By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

Here is the hot link for getting Planet Valenti Television — PV-TV. Episode #5 went well last night, and it shall be available at this link, we trust, in a day or two. Meanwhile, Episodes 1-4 are there for the viewing: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjP38gC2WQcYx71Cz0tjwoQ/feed

Oh yeah, and Happy 70th Anniversary to MA and PA PLANET, who, 70 years ago Saturday, were married in Mt. Carmel Church. Three score and 10 later, they’re still going strong. Mom’s secret to their health and longevity as a couple: “Two TVs.”

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(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JUNE 6-8, 2014) — The clues mount, on D-Day +70 years, and even the staunchest among the Fairyduster Apologists must admit the “leadership” in city government has lost the faith. THE PLANET advises doing as we do and as all rational people do:  Judge The Suits by their actions, not their words.

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THE PLANET interrupts this post to bring you first word on a rash of downtown break-ins. Our sources tell us there have been between a dozen and 20 recent break-ins, with Mission Tappas being victimized four times. We had heard of this taking place from one source but had trouble confirming it, until yesterday. Apparently, the mayor has given strict orders for a cover up.

Sources say the mayor held an emergency “summit” yesterday that included department heads, public safety officials, and leaders from the dreaded private sector.

That meeting did not go well, police sources say, especially after the mayor gave orders that no one was to speak a word about the break-ins.

The mayor wants to pretend it didn’t, and isn’t happening, in order to maintain the illusion that (a) there isn’t a crime problem downtown, driven mainly by drug trafficking, and (b) the streets are safe. 

Information is sketchy at this point, given the mayor’s dictatorial order. THE PLANET, however, will continue to probe and poke. We have at least broken the story, and we won’t stop there. 

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The Suits, they lie. Their words cannot be believed, and they cannot be trusted. First among unequals, of course, is the lame excuse the city of Pittsfield presently has for a mayor. You know, that guy who finally has a nickname that has stuck, namely, The Empty Suit or TES.

The Empty Suit: Is it us, or is he looking a bit strained lately?

A couple of telling clues as to the real thinking of the mayor, the city council, and the school committee can be found in a couple events from last week. They need to be pulled out from the “white noise” with which The Suits employ in an-often successful effort to distract you, thereby inching the verboten item  out of the spotlight.

Fortunately, The Little Guy has THE PLANET.

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THE PLANET first dealt with this pair of policy items on Episode 4 of the hottest thing going in local TV: Planet Valenti Television — PV-TV. The link is at the top of this column.

CLUE #1 THAT ‘THE SUITS’ KNOW THE JIG IS OVER: VOCATION OFFERINGS

Over the weekend, THE PLANET dissected the underhanded, double-dealing budget of the Pittsfield School Department. We left out of the discussion several aspects, including the ill-advised building of a new school (cost: $80 million and climbing). The school project is not yet officially decided but it’s being talked about in the secret, back-room meetings as a done deal. Many contractors and other connected types stand to gain a ton, and the politicians who enable this needless expense hope to buy votes.

Pittsfield and its schools are shrinking, not growing. The talk should be about consolidation into one campus. The point is that the schools have essentially given up on their mission and are mainly worried about maintaining their growing paychecks. Is this the reason that TES’ FY15 budget proposal has incomplete information on the city’s current debt schedule. Is this the reason, for example, you cannot find (except in the finest of illegibly fine print) mention of the fact that — Are you sitting down? — the city still owes $23 million from its most recent renovation of the schools (Reid, Herberg, and four or five elementary schools)? Funny how the mayor doesn’t tell you this when he comes to borrow more millions You The Taxpayer cannot afford.

Have The Suits (we almost typed The Shits) given up on the city, we mean deep down inside? THE PLANET says that answer is a mournful though resounding “Yes!”

A city that believes in its economic future does not cut 20% of its vocational offerings. Moreover, a city that even remotely thinks it may be able to pull off an economic revival does not cut engineering, information technology, or office technology — three rising segments of the ever-tech-heavy  job market. Nonetheless, that’s what the Pittsfield School Committee just did. It voted 7-0 to eliminate these three programs, not just “in effect” but literally voting against an improving job market. That vote included the woeful leadership of Kathy Yon and the sucking support of the mayor.

