Cambridge City Manager Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 worries a lot.

Most of the time, he frets about running a city of 100,000. In recent weeks, he has been more worried about tomorrow's elections, for the results may upset the City Council coalition which put him in office for two of the most turbulent years in Cambridge's political history.

After a fierce 40-day battle beginning in January, 1966, a five-man coalition on the Council named DeGuglielmo City Manager, replacing John J. Curry '19. During his 14 years as Manager, Curry and former Mayor Edward A. Crane '35 had dominated city politics.

The close personal relationship between Crane and Curry made Cambridge's sometimes ill-defined Council-Manager system work smoothly, if sluggishly. By law, the Council is the policy-making body, but much of the real power rests with the Manager.

The City Manager appoints members of all City boards (planning board, recreation board, etc.). He plans the budget from which the Council has only the power to delete. He has some discretion in awarding small contracts and choosing from among the top scores on civil service exams.

The coalition which ousted Curry probably felt--though never openly complained -- that the Crane-Curry team had often slighted other councillors when making decisions. Also, they charged that the pair had sacrificed needed capital improvements for the City, in order to keep tax rates low.

The coalition supporting DeGuglielmo cut across the traditional lines of Cambridge politics. Two of its members--Thomas Coates and Cornelia B. Wheeler--are endorsed by the Cambridge Civic Association (a "good-government" organization whose major support lies in the upper-middle-class Brattle Street area.)

The two CCA-endorsed councillors were joined by three independents: Mayor Daniel J. Hayes Jr., Bernard Goldberg, and William G. Maher. The only real point of agreement among the five is their support of DeGuglielmo, and a consequent opposition to the minority bloc on the Council.

The tragedy of the split is that it has placed Crane--the most intelligent and capable member of the Council--into a bitter and futile role of opposition.

Since January, 1966, Crane, who enjoys CCA endorsement and his allies (independents Walter J. Sullivan and Alfred E. Vellucci plus CCA-man Thomas H.D. Mahoney) have constantly fought the new administration. Virtually every proposal by DeGuglielmo has been passed by the same 5-4 vote. Debates have frequently been sharp; tempers sometimes spark at the drop of a phrase.

Despite this narrow margin, DeGuglielmo has-forged ahead with an ambitious program for the City's development. Three new schools, a new City hospital, and a library addition (most of which sat idly on the drawing boards during the previous administration) have been, or are being, constructed. Last spring, the Council voted to consolidate the City's scattered health services into one department--the first of its kind in the nation.

The City Manager named Justin Gray to head a new Office for Community Development. Gray's chief task is to snare all available Federal funds for the City. Thus far, his prize catch has been a $261,000 grant for a master plan for Cambridge.

In his inaugural speech, DeGuglielmo challenged the Council minority to "make my administration an issue" in the 1967 elections. However, the DeGuglielmo administration has generally not been an open issue during this campaign, simply because the structure of Cambridge voting argues against any and all City-wide issues.

Cambridge is the only municipality in the country to vote under a wierd electoral system known as proportional representation (PR). The system works this way:

A voter can choose as many candidates as he likes, listing them in preferential order (1, 2, 3, . . . etc.). The ballots are then put into piles according to which candidate received the "number one vote" on each blank. On the basis of the total voter turnout, the quota needed for election is determined (for the Council, it is one tenth of the vote plus one).