AS CHICKEN BONE TUCKS TAIL RE: PLANET’s DEBATE CHALLENGE, N.A. COUNCIL MOVES TO STIFLE RELEVANT FREE SPEECH
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JAN. 29, 2018) — As most of you know, in our last column, THE PLANET issued a public debate challenge to North Adams city council president Keith “Chicken Bone” Bona.
The topic: His move to acquire the unilateral power to bar citizens from attending an open meeting and, if they did attend, to ban anyone of his sole and whimsical choosing from speaking at the public comment session that begins each meeting. Our verbal fisticuffs would center around the full implications of First Amendment protection.
When the phone didn’t ring this weekend, we knew it was chicken Bona not getting back to us.
Tell us, dear friends: Should we turn up the jets on this coward or not waste more any more of the 84,600 seconds with which we were blessed with on this day?
Chicken Bone, a man we wouldn’t know from Judge Crater or Sibby Sisti, strikes us as the classic small-town politician: drunk with the power of a dog catcher, pig-headed in his belief in ignorance, and entrenched as a kiss-up, the latter a requisite skill for a man of no leadership talent to ascend on the half-shell to a position of power. We’ve seen the “formula for success” played out in Pittsfield ad infinitude ad nauseum.
As such, of course the man wouldn’t rise to the occasion of his own responsibility, a burden he assumed when he took the oath of office that included a vow to defend the United States Constitution. Sure, THE PLANET understands that defense comes meted out “to the best of my abilities,” but can Chicken Bone’s abilities be so retarded that he would not think twice about drafting such an illegal petition, one so out of touch with the moral imperatives of representative government?
THE PLANET admittedly and mercifully knows little of the North Adams city council, but did not one of them know Chicken Bone’s request to bar citizens from attending a public meeting violates the states Open Meeting Law? The attorney general made it clear that such a request would lead to legal trouble for the esteemed board, and the move went the way of the circular file. Consequently, anyone can still attend the meetings, we hope to throw tomatoes and overripe bananas. However, not content to leave a shred of doubt as to the water-mark on the glass tube that indicates their procedural intelligence, the NA council did move the public comment period to near the end of each meeting. Bad move.
As our Right Honorable Good Friend and former Pittsfield city councilor Mike Ward pointed out in this forum, it does citizens little good to comment on agenda items on which a vote has already been taken. But that’s the point, right? If citizens can speak out to their hired help about the government they own, so Chicken Bone and his council voted, let’s turn that ability into a technicality. That’s the North Adams city council letting go one big, bandy hawk on free speech.
Chicken Bone’s overreaction to one citizen that in his judgment has violated the council rules on the public comment period indicates that he’s not properly equipped to preside over that august body.
As Al Campanis might put it, “He doesn’t have the necessities.”
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“WE are poor in spite our weath because we HAVE so much but ARE so little” — Karl Marx
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The Usual Disclaimer.
North Adams is the home of the underclass! Keep them barefoot, toothless, pregnant, on welfare, and then take away their right to speak at the city council meetings.
Jonathan
While you Point out that North Adams is the result of liberal policies, an inconvenient truth
Those being primarily
1) keep them poor
2) keep them misinformed
3)and most importantly keep them panicked a.k.a. dependent on government assistance
Your message is lost, due to your delivery
I think Your post only succeeded in diminishing your cause.
May I suggest you slow down?
And tone down your rhetoric
Jonathan I agree with you completely on this issue. Big government control depends on making sure the general public can’t think critically. Keeping everyone dumbed down is essential which is why critical thinking skills are no longer taught in the schools. Instead kids are indoctrinated with radical left values and are taught to mistrust anything that isn’t far left.
On college campuses conservative speakers are in danger for their lives if they even try to speak. Colleges used to be places where diversity of thought was essential to a well rounded education. That is no longer true. Conservative women and African American speakers are all treated with a complete lack of respect.
Where did you go to college Pat?
Do you mean dumbed down like when Trumps EPA appointee ordered environmental studies destroyed?
No I mean dumbed down like the way the city of Pittsfield is run as an example.
Here in Pittsfield we have men who payed dearly to keep freedom of this type of speech that protect thee rights,one is the Planet and the other literally went to jail for it.
I wonder if this subject will come up when this guy runs for reelction.
Dusty
Most likely it will succumb to short-term memory
Much like the Nilan coverup, despicable actions are too quickly forgotten. So they are often repeated
I don’t believe the dirt on Nilan will ever be forgotten. He is one dirty rotten apple, who got away with a big crime.
yes but remember how it came about…he had a lot of help
dusty
A Lot of help!!
which Nilan cover up – the attempted manslaughter of innocent man, or the cover up of the Stracuzzi diddling….
