TRANSPARENCY? THE PLANET CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH IT
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016) — Overall, Linda Tyer has been a refreshing change from her predecessor. She has communicated well, showed general openness to policy, and has seemed to care about opening procedure to public input. THE PLANET applauds that and hopes the pattern continues, the outcome of the FY17 municipal budget notwithstanding.
Has she, however, just shown another side, one that perhaps can be ascribed to the pressures of the office in a city where The Suits cast a darkening shadow?
Work Here, Live Here
On April 27, THE PLANET requested information on the city or town of residence of municipal employees, including the school department. Citizens who foot the enormous bill for government should know where their — their — employees reside.
A public official has 10 days to respond to a formal request for information. On May 3, the mayor responded saying that her office is “not the keeper of these records.” She forwarded the request to the proper offices: personnel director Michael Taylor and school supt. Jake McCandless. She added, “I am confident that they will respond in a manner that is compliant with the state’s public records law.”
That confidence was partially well-placed. Later on May 3, THE PLANET received a second response from the mayor, answering our question of whether or not she agreed with our position.
“You also asked if I think it is relevant for the public to know where city and school employees reside,” she said. “I do not. First, the city does not have a residency requirement except for three positions – fire chief, police chief, and commissioner of public services. The building commissioner must live within ten miles of the city. Second, I believe that the city and schools should always seek to hire the most qualified candidate for any position. Having highly qualified employees, at every level, who are responsible for doing essential work on behalf of taxpayers is the best way to protect tax dollar investment.
“And finally, I feel very strongly that where a person chooses to live is a private matter. Everyone needs a place to call home, a retreat from the hard work and stress of daily life, a place where they spend time relaxing with family and friends, puttering around in a garden, listening to music, or reading a book. In fact, a well-rested, content employee is a far better investment in their success in the work that they undertake on our behalf than telling people where they must live.”
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Let us respond.
First, the mayor admits the city DOES have residency requirements in place. In fact, she occupies one of those offices. The question then becomes “Why residency for some offices and not others?”
Second, if “the city and schools should always seek to hire the most qualified candidate for any position,” why doesn’t she lobby for allowing a mayor to live outside the city? When one enjoys the cake, one must realize that it is also being eaten in the process.
Third, THE PLANET agrees “that where a person chooses to live is a private matter. However, working for the city means an employee has to let his or her boss, We the People, have such information (town or city) when We demand.
All that being said, on May 3, Taylor got back to us with this response:
Hello Mr. Valenti,
Mayor Tyer has partially delegated your records request to my office. Apologies for the delay as I was waiting for confirmation from Attorney Dohoney before I reached out to you. Please see the attached document regarding your request. Dr. McCandless should be responding to you as well, if he has not already, regarding school employees.
Thank you,
Mike
Michael Taylor
Director of Personnel
City Hall, Room #107
70 Allen Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201
This came with a letter that can be read here: D.V Records Request
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THE PLANET thanks the personnel director for his response. As of this writing, though, the superintendent has not gotten back to us. Yesterday was the 10th business day for him to respond. He failed to do so. Mayor Tyer, your superintendent is in contempt of the law and of your directive. What do you intend to do about it, if anything? Please let us know. Before you do, meditate on your predecessor with respect to this issue. It may prove helpful.
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“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” — Dalai Lama
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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Linda lower my taxes…..I’ll even let you call me John or Johnson if you show me you have the taxpayer’s best interest at heart.
Dan Bianchi did not start out in the bunker. But he went there quickly when tough questions started coming. And people who worked for him also clammed up on demand. Have we gone back there or have we never left?
The Mayor needs to be her own Boss, after attending a City Council Meeting noticed her looking into the audience several times after making a comment or listening to her A Team speak at the 3 minute Mike?
Being the Mayor should not be a favor for favor position, she has basically a four year deal, does she expect Beacon Theatre to receive more for instance? Revenues are flat, the Economy calls for stabilized spending of all incoming revenues, not increasing.
