Worcester activist critical of city manager faces one-year city hall ban

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2 days ago

A Worcester resident and activist has been banned from using city hall for one year, according to a letter from City Manager Eric D. Batista.
On May 27, Batista issued a no-trespassing order to David Webb, a Worcester resident who has been a frequent critic of Batista's administration — accusing the city manager and his staff of not being transparent or truthful to the city's residents.
The full letter can be read at the end of this story.
In his no-trespassing order, Batista writes that Webb has approached employees both inside city hall itself and non-public workspaces in an 'intrusive and aggressive manner.'
Webb says he plans to sue the city for this decision but he intends to comply with the order for now — saying that he will be arrested if he does not.
The order reads that Webb engaged in behavior towards City Hall employees that Batista deems inappropriate — such as following them with a camera and phone 'inches away from their faces asking them for comments,' and jumping in front of an employee's vehicle, prohibiting them from moving and exiting the garage while 'shouting at them and recording the employee and their vehicle.'
Webb pushed back on Batista's claims, saying that he did not record his camera inches from people's faces and said he did not jump in front of a vehicle.
I was walking on the sidewalk and the city solicitor was exiting and I started recording — did not jump,' Webb said.
Batista also wrote that over the past 12 months, Webb sent 502 emails to the city solicitor, 478 emails to Batista's chief of staff, 370 emails to the city clerk, 209 emails to the deputy city clerk, 1,071 to the public records access officer and 912 emails to the assistant city solicitor.
He said that this 'barrage' of emails has made employees feel uneasy and fearful and has severely hindered them from doing their jobs.
'The direct contact, blind copying, and copying of several employees on most matters has become harassment and is severely hindering the ability of city employees to provide efficient services and perform job duties,' Batista wrote.
For one year, Webb is barred from being inside City Hall, its offices and in areas next to the building, such as the garage, porticos, entryways, paths of the front and rear plazas and sidewalks, according to the letter. The letter reads that Webb must also send emails to the department's general email that are intended for inquiries.
On numerous occasions, Webb has spoken out against both Batista and the city council, whether it's during the public comment period of a city council meeting or, more recently, at Batista's State of the City address, where he continuously shouted over the city manager until four Worcester police officers instructed him to leave.
Webb told MassLive he believes the city manager is not transparent and that he is lying to the people of Worcester.
'The city manager serves to manage our image and cash flow rather than functionality as a municipality, and only having part-time representatives means that it's pretty much exclusively landlords, business owners and lawyers rather than the people this city needs to actually serve,' Webb said.
Even though he is banned from City Hall, Webb still plans on being involved in Worcester politics.
'I'm going to make a video each afternoon before the council to help people know what's going on and do a Q&A about Worcester politics with people who want to get involved,' he said. 'Those who can't do, teach.'
Full letter is below. If you can't read it, click here.
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Read the original article on MassLive.