letter to the City Council on July 18 asking it to delete the city ordinance that created the Worcester Ballpark Commission and transfer control of the park to the Department of Public Facilities.
Batista’s request went to committee on Sept. 12, but was held twice on the City Council floor, most recently at the Oct. 3 meeting. If the council did not have a special meeting, the manager’s request would have been adopted automatically because the 90-day deadline was Oct. 16 and the council’s next scheduled meeting is Oct. 17.
The council first approved the creation of the commission, which is in charge of overseeing the general superintendence of Polar Park, in April 2021 under former City Manager Edward Augustus Jr.
King expected other options
King said Tuesday that sided with the city manager because “we have a body here that has underperformed.” King also said he expected the council to have other options to vote on, but because it did not, his only option was to vote to delete the commission.
He said to have a commission without parameters and checks and balances “was a struggle” for him.
King had asked at a previous meeting how many of the city’s 10 annual allotted community days and eight annual allotted revenue-generating days had been used by the city.
Batista had said once his administration started looking into the unused community days and found the commission had no oversight over decision-making regarding capital improvements, he determined the best course of action was to transfer control of the ballpark.
Batista previously said only three of the community days had been used and none of the revenue-generating days had been used since the park opened in May 2021. During Tuesday night’s meeting City Solicitor Michael Traynor clarified that in the first year the city allowed high schools to hold graduations at Polar Park, so all 10 community days were used that year and three community days have been used this year.
Batista also clarified that the commission is not responsible for holding the revenue-generating days.
For the city to hold revenue generating events at Polar Park, he said the city would need to have a team of people to conduct them. However, he said, due to the city’s finances, they are not in the position to do that.
Committee on Public Works against idea
During Tuesday’s meeting, District 3 Councilor George Russell, chair of the Committee on Public Works which considered Batista’s request, pointed out that his committee recommended the council deny Batista’s request and maintain the ballpark commission.
“The head of the facilities department … said ‘I’m not prepared for this. I don’t have the team. I’m not able to … take on this responsibility at this point,’ ” Russell said of the committee meeting and why the committee recommended denying the manager’s request to do away with the commission.
He said he believed by denying the request the council would be giving the administration another chance to come back to council with a more aggressive plan.
Batista said at the Oct. 3 meeting that his administration has recognized it’s a challenge for the Department of Public Facilities to manage the intake application and processes of special events.
“So, right now, we are trying to restructure all of our special events for the city, including the Parks Department, that involve (the Worcester Police Department), that involves culture (development), economic development, etc.,” Batista said at the meeting Oct. 3. “So we’re trying to centralize and kind of streamline that process.”
Batista explained Tuesday why he had requested deleting the commission in the first place, saying it was not a reflection of the commission members.
“This is about the city and the management of the city coming to find more efficiencies and ways we can best serve the community,” Batista said.
Splitting up its duties and responsibilities
Through evaluating the commission’s duties, Batista said he met with various departments and determined that by removing the commission and splitting up its duties and responsibilities to many departments, those departments would be able to serve the ballpark better as a whole.
How the ballpark operates is very different from the DCU Center, which the city also owns, because the DCU Center has a contracted operator to handle all the revenue-generating events, according to Batista. Polar Park does not have that.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, King put forth a motion asking the city manager to negotiate the city’s contract with the Worcester Red Sox to allow the city to keep its right to hold eight revenue-generating days. The motion was voted down 8 to 1, with only King voting in favor of it.
Earlier in the meeting, prior to the vote, Batista said the city’s ability to hold revenue-generating events does not end after five years. King asked for a report back on that because he said that was not his understanding of the contract.
District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj and Councilor At-Large Thu Nguyen were not in attendance. Some councilors and a member of the public questioned the timing of the meeting, 4:30 p.m., saying it made it difficult for some to attend.
City Clerk Niko Vangjeli said the special election for the Worcester and Hampshire Senate District taking place the same day was discussed when the timing of the special City Council was determined.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org.
