Hanging on the wall of City Manager Robert W. Healy's office is a plaque praising the city for exceptional urban design.

"By strengthening the vital connection between the public interest and private development," reads the plaque, "[the East Cambridge Riverfront Plan] has established the importance of collaboration in the search for excellence, revitalized the community and renewed the historic relationship between the city, the people and the Charles River."

But many city residents say they do not see big development in such lofty terms. At nearly every City Council meeting, one community group or another can be found lobbying against a new building. And the person who gets most of the blame--along with much of the praise--for the steady influx of new developments is Healy, the city's top administrator.

One Above All

Healy occupies a special position in the city. He is one of five employees hired directly by the City Council, and nearly all city jobs are under his supervision. Although the council is the ultimate authority on policy, the city manager's office implements these policies--often making Healy a shaper of policy as well.

Cambridge created the post of city manager in its current form in 1965. But Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55 says it was not until Healy's predecessor James L. Sullivan assumed the post in 1977 that the office assumed its pro-development stand.

At that time, Cambridge desperately needed revenue, and Sullivan--who had been fired once from the city manager spot--was seen as a competent fiscal manager.

"In 1971 Cambridge was really kind of a declining industrial city, much like others in the Northeast," Duehay says. "It was really a bad scene, and Sullivan's return was seen as a kind of victory."

Sullivan's solution to the city's financial crisis was to broaden the city's tax base, and this plan meant opening parts of the city to developers.

"Cambridge, left to its own devices, would probably become an adjunct of Harvard and MIT," says Sullivan, explaining the reasoning behind his plan. "What you needed to do was to build a tax base to provide programs for the people who live there."

Sullivan, now president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, points to the East Cambridge Riverfront Plan and revamped areas of Kendall and Lechmere Squares as examples of the type of development he promoted.

Most Cambridge development has occurred along what Sullivan calls "the spine of the, city"--the transit lines along Mass. Ave. The concentration of hotels and high-rises in areas like Harvard and Kendall Squares, he says, is the result of a conscious effort to keep projects out of residential areas.

Sullivan says the new projects are aimed at increasing the quality of life for city residents. But the effects are still being debated. Many complain that the current operation of city government encourages development that harms, rather than helps, Cambridge residents. Others say that placing the responsibility for policy implementation on the city manager opens the door to possible abuse.

For this reason, some city politicians say they have reservations about a three-year contract extension that is expected to be awarded to Healy on Monday, saying the extension could broaden the manager's power.

Because the extension includes a controversial "buy-out" clause that would require Cambridge to pay Healy's salary and benefits through 1993 even if he were removed from the job, they argue the contract weakens the council by eliminating the city's strongest check over its administration--the right to fire Healy.