What Is Plan E?

After a controversial Irish mayor of Cambridge was jailed for accepting kickbacks from architects during World War II, the citizens of Cambridge cast about for a more respectable form of government. They chose one of the new options provided by the Massachusetts state legislature--Plan E.

The system is designed both to eliminate corruption by removing administrative authority from elected officials and to allow for representation of all significant minorities on the town's nine-member council. Under the Proportional Representation voting system every group that can muster ten per cent of the vote is assured a councilor.

Shortly after the election, the council must undertake two tasks: selecting one of its members to serve as a titular "mayor" who will chair the council's meetings (and do little else other than attend civic functions) and choosing a city manager who will administer the business of the city.

Much of the power in the city is held by the city manager, who has direct control of the civil service, the police and the treasury. (The school system is administered separately by an elected school committee.) The council can only "request" the city manager to take action, not order him to do so, giving him a lot of leeway in administering the city. But the manager mustn't permanently alienate a majority of the city council: it does have the power to remove him from office, a fate city managers usually face only when an election changes the political alignments of the council.