The Battle for the At-Large Seat

As the City Council gets ready to fill Steve DiNatale's seat in January after he trades in City Hall for the State House, there appears to be the seeds of some internal unrest on the Council.

According to city law, the Council gets to select who fills DiNatale's seat for the remainder of his term. There are no guidelines as to how the Council selects someone. Jay Cruz finished just out of the money in the 2005 election, and is a potential choice. There is some talk the Council will want someone who promises not to run for the seat in 2007.

A Sentinel story today (we haven't seen it, but we've heard about it. For some reason, it's not on the website) says the Council will seek "applications" for the post. This morning, a city councilor sent an e-mail to colleagues, asking if the council had agreed on a process for filling the seat. The e-mail includes a call for some more communication among the members.

Another councilor responded to the original e-mail by writing, "Applications? Preposterous!" The rest of the e-mail backs Cruz as the top losing vote-getter.

Before (if) the leaks dry up, we'll say this for now: It doesn't appear the council has figured out how it's going to fill this seat. It also doesn't appear as if the application plan was univerally hailed. It does appear as if this issue might cause some internal strife on the council.

As we said before, we think Cruz is the choice. We're not big fans of the current city rules that gives the council free reign to pick whoever it wants for the seat. We're far more comfortable with the idea of sending the top vote-getter (Cruz) to the seat. We don't like the thought of a fill-in who promises not to run in the next election. It doesn't give us the feeling that person really has their heart in it.

The open process also creates a possible king-maker situation. If an applicant were to be promoted and eventually delivered by a current councilor, doesn't that applicant become a follower of that councilor? How far does that loyalty extend? To every issue?

Cruz comes with the backing of the people (sort of), and has apparently expressed interest. Why wouldn't he? Many communities have rules in place that the next best vote-getter is the replacement. We'd like to see that become rule in Fitchburg. In the meantime, we hope the council listens to the voters, picks Cruz, and makes the choice without too much turmoil.