For over a year, the Worcester Human Rights Commission has complained that City Manager Eric Batista is hindering its oversight of Worcester’s police department, among other duties.
Now, the commission’s two leaders say Batista has declined to reappoint them to new three-year terms.
Ellen Shemitz, the commission’s chair, said she spent months unsuccessfully seeking clarity from Batista regarding whether he would reappoint her and Elizabeth O’Callahan, the vice chair, after their terms expired May 1. The commission had voted unanimously to request Batista give both members new terms.
On Monday, Shemitz and O’Callahan each received a letter from Batista notifying them that their terms are up and thanking them for their service. Shemitz said that they’ll continue to serve until replacements are appointed.
“The actions are not consistent with empowering and supporting an active, engaged Human Rights Commission,” Shemitz said. “It represents the next step in an ongoing friction between the city manager and the Human Rights Commission about its desire and its ability to exercise its duties and fulfill its responsibilities.”
In a statement issued through a spokesman, Batista said the city has 36 boards and commissions, and he considers several factors when reappointing members. That can include years of service, the waitlist of qualified applicants and efforts to ensure commissions consist of people from a variety of areas across the city.
“With nearly 200 residents serving on boards and commissions as special volunteer employees to the City, it’s the municipality’s responsibility to ensure new opportunities through a fair and balanced process,” Batista said.
Shemitz has served on the Human Rights Commission since 2022, while O’Callahan has since 2017.
Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj praised both members for their commitment to the commission, knowledge of city operations and desire to help improve the police department’s policies following damning federal findings that officers violate peoples’ constitutional rights. On multiple occasions, Haxhiaj called for both members to be reappointed.
“It feels to me like this is clipping the wings of the Human Rights Commission at a time where the city manager and all of us should be empowering them to do the work that they were doing,” Haxhiaj said. “It is truly disappointing and disheartening to me that these two amazing volunteers, very skilled professionals, have been taken off the commission without reason.”
The Human Right Commission is responsible for promoting the civil rights of Worcester residents, including ensuring they have equal access to municipal services. The body can recommend changes to city policies and practices, but Worcester’s city manager isn’t required to implement those recommendations.
As public scrutiny of the Worcester Police Department has increased in recent years, the Human Rights Commission sought to help reform police practices. Commissioners have suggested changes to the department’s use of force policy, called for the creation of a civilian review board to help oversee officers and have repeatedly asked the city for police misconduct records.
But to their dismay, commissioners say Batista’s office has repeatedly rebuffed their suggestions and requests. In 2023, Batista — who supervises the police department — at one point asked members to pause their work on police accountability to work on other issues he considered more pressing. And O’Callahan noted staff from Batista’s office have told her the commission focuses on the police department too much.
The contentious relationship with the city manager goes beyond the body’s work on police accountability. Commissioners have said Batista’s office prevented them from issuing a statement in response to racist graffiti spray-painted at a city school. They also weren’t allowed to comment on City Councilor Thu Nguyen’s allegations of transphobic comments by fellow councilors.
Commissioners aired their frustration at their April 28 meeting, with some asking what the body’s purpose is and if it has the ability to advance anything.
O’Callahan, who’s served on the commission since 2017, said Batista’s restrictions differ sharply from the way previous City Manager Edward Augustus handled the body. She noted that Augustus rarely interfered with the commission’s work on police accountability. And if he did, he was collegial about it.
“It’s definitely felt like we’ve been unable to do some of the work we used to do in the past,” O’Callahan said.
City Councilor Khrystian King said he recently asked Batista to reappoint Shemitz and O’Callahan. King noted that under their leadership, the commission has done work “with respect to a number of issues that nobody else was doing in the city.”
“Not happy. Not happy at all about this,” King said.
