Mr. Matlow said new blood could end long-entrenched voting blocs and free council to take action on the city's ongoing budget woes.

"I'd like to see many new faces on council this year," he said. "If you want to really bring a new approach to how we do business at City Hall, you need to have a group of moderate, creative, thoughtful people who want to do good work here.

"There seem to be a couple of clear divisions ... an ideological, a right-wing versus left-wing split in city council," Mr. Matlow continued. "In most work environments when people have been there for many, many years -- in some cases decades -- various grievances and rivalries develop. If we can have a critical mass of fresh faces on council, there's no rivalries, there's no parties, there's no long memories of either gratitude or vengeance. It's just a new group of people who want to work together and get things done."

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