Word: atkinsons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Atkinson has had his Councils in the past well under control. Transactions dealing with job appointments and contracts awards in the past may not have been all pristine in their political purity, but there is no more and probably much less dishonesty in the Cambridge administration than in other municipalities in the United States...
Overlapping departments under the old Plan B charter and caused doubling on single jobs and padding employees of the independent staffs. Atkinson, to avoid the unpleasantness of wholesale firing, reduced the size of the city staff by waiting for city employees to retire or leave. The vacated posts were then abolished. Most recent statistics on City employment put the Cambridge staff at about 2000 employers--approximately 1000 fewer than were drawing pay checks...
...cheerfully pointed to the employment reduction as an example of the efficiency of the new regime. The independents, less happy about Atkinson, warned that the City Manager was depleting the ranks of important City services for the sake of economy. For instance the current police roster numbers 214 men while a troop of 235 is recommended by the Cambridge police ordinance...
...Atkinson next turned his attention towards job appointments. Since he was not in office through votes, he could ignore the usual political necessity of patronage and favoritism. All civil service jobs were filled under Atkinson according to grades received by job applicants on civil service examinations...
...Atkinson has economized by skipping the use of contractors whenever possibly. On the repaying of Massachusetts Avenue, for instances, Cambridge has used its own equipment and personnel--an unheard of practice by pre-1941 standards...