Worcester Elects New Mayor

In a time when people are disenchanted with their elected officials, Worcester, Massachusetts voters has elected a new Mayor, but kept the remainder of City Government.

Joseph O'Brien won the Mayorial Election by a wide margin over three other contenders. Mr O'Brien will also be part of the City Council, a dual election required by the City Charter. But any new candidate going for the City Council lost their respective elections. Only two new candidates for the School Committee were elected. Therefore, the existing At Large and District Councilors were re-elected.

For the last two years, major criticizm has been heard on the running of the City of Worcester; with the layoffs of City Workers, teachers, Police Officers, Fire Fighters, and Public Health Nurses. Also critized was the closing of nine City Pools and the controversal funding of a new $2.5 million dollar pool.

With the City of Worcester showing a possible major budget shortfall, City Residents made some noise that change was in the air. But that change was very minimal and the same people were re-elected that failed to vote Section 19 for City Retirees.

It was really thought that with the push from the Retirees and Labor Unions, that change was coming. That didn't happen! The same old guard is back. So I wonder if any of the re-elected officials learned anything from what they heard within this election or will it be business as usually?