The process of calculating this year's property tax bills has already been delayed several months and some challengers have charged council incumbents with intentionally postponing the release of property tax bills until after the elections. Others, such as CCA endorsed candidate Wendy Abt, maintain that the delay costs the city thousands of dollars per day, and is an example of poor management on the part of the city council.

A further issue related to property taxes revolves around the bogey of classification, which was created by a new state law allowing municipalities to assess homeowners and commercial property owners at different rates. While CCA candidates favor placing a larger proportion of the total tax burden on the city's commercial community, many of the Independents are strongly opposed to charging business at a higher rate.

City Manager

In most of the toughest choices facing Cambridge, the city council must act through its executive arm, the city manager. It is the city manager who appoints members of the rent control board, who is responsible for insuring that property tax bills will be released on time, who must prepare an austere budget in the wake of Proposition 2 1/2, and who hires and fires all city officials.

The current acting city manager, Robert Healy--who replaced James Sullivan, now director of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, earlier this year--has been put on notice by several councilors that his future as permanent city manager is in jeapordy.

If the city council continues to remain evenly split between the CCA and the Independents, Healy could hang on to the top city administrative post by virtue of a compromise between the councilors. But if either the CCA or the Independents win a clear majority, it is possible that they would take the opportunity to hand pick a city manager would would be more amenable to serving their own predelictions.

Although the city manager holds total responsibility for the daily operation of city government, he may be fired at any time by a majority of the council. Sullivan was fired for political reasons after serving in Cambridge for several years in the late 60s, and not rehired until the political winds turned his way some years later.

So far Healy has attempted to walk a tightrope between the CCA and the Independents, but as a result he has been criticized by Vellucci and others for being too weak and not showing enough guidance for the myriad of city agencies including the rent board, the building and health departments, and others.

Proposition 2 1/2

While it is the city manager who annually draws up the Cambridge budget, it is the city council that must scrutinize the city's finances line by line and answer to voters upset by cuts in essential services as well as personnel.

The process of budget-making has been complicated a hundred-fold by the passage of Proposition 2 1/2, the property tax-cutting measure which Bay State voters approved overwhelmingly last fall. Prop 2 1/2, the property tax-cutting measure which Bay State voters approved overwhelmingly last fall. Prop 2 1/2 reduces the total expenditures of each municipality in the Commonwealth, and thus forces tough choices by local governments. The city council this year passed a budget which significantly reduced funding for the school, fire and police departments without drastically affecting city services. Next fiscal year, however, the choices promise to be harder still, and that means that an even greater amount of political pressure will be exerted on the councilors. The Independents have demonstrated a greater tendency to preserve personnel, especially in the police and fire departments; services to residents seem of more concern to the CCA.

In the campaign this year, all of the incumbent councilors have taken credit for averting what had been dire predictions of essential service cuts. The incumbents maintain that because of their experience they will be better able to cope with the next round of budget slashing, while the challengers charge that thousands of dollars remain to be saved through more efficient management of current resources as well as the elimination of patronage jobs that continue to find a place on city pay-rolls.