The PSC voted to retain or install 12 programs for its vocational offerings based on their thoughts of where the local economy will offer the greatest hope for employment, based on Pittsfield’s current and project job market. The 12 programs are:

* Cosmetology — No, this isn’t a program for future rocket scientists.

* Astrology — What’s your sign, Bianchi?

* Psychic Reading and Fortune Telling — The recent influx of these scam artists speaks for itself.

* Dollar Store Technology — “That’ll be a dollar six, sir.”

* Whore-ticulture — One of the fastest growing commercial activities in downtown Pittsfield gets a makeover.

* Meth Manufacturing — Better than growing chinchillas for fun and profit.

* Grand Theft Auto — Hubcaps ‘R Us.

* Body Ink Arts — Morons ‘R Us.

* Lottery Ticket Handicapping — A voluntary tax for those who are lousy at math.

* Early Childhood Abuse, a new program folded into the previously existing Single Teen Mom Technology — Four kids by three different dads.

* Domestic Violence — Sharpening your skills on Pittsfield’s most popular form of family recreation.

* Slum and Garbage Arts — The Trashmen make a comeback.

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 CLUE #2 — TES’ ‘SILENT’ ORDERING OF THE FY15 MUNICIPAL BUDGET

Who broke the news that The Empty Suit scheduled a secret, silent budget meeting for Friday at noon? Planet Valenti Television. Yes, folks, those watching PV-TV live saw it unfold in real-time when guest Terry Kinnas showed us the agenda for “CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING, Friday, May 30, 2014 at 12:00 p.m., Pittsfield City Hall, Council Chamber.”

TES, among the only people that will believe anything he says. (Photo: The Berkshire Eagle)

That cynical bastard chose a Friday at noon for the first submission of his FY15 budget proposal, a loser if there ever was one for Pittsfield taxpayers. The meeting was posted in time to satisfy legal requirements (we think), but in practicality, who among the owners of government would be able to attend (a) on short notice (b) at noon, (c) on a weekday (Friday, no less)? No one. That’s who. And by “owners of government,” we mean private citizens. Also, how much preparation could city councilors do with that kind of short notice? Hardly any, which is just how TES wants it.

That was Bianchi‘s way of admitting that THE PLANET has been correct in our estimations of his disastrous fiscal plan. He’s ashamed. THE PLANET shamed him into scheduling this meeting at a time when the news cycles were over on a day hardly anyone (except The Suits) could attend.

Not that the meeting did anything important. All that happened was:

For once, Pittsfield taxpayers, don’t you just wish …

* The submission of an order to spend $141+ million this year. We could write epic prose poems on the fakery of this number (the true number is $148 million), but we are still analyzing the supporting documents, which TES and The Empty High Heels (Sue Carmel for the uninitiated, the city’s treasurer and finance director) have tried to make as confusing and hard to fathom as possible.

* An order to allow Carmel “to borrow an aggregate sum for Capital Expenditures.” Of course, the amount isn’t specified.

* An order to appropriate an unspecified amount from free cash to be applied against the tax rates, which will inevitably rise. What kind of crazy financial “expertise” is this? An appropriation before ANY debate, discussion, or deliberation? Can you say, “Done deal?”

* An order to spend money from the city’s revolving funds. Again, an order to spend is given before they can even discuss this. Again, the amount is not specified. Crazy, dad, just crazy.

As THE PLANET said, this wasn’t an important meeting. It only discussed between $150 million and $200 million of YOUR MONEY, folks. Yes, we count borrowing.

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The bottom line is this: TES has driven this city into the ground. That fact deserves a simple, one-word response:

Recall.

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“We see in politicians, too stiff to recant, a hundred controversies of an ant” — An adaptation of a couplet from “The Second Anniversary of the Progress of the Soul,” John Donne, (1612)

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.