City Council candidate Craig A. Kelley.

Freshman City Councillor Craig A. Kelley is either an earnest, progressive reformer or an unbearable, self-righteous gadfly.

Whichever set of adjectives you think is more fitting probably says a lot about your view of Cambridge politics.

While Kelley’s colleagues are often frustrated by his combative style, the former marine makes no apologies for it, saying he “was elected by a group of people who were dissatisfied with the way things were going.”

In his one term on the council, Kelley has done two things few councillors have dared: launched a frontal assault on longtime City Manager Robert W. Healy and crossed the divide between the City Council and the School Committee by frequently taking positions on school district issues.

His approach to the council has frequently left him in the minority for all-but-unanimous votes, as well as on the receiving end of attacks from his colleagues.

But Kelley remains defiant, saying his loyalty lies with the voters, not the other councillors.

“I am an eight-to-one person because I have very different ideas about what I want out of the council,” Kelley says. “The other councillors have just been married to the status quo much longer than I have.”

ODD MAN OUT

Sitting at the kitchen table of his North Cambridge house, Kelley, 44, bemoans what he sees as the city government’s failure to engage its citizens.

An environmental consultant by day and an avid cyclist to boot, Kelley cites the example of creating alternatives to driving, an issue he has made a priority on the council.

“Take traffic—a lot of people e-mail to say they are interested in traffic issues, but they don’t know where to go or what to do,” he says. “I try to keep people informed by creating e-mail lists, but if we could actually start getting these people involved in a meaningful way, they could achieve things on issues that matter to them.”

Kelley’s other passion is “pothole politics”—the quality of life issues, such as road and sidewalk maintenance, that people expect the city to take care of.

He contends that the city manager, who has been in office longer than any current councillor, cannot be relied on to guarantee that services are delivered efficiently to all neighborhoods. Other councillors, he says, are too timid to take on Healey because they need his approval to push through their projects.

But Kelley’s colleagues say that his antagonistic style toward Healy and frequent demands for detailed information from him are both frustrating and unproductive.

“You could find [information] verbally,” said an exasperated Councillor Marjorie C. Decker after Kelley filed legislation asking Healy to produce information about the difference between speed bumps and speed humps. “Why have someone sit down for two to three days to write a report that may not meet your needs?”

But Kelley refuses to be tamed.

“The city manager reports to us, not the other way around,” he notes. “It’s only through us that he and the city government are accountable to the public.”

BACK TO SCHOOL

Though the council passes the budget for the School Committee, most city politicians tend to shy away from taking strong positions on schools issues.

Not Kelley.

The father of two boys who attend the Baldwin School in Agassiz, Kelley has staked out a role as a cheerleader for public education and a critic of the district’s administration.

His approach to Cambridge Rindge and Latin’s award-winning arts and theater program is a case in point.

Kelley urged School Committee members to send invitations for school productions to the parents of children in the city’s primary schools. This sort of initiative, he said, could help the city stem its enrollment decline by letting parents and students see what awaited them in high school.

When he didn’t hear back, he just sent the e-mails to city residents himself, providing them with information about show times and ticket prices.

Kelley’s view is that improvements in education can cure nearly all of Cambridge’s ills, from middle class flight to crime and juvenile delinquency. But the promise is not being fulfilled, he claims.

“The leadership at the top has been lacking,” Kelley says. Last summer, Kelley urged the School Committee not to renew the current superintendent’s contract, but he says that when the issue comes up again in February 2008, he won’t take a public stand.

Even so, Kelley has endorsed freshman School Committee member Patricia M. Nolan ’80, the superintendent’s strongest critic on the committee. She was the only member to meet him to hear his concerns about the school district’s budget, he notes.

CRASHING THE GATES

While Kelley says his first priority is to “bring people together,” his colleagues say he has been far from a unifying force over the past two years.

“You can continue to think that people who work for city government are evil and no-good and corrupt, but the fact is it isn’t true,” Decker said at a council meeting last month. “At some point, you start taking responsibility and start serving the community, and you can only do that together.”

But the coalitions Kelley seeks to build are in the city, not on the council.

“I’m going to win my votes from the people who are disaffected, who feel excluded, who want to see changes in city government,” says Kelley, who openly questions the value of a council that won’t stand up to the city manager.

“Last time I ran, I benefited from a ‘throw the bums out’ sentiment. This time I’m one of the bums,” he adds. “If I want to win, I need to show that I’m interested in reforming city government—and that’s a lesson my colleagues can learn from, too.”