Collins Seeks to Weaken School Committee

Mayor Collins will release a major report at 2 p.m. press conference today recommending that most of the power of the Boston School Committee to taken over by a new city commission under his control.

The report recommends that the new three-man commission, responsible directly to the mayor, authorized by the state legislature to "plan, program, design and equip" the city's schools. The group would act with complete independence from both the School Committee City Council.

The effect of the proposed commission neighborhood school plan currently advocated by the majority of the Committee is not immediately clear, but the School Committee would probably keep the authority to manage schools once they were built.

The mayor's study, prepared by Anthony G. Adinolfi, was commissioned in an devise a way of cutting the conflicting interests and administrative red tape that have stymied school construction, for nearly ten years. Adinolfi is the director of New York University's multi-million-dollar construction program.

The resulting proposal contains several extraordinary provisions that will make the new commission virtually an administrative arm of the mayor.

The three members of the commission, will be appointed by the mayor and their terms will be co-terminous with his.

The members of the commission will not be subject to civil service regulations.

The proposed legislation does not include the usual "acceptance clause" which requires that the City Council or some other public body approve the state law before it takes effect; and the Council will not have the power to vote on the commission's actions.

The legislation includes a provision that the commission's members may serve on another public body simultaneously.

School Committee chairman Thomas S. Eisenstadt said last night he essentially supports the recommendations Mrs. Louise Day Hicks, member and former chairman, said she had not read the report but would oppose any plan to give the Mayor control of the school building program.

At present, over 60 steps must be taken by various boards and agencies before any new school can be built. The inevitable conflict among these groups has left the city with nearly $35 million in unspent school appropriations.

According to reliable sources at City Hall, the mayor's proposal will be put before the state legislature soon. It may be introduced as a substitute for a more moderate bill currently before the House (Hse. 933) which would give the City Council and a new agency joint control over school construction.

If the new proposal were substituted for this bill, the same sources speculated, it would probably require no public hearing-since the current bill has had one-and would be "pushed through the legislature as quickly as possible."

Councillor William J. Foley Jr., who is usually critical of the Mayor's proposals, bluntly stated his opinion of the report yesterday: "It's just another power grab by Collins." "The fact that the proposal allows commission members to serve on other agencies at the same time probably means that Collins will appoint (BBA administrator Edward) Logue or officials who owe him allegiance for other jobs to it," he said.