The Budget will tell where her interests lie and who she might be beholden to, that will be easy, and equally transparent. She has a good excuse to lower the tax rate by cutting the Special Interest’s and give relief to all taxpayers.
For once, I was very proud of our City Council last night (with the exception of Krol). The arrogant members of the BOH are hardly an asset to our city.
“Our city”, as you so aptly put it is not necessarily theirs. Our Director of Public Health lives in another state and when she bothers commutes 110 miles( to and from) in her new Mercedes to city hall. Even the mayor’s number two, who has pillow talk opportunities withnBB management, dosen’t live in the city nor pays taxes to the city that pays her salary and perks, But there again, this multitude of out of town city employees must not use city services, such as payroll and pension administration, police, fire and ambulance services, municipal infrastructure and utilities, and naturally not water and sewer as they all carry plastic bags to dispose of it later.
Why o’ why is the community of residence, Not Names, Not Addresses, Not Salary, the must protected secret in Pittsfield ? Wonder if a Hampden County or Federal judge would agree with the mayor ?
Considering state law is cited, I do not believe those jurisdictions would have standing.
Ok, so the City is not required to compile or keep such a list – and cannot be compelled to do so.
Does this mean the City does not keep a mailing list of employees? Does this mean paychecks, W-2’s and the like have just a name and employee # on them?
I believe the City’s crack IT staff could run a list with name, department, position, and City or Town of residence in about 37 Nano-seconds if they needed to.
I also believe that the vast majority of City employees live in Pittsfield, while a slim majority of school employees live here. I would hazard a guess that you could correlate pay and residency. The higher the pay, the more likely you live in Richmond, Lenox, Cheshire or Dalton.
Also there is an employee of the Fire Dept. who is also a Lanseborough cop according to a story in the Eagle this weekend. How does that impact both community’s worker’s comp if the employee is injured on duty?
If you had a few bucks why would anyone move to Dalton.
Southeast Pittsfield already calls Lenox home.They dont care if taxes go up.There are no gangs in Lenox high.Its the new PHS.
The board of health had no problem in allowing cigarettes to be sold at the new gas station at big y .
My gut tells me there is a reason city hall does not want taxpayers to know where city employees live. And it has nothing to do with privacy. With the internet these days there is no privacy so that reason does not hold water at all. While I am sure it is all legal it would probably be quite embarrassing never the less.
Its a good thing public employees would never need worry about threats or violence directed at them or their families.
How is it anybody’s business where a public employee lives as long as it is within the regulations of that agency. Just because someone pays taxes does not give them the right to have a list of employees’ addresses. If I buy a hamburger at McDonald’s do I then have the right to know where the person who served it to me lives?
INFO and SHAKES
Let me be clear. I did not ask for Names of employees. I did not ask for street addresses, phone numbers, or any contact information. All I asked for was a list of the cities/towns of residence, by department. It is all anonymous. As SOUTHEAST says, it would be interesting to correlate the data and see what, if any, trends emerge. I would also guess that most live in Pittsfield. I wouldn’t guess there’s something to hide in the data, so why is the city playing hard to get again? Is there, in fact, something to hide? My request was secondarily a test of the new administration’s commitment to transparency. At least Michael Taylor of personnel responded, in detail, with good and timely information. The school department, however, continues to operate as a Law Unto Itself. My question at the end of the column is if the mayor is OK with the superintendent ignoring the request. The answer (and the action) will tell us much.
And I agree some residency statistics have merit as long as it is not enough information to identify individuals.
The question to ask is what about Pittsfield causes people to live elsewhere?
Yes, that’s the common ground here. I am NOT interested in information that would identify individuals.
You are correct Dan, I guess we will find out if the tail is wagging the dog.
You’re not comparing apples with apples. Is a Mcdonald’s employee paid by the municipal taxpayer or this, must be an epiphany to you, the dreaded for profit private sector? There is a reality that is not taxpayer funded nor a non taxpaying not-for-profit organization. And some retirees don’t have generous pensions from neither. Surprised ?
Some staff i’d prefer them to I’ve out of town.
