City Manager Eric Batista Addresses DOJ Report, Legal Strategy, and Calls for Change

Worcester City Manager Eric Batista stops by the Talk of the Commonwealth to answer questions on the Department of Justice report. Batista talks about the legal process that will play out with the DOJ, possibly over the next couple of years, and why the city’s outside legal counsel needed to lay out legal positions and be clear that Worcester will fight on some of the items in the report.
Batista is clear the administration will be coming forward with recommendations and will be addressing the issues brought up in the report.

In response to being asked if he personally “stonewalled” the Human Rights Commission from getting information from the WPD, Batista said, he asked for the Human Rights Commission to focus on a number of topics and at the time the Equity Audit and DOJ reports had not been finished. He says the reports to the Human Rights Commission differ from giving the same reports to the DOJ because the reports to the Human Rights Commission must be gone through for redactions something not required of handing the material over to the DOJ.

Batista said he acknowledges the skepticism some have towards change happening but that he has been in this role as City Manager for two years. That Chief Saucier has been in the role for just over a year. He says measure the change over the last two years and decide if this administration is dedicated to change and challenging the status quo.

Photo- file photo