Incoming Somerville mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is vowing to shake things up when he takes office Monday, laying plans to reverse a citywide smoking ban, fire dozens of city workers, and set up a 311 call system for municipal services.
Curtatone plans to replace at least one member of the Board of Health, which could create the majority needed to reverse the three-month-old smoking ban at least until a statewide ban goes into effect on July 1.
Curtatone is not a smoker, but he said the ban is hurting business in Somerville bars and restaurants because patrons are going to neighboring towns without smoking bans.
"Some of these businesses are down 40 percent," Curtatone said in an interview with the Globe this week. "I just don't think it's fair."
Nearby Cambridge and Boston have smoking bans. But Curtatone said: "We're not Cambridge and Boston. We don't have a huge tax base like them. And a large part of our tax base is made up of bars and restaurants."
Curtatone disclosed that he and his transition team have handed out 70 to 80 pink slips to city workers, with plans to replace dozens of Somerville's top officials. He said he gave notice to the director of the Office of Housing and Community Development and plans to replace him with a "top-notch" economic and commercial development professional. Curtatone, a 37-year-old lawyer, defeated businessman Tony LaFuente after incumbent Dorothy Kelly-Gay failed to survive the primary. Kelly-Gay's administration was criticized for presiding over rising property taxes and declining services and layoffs of city workers. Curtatone ran in part on a probusiness platform, and he frequently sprinkles his sentences with catch phrases such as "accountability" and "output measurement."
Now, he says, he plans to manage the city like a business, introducing a software program that will set benchmarks in city services and measure the results of his administration's efforts.
Instead of counting the number of potholes filled, Curtatone explained, the system will track the condition of Somerville roads. And instead of counting the number of arrests police make, the system will track crime on the streets.
"I don't care if you made 3,000 arrests if there is still gang activity in East Somerville," Curtatone declared, taking a swig of sparkling water at a Highland Avenue cafe. "It's about accountability. You can't manage what you can't measure."
He said his planned 311 call center -- allowing citizens to inquire about trash pickup, plowing, and pothole filling -- will give citizens a direct line to city government. They can register complaints and get a quicker response, he said, and it will tell his administration about problem areas in the city and give city officials a way to measure efficiency based on those responses.
"We're going to get Somerville back to work," he said, repeating a phrase from his campaign.
Curtatone is also laying plans for revitalizing Assembly Square, a 145-acre site that has seen little development for more than four years, but is Somerville's last open swath of real estate. Scrawling a makeshift map on a piece of paper at the cafe, Curtatone drew in a new Main Street he wants between a proposed IKEA store and a new row of shops at Assembly Square.
"This should bring $1.2 million in tax revenue; that should bring about $1.8 million," he said excitedly, pointing to the two rows of shops. "And IKEA could bring close to $2 million."
A group of residents concerned about noise, traffic and environmental impact has so far held up IKEA construction with lawsuits that are still pending. The new mayor can do little to speed up that process, but he can try to push zoning regulations through the Board of Aldermen that could spur other developments on the site. Curtatone hopes to have that done by March 1.
Curtatone's probusiness approach already has drawn criticism from some quarters. The smoking ban has become a major flashpoint.
Two members of the Somerville Board of Health, Arnold Duclersaint and Cecilia Sosa-Patterson, said the incoming mayor endangered the health of bar and restaurant workers and undercut the board's authority when he made campaign promises to bar and restaurant owners that the smoking ban would be reversed.
They allege that Curtatone indirectly tried to pressure the board to carry out his wishes after the Board of Aldermen passed a unanimous resolution in November asking the board to reconsider the ban. Curtatone was among the aldermen urging the board to revisit the ban.
Board of Health Director Jack J. Vondras, whom Curtatone recently reappointed to another term, confirmed that he telephoned Sosa-Patterson and reminded her and Duclersaint that they were appointed by the mayor, and that Curtatone's election signaled a new political climate.
"I got phone calls," Sosa-Patterson recalled. "It was pretty clear that [Curtatone] had made a deal with the business commmunity and now he needed to deliver."
Curtatone denied any such deal was made, and Vondras said he called them not to pressure them, but because he was concerned Curtatone would replace them if they ignored his wishes and did not vote to reconsider the smoking ban. Both Duclersaint and Sosa-Patterson voted against reconsideration of the ban, and at least one of them could be replaced as soon as next week.
"We knew the minute we made that vote, it would probably be our last," Duclersaint said.
Curtatone insists that replacement of Board of Health members has little to do with the board's vote on the smoking ban and more to do with the qualifications and direction of the board. All three members were appointed by outgoing mayor Dorothy Kelly-Gay. Duclersaint runs a construction business, and Sosa-Patterson is a Latino activist and former paralegal.
Curtatone said he is prepared to weather a great deal of dissent during his first year in office. The son of Italian immigrants, he said that he is excited by the uphill battle before him and that he is comfortable with making unpopular decisions.
"I'll make decisions, and my decisions are going to be clear-cut and decisive," he said. "I'm going to do what's best for the city."
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.