According to the authorities there are several gangs in Pittsfield with hundreds of gang members. And the police know many of them and where they call home.
But no one at city hall wants anyone asking who they are or what school they go to. Like ,if I knew there were 45 gang members going to PHS I might opt to send my kid out of town. So I can see why they might want to close the information door tight lest people start asking all sorts of questions and making adjustments that might not benefit the city (or school system). Especially the local school system which is bailing water from all sides of the boat right now.
Caredul driving out there, some of these drivers have to be doped up from what I’ve seen.
They can very easily give each employees address only. Employees have to update this info with school secretary if there is a address change,
Meaning city or town
I think they should spend more time teaching the urchins and snowflakes, that seems challenging enough!
Everytime I watch a School Committee Meeting I have to take a shower.
God Save the Allendale Dean!? hey, Behnke was able to put an extra two thousand into the special ed Account. Way to go Kris!
Am I the only Planeta here at the School Committee meeting?????
SHELLY
You have coined a great new word: “Planeta, n., person, usually of great distinction, who reads THE PLANET and/or watched PV-TV.”
JIV clarified that woman custodians make what the men make.
Does the Mayor have a Clue. Is anyone watching this nonsense?
Why is Pam Ferret asking questions of negotiated contracts and Pay Raises, who makes what.???????? Riello cheerleading for Pam again, what a clown. It’s no wonder The Planet is all over this nonsense, why go through the process?
In this economically decaying area, it would make sense to consider a residency requirement. It would encourage minority employment to better reflect the population; foster employee concern for local issues; and stem the flow of middle-class salary being spent on property taxes in area towns, rather than being reinvested in the local community.
Given the Pittsfield’s relatively low population compared to cities with residency requirement (Boston, Springfield, Brockton, and New Bedford), I wonder if the talent pool would be sufficient for the responsibilities, or if we would need to increase salary to encourage people to move into the area. Changing the mayoral term from 2 to 4 years helped to balance the benefit of employment to the cost of moving, but Pittsfield is still an at will employer.
Also, a google search of the subject refers to Massachusetts law exempting teachers from residency requirement, though no specific statute was given. It seems, once again, the DoE is untouchable.
Do you really think the out of town board members are the best and brightest? It doesn’t seem to work out very well when an individual has no skin in the game. Yesterday Warren Dews from Hinsdale was telling the Pittsfield city council how to send Pittsfield’s money. Crazy.
Already Tyred,
I didn’t watch Mr. Dew’s Tuesday city council appearance, or followed the School Building Needs as closely as you. Kudos for being an involved citizen.
My understanding of mayoral assignment is that the person is selected by the Mayor, and tasked with the board’s duties with NO compensation. According to the April 2016 Pittsfield boards & commissions roster, Mr. Dew’s term expired November 12th, 2015.
Reading your comment history, I understand your frustration and disagreement with the SBN. Perhaps there is a qualified person in Pittsfield more in line with your stand to replace Mr. Dew?
The SBNC had one of the best persons as a member, the legendary Man From Mensa, Chuck Vincelette. He saw the whitewash, tried to argue against it, was marginalized, and he resigned in disgust. The local economy is sick because the county seat, Pittsfield, has become infected with a generation of inbreeding on the part of the Vested Interests, the “Connected,” and the GOB — what THE PLANET calls “The Suits.” With each new official spawn, we get more incompetency, more corruption, and more disgust on the part of good citizens, who, like our Right Honorable Good Friend Chuck V., have resigned from the political process in frustration and apathy, leaving the city in the hands of The Defectives. That may become our new name for city officials.
Excellent points. Welcome to THE PLANET, MR!
just watched replay of ordinance & rules meeting, a citizen petitioned to require residency in pittsfield for all boards, petition was tabled. most outspoken against was Petey White he’s afraid we don’t have enough compenent or qualified citizen’s in our population of around 42,000. he talks a lot but he dosen’t say anything or make much sense
PETE WHITE is a lovely guy but not one to make waves. He will test the hot wind blown by The Bosses and go (and vote and argue) the way they want him to do.