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Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins will resign Sept. 9 to take a job as head of Community Action of the Franklin, Hampshire and North Quabbin Regions. City Council President David J. Narkewicz, a candidate to succeed Higgins, will become acting mayor Sept. 10.

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MICHAEL BARDSLEY

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David Narkewicz

NORTHAMPTON - Mayor Clare Higgins will leave her post nearly three months early to lead one of the region's largest anti-poverty social service agencies. Her final day as mayor will be Sept. 9.

Higgins announced Wednesday that she has accepted a job as head of Community Action of the Franklin, Hampshire and North Quabbin Regions, a Greenfield-based agency that serves 30,000 people in 50 communities.

"I hadn't been really looking for work, but when this job was posted and I heard about it, it was the right fit," said Higgins, saying she's excited to return to her roots and work on issues that first propelled her into public service. Before she was mayor, Higgins ran a day care program at the former Hampshire Community Action Program, the predecessor to Community Action.

The mayor's early exit means City Council President David J. Narkewicz will become acting mayor beginning Sept. 10, in accordance with the city's charter.

Narkewicz announced last month his intention to run for mayor.

Meanwhile, another mayoral candidate, Michael Bardsley, said he's not surprised Higgins has decided not to fill out her term and has done so in a way that doesn't trigger a special election, which he acknowledges would cost the city money but which he believes would create a more level playing field.

"This looks like it's going to benefit one particular candidate over any other, but that's the way it goes," said Bardsley. "I've anticipated that this was going to happen for some time now."

The charter calls for a special election if officials resign with more than six months left on their terms, and it also states that the council president must fill in as acting mayor when the mayor is gone or dies.

Bardsley said he is taking a "wait-and-see" approach about what the news means for the mayoral race. In some ways, he said, it doesn't change the issues he'll talk about during the campaign.

Timing of job a compromise

Higgins said her early departure has nothing to do with the campaign for her replacement - nor was it an easy decision.

"It has nothing to do with politics," she said.

Rather, she said, the decision was based on a combination of matters related to her current and future job.

Community Action, she said, needs to fill its pending vacant executive director position as soon as possible. The organization's current leader, Jane Sanders, will leave Monday after 15 years on the job.

Higgins said she felt she couldn't leave as mayor this spring, given that the city will be breaking in a new finance director and needs to finish its fiscal 2012 budget.

"I felt like I needed to be here," she said.

Community Action officials were willing to hold the job for a few months but didn't think the agency could go eight months without a new executive director. So, she said, the September start date was essentially a compromise she and Community Action reached in their negotiations over start time.

Duty-bound to serve

For his part, Narkewicz said serving as acting mayor is part of his duty as council president under the charter and the oath he took as an elected official.

Narkewicz will continue to be council president and fulfill his duties as at-large councilor while serving as acting mayor.

He maintains that although he is a candidate for mayor, finishing Higgins' term is not about the campaign or politics.

"It's about the obligations I have to the city in the office I currently hold," he said.

Higgins told him about her plans a few days ago, he said.

"It's not something that's within my control, but I'll have to step up to the challenge and do the best that I can," he said.

The charter does not spell out a mayoral succession beyond council president, nor does it say whether the winner of the Nov. 8 election can step into the job immediately.

Higgins' new job

Higgins is a six-term mayor who has served since 1999.

"As I told everyone at the beginning of March when I announced I would not seek re-election, I knew I would need to have a next chapter, though I did not know what that might be," she said in a press release.

Higgins will oversee Community Action's $26 million budget and 350 staff members. Based in Greenfield, the organization also has offices in Northampton and Orange. She will work in Greenfield.

Higgins said she is excited to once again work on issues that first piqued her interest years ago, including access to early childhood education, fair and safe housing and economic equity.

Before serving as mayor, Higgins worked for years in the field of early childhood education, both at the former HCAC, and with teen parents through Sojourn Inc. in Amherst.

Higgins' first foray into community service in Northampton was as a commissioner of the Northampton Housing Authority in 1991, an appointment made by Mayor David Musante. In 1994, Higgins ran for and won election as an at-large councilor, a position she held for three terms before being elected mayor.

Higgins hopes that both her previous work experience in direct care and her time as mayor, where she has played a role in policy change at the municipal and state level, will help her lead one of the region's most effective anti-poverty agencies.

"We still live in a country where far too many of our neighbors are struggling for survival and for whom the American dream may just as well be the impossible dream," she said in the release. "I still believe we can do something about this."

She adds that changing this economic reality is possible through both one-on-one assistance and through long-term structural and institutional change.

Community Action, formerly known as Franklin Community Action Corp., was established in 1965 as a federally designated agency to put economic justice into action in Franklin County. In 2005, the agency expanded into Hampshire County, after HCAC folded.

It has about 40 programs, which include its Center for Self-Reliance and West County emergency food pantries, homeless prevention program, fuel assistance, heating system repair, employment skills training, mediation, financial education, free tax assistance and several programs for parent-child development and women, infants and children and the area's youth.

Chad Cain can be reached at ccain@gazettenet.com.

Mayor Clare Higgins to City of Northampton

The mayor's original press conference, announcing that she won't be running again.