The effects of last January's change in administration are now becoming apparent. The image which DeGuglielmo tried to build for his administration was summed up in the 1966 annual report. "Cambridge is on the move again," he wrote. During the week before election day, the City Manager put up displays in City Hall of City building projects (the new hospital, schools, etc.) Many of the projects had been planned under the Curry administration, but DeGuglielmo claimed them as his own, reasoning that Curry had not moved quickly enough on them.
Since January, the tax rate has been a big topic in the Council chambers. During Curry's last four years in office, it remained stable at about $72 per $1000 assessed valuation, and was once even slightly reduced. By DeGuglielmo's second year in office, it stood at $82.50. During the last election campaign, advertisements of Crane and Danehy supporters in particular hit the rising taxes, and promised a return to the stability of the Curry years. The tax rate became one of the few City-wide issues in Cambridge political annals, and probably contributed to the defeat of the two DeGuglielmo supporters.
During the spring, the new administration pulled an act which reminded many observers of President Johnson's 1964 budget--the one which miraculously stayed beneath $100 billion, despite weeks of White House leaks warning of a higher figure. Dunphy presented the council with a budget which would have raised the tax rate by six or eight dollars, but when the hearings on the budget were over, the rate remained at the same level as last year. Dunphy and the councillors transferred money from capital to current accounts, and trimmed $300,000 from the School Department budget without much difficulty.
"They were dancing in the streets when we brought this tax rate in," Vellucci says. He and other members of the council majority have made sure that the voters will not forget it. During a hearing on a routine renewal of the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee, Crane sharply questioned the group's director about the costs of its work, and noded approvingly when he was assured that overhead was kept below ten per cent of project costs. At another hearing--this one with Justin M. Gray, the city manager's assistant for Community Development Crane wanted to know when a Federal grant would come through for a playground in East Cambridge. "You know, there are still some people in this city who care where the money comes from," he said.
Fiscal responsibility--the theme of Cambridge City government in the next few years, even if the Council can at some time agree on the choice of a new city manager. Few councillors, especially those on the majority five, will want to risk being vulnerable targets for the charges of free-spending which they feel swung the election last time.
Meanwhile, the council stays divided, and Ralph J. Dunphy remains in the City Manager's office. Last week, he asked for an appropriation of $100 for medical expenses of his office. One councillor--a pharmacist by trade--suggested that the money would go to Bufferin. His colleagues laughed, but not too heartily, for they knew the headaches that Cambridge politics can bring.