“hearing of visitors”?, I’ll keep that in mind when I’m visiting Jack’s Hot Dog stand. I’m not a voter or a citizen or a resident of the steeple city but I visit it as frequently as the Planet. Think Mr. Bona made a major blunder on his debut as Council Prez.
Dan Valenti
You are solidly right regarding Bona.
Trump and republicans are bringing many many great jobs to North Adams and to Stockbridge which lost 200 jobs
LaForest absolutely voted against Bona.
Dan, was looking at the campaign and finance reports and it was interesting to note one of the candidates who was a vocal supporter for the new high school was donated to by the Berkshire Trade Union. Weren’t they integral in the building of the school?
Clarification, Dan. Attendees can comment on any business the council is in the midst of debating at the time of the discussion of that agenda item. The public comment period is for any comments on city business and happens at the end of the meeting. The public can still comment, during the session, on something that is being voted on, before it is voted on.
BULL
Thanks for the clarification.
That is interesting. So attendees can basically raise their hand to speak on every agenda item if they like? That would require a public hearing by Pittsfield rules. Public hearings only occur for certain agenda items, they’re predetermined, and they’re published on the agenda according to open meeting law. The president cannot allow someone from the public to chime in during debate of item #17 without a posted public hearing. (a workaround would be having a councilor ask a question through the president to a member of the audience, then that person would have the floor)
Don’t forget, Der Wunderbarrett controls NA politics.
Incorrect and foolish comment
Incorrect and foolish comment is incorrect and foolish. You a sad, pathetic-boy loser.
you are such a disgraced theif
Sad sad little loser boy.
No i won. Your life stinks
Planet is the best.
Having never attended a meeting in North Adams nor having any desire to I am not certain of the rules used to run the meeting.
Roberts Rules, and others allow for a member of the public to comment on any agenda item as it is being discussed. Typically this works as follows: Before the meeting starts Joe Pinhead or any other member of the public signs in and indicates he/ she would like to discuss items # 3, 7,9 etc as well as make a general public comment. Then as each item on the agenda is called whomever indicated they would like to speak can speak. Their comments are limited to the agenda item and there is a finite amount of time. Then during the public comment period either the beginning or end of the meeting any item not on the agenda can be discussed also for a finite amount of time.
This method of public comment is most constructive in my humble opinion. If someone desires to speak on item 7 for example and stays until 10pm to do so chances are they have a serious desire to speak.
I am certain we went over this whole method a few years back on a certain am radio show.
Just sayin
Seems the Council President, not unlike our own, wants the personal attacks to subside.Comment cannot be stopped at a City Council Meeting, but commenting with personal attacks might. Didn’t G Man go to jail because the President Marchetti had him removed, this has already been enforced here.
He was arrested. He didn’t go to jail. And the charges were actually dropped.
An interview was just done at NYU. They asked students what they thought about the President’s State of the Union address. While would you know it, they had strong opinions about the address they just watched and we’re very critical!
The only problem is that the State of the Union is not until tomorrow night!
If you don’t think our college students are being brain washed by asswipes disguised as college professors wake the hell up!
My opinion is that I am not going to waste one moment of my day listening to Trump read a speech written by Stephen Miller. Miller is pulling Trumps puppet strings. And lord knows someone has to because Trump has not had a cognizant moment since he took office.
Trump may actually be a spawn of Pinocchio in that he has a head made of wood and can’t seem to tell the truth.
BAM!!!… Mic Drop
Bonafide comments indeed.Fix my road.
For someone with so few cognizant moments, Trump is doing a great job. If the economy was going downhill it would make sense for the Progressives to complain, but the economy is booming. Hollywood and the liberal media are living in an alternate universe.
Progressives have a right to complain – Trump has shown all of us, and them, how totally incompetent Obama was.
Obama created 22 million jobs,Trump gave wall street 1.8 trillion
22 million jobs? ROTFLMAO
Just make crap up.
He pulls so many facts out of his butt that he’s addicted to preparation H.
Of course not, but I bet you will have plenty to say about the speech you don’t listen to. NYU grad?
Actually I was home schooled. We had one of those horses you see on TV that could talk and this one could also teach kids how to speak fluently in six different languages. I had a pretty good foundation before moving up to Bert and Ernie.
McCabe out as number 2 at the FBI–should have been gone a long time ago. Perhaps he fears the memo?
Dems going all school marm on Trump–no, no, no, Donnie, you can’t fire the special prosecutor. No, no, no. It wouldn’t be right. No, no, no, little boy.
Very serious, obstruction of justice, you know. Look what happened to Mr. Nixon. No, no, no.
This means that Dems know they can’t do a thing to stop the president firing (through the proper official) Mueller.
Only recourse to most things a president does is impeachment/conviction, and Dems know they don’t have the votes now.
It was said on CNN by a legal guy that you can’t indict a sitting president.
Dems want to keep up the Russia hoax to please their base and donors. Take it away, and here’s Chucky.
