"Longtime Cambridge manager’s tenure ends; Healy retiring after 32 years on the job" by Brock Parker | Globe Correspondent, June 29, 2013
He’s been honored by hundreds of city employees, Harvard University, and numerous local organizations, but Cambridge’s retiring city manager, Robert W. Healy, insists that he has a quiet City Hall exit in mind.
On his final day of work Sunday, Healy plans to come into the office, collect the last of his things, and walk down the front steps of City Hall alone.
“It’s been a pretty good end,” said Healy, 69, who is leaving after 32 years on the job.
The highest paid municipal manager in the state, Healy has taken heat from taxpayers for his retirement package and his $347,000 salary. But his colleagues in Cambridge say he was worth it, lauding his successes as longtime deputy city manager Richard Rossi takes over the top spot.
Related: Rossi's Reward
As Healy leaves, the biotech industry is booming in the city of about 106,000 people, Cambridge’s finances have earned AAA bond ratings each year since 1999, the city has opened a new police station and public library in recent years, and it has begun the demolition work for a new $86 million school without state assistance.
Mayor Henrietta Davis said a significant part of Healy’s legacy will be his work leading the city to create affordable housing after the end of rent control in the 1990s. Davis said Healy has frequently stepped in to provide resources for human services and schools, even when his initial reaction as a fiscal steward may be to say no.
“He doesn’t like to look like he’s got a lot of heart,” Davis said. “But the needs of the citizenry have been met very well.”
But controversies still circle his tenure, starting with the salary, which is almost twice that of Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston.
Healy has also drawn fire because of multiple workplace discrimination lawsuits that began in the 1990s and have cost the city more than $10 million in damages, attorney fees, settlements, and interest....
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