So that means the president is above the law? Don’t think so. This looks like dictator territory.
Perhaps now McCabe can tell us what the supposed crime in this thing is. he was supposed to Mueller at the start, but hey skipped that step.
What law, exactly, EddieP? Check the US Constitution first.
President is in charge of the executive branch. He can fire anyone in the executive branch (at least those who have been appointed by a president, but probably not the civil service types.)
I don’t know why people expect the executive branch to check itself–that is the job of Congress and the courts.
The ultimate check the Congress has on the president is impeachment/conviction.
Firing the special prosecutor is not a crime (yet).
Bet u can’t wait till the pot dispensary opens, let me give Andy a call.
I would be a little cautious about making enemies with the FBI. I imagine they could rain a firestorm down on you without you ever knowing where it came from.
but Trump ain’t afraid of nobody. they better not mess with him
FBI is not above the law . . .
Ah, ha, so FBI Director Wray went to Capitol Hill to read the memo, read it, then McCabe is out. Hummmm.
Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is pretty solid on this stuff, and even-handed. Has no problem with Mueller. Leave him alone, Gowdy says.
But check out the questions that Gowdy asks Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
“IF you want to know . . . about the FBI, DOJ, Clinton and Fusion GPS, etc. . . . then we should release the memo.”
What law exactly? Any laws you or I are subject to. Including obstruction of Justice, sexual misbehavior and who knows what else.
OK, which one did Trump break?
Again I ask, what the hell is the alleged crime in this Russia farce? Collusion? Collusion to do what?
If anyone colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 election, it was Clinton.
With the release of this memo, looks like the some in the FBI/DOJ may have violated the Fourth Amendment, among other things.
One presidential candidate spying on another? with the complicity of the US Gov’t? using the gov’t in such a way for one’s own political gain?
A tad mite more serious than breaking into an office to steal some files.
Unfortunately, the FBI hurt its own credibility in 2016 with the dereliction of duty on Clinton. Many hark-working, conscientious career Bureau men and women threatened or did resign over Comey’s shenanigans.
Another twist here is that the real bombs are actually found in the U.S. Inspector General’s findings on all of this. It is said that’s really what FBI Director Wray reacted to in forcing McCabe out now.
And give me a break on the sex–ever hear of Bill Clinton? How about Kennedy(s)?
When Trump has a couple of DC hookers in the shower off the White House pool, as JFK did, then maybe we can compare and contrast presidential behavior.
Ed – You said it just the way it is! Good job!
Planet, when is the City going to address the stupid driving in the Berkshires as well. The one that gets me are the speeding and the crossovers,where they aren’t even close at the end of the divide and decide to cut you off by passing. Tyer has to many Mike’s working here.The new PEDA guy is, you got it, Mike. His claim to fame, he worked at Girardi’s and is a former Linebacker. That Dianna Ruffer is the biggest piece of garbage in the City.
As I watched the Pittsfield School Committee basking in its own peacock-like intellectual plumage last week in discussing removing Columbus Day from all school materials and replacing it with “indigenous people’s day, I cringed as I remember those words that they so often speak…”It’s for the children.” It was then, when I realized just how much of a lie that statement has been and how the more accurate statement would be…It’s all about US. If the committee truly cared about the education of the children put in their charge, shouldn’t the discussion have been how can we better incorporate native American History into our curriculum and how the settlers (and the founders of our country) hundreds of years after Columbus continued the genocide against the native people. Or how about making October Indigenous people month in the schools and bring in actual native American speakers and other experts and have field trips and projects related to the subject. Now that would be about the children and not just a hollow gesture by a bunch of signaling ego-driven, delusional power brokers, who have long forgotten what their mission truly is. The answer to why so many students leave the Pittsfield School system rests at their own feet and in their own hearts and conscience.
Well said Two Cents.
The next big meeting will be in council chambers. The waste water treatment plant will be discussed. Anyone in Pittsfield who pays a water/sewer bill should watch this meeting. I can’t wa t for the snow job from the consultants.
I want Toters 2 million worth pf Toters
According to this article from the Boston Globe, the Berkshire Museum may be the next to close. Why not? Everything else is folding up. Everyday we lose more stores and companies here in Pittsfield and the Berkshires.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/01/27/the-berkshire-museum-defends-its-most-important-asset-its-open-doors/M92tisiPanIT93ZHXKysCP/story.html?utm_source=General+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8447c6d113-JeffJacobyPiece_012718&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c1a42e8c1b-8447c6d113-430305221
Why couldn’t the Rockwells or Trustees let one or two of the paintings go?
I’m against any sale, but if they are going bankrupt or can’t pay the insurance at least they’ll be open, a Museum is a good thing, isn’t it?
To the school committee: while you are at it, change March 17th to
“Indegenous Green Day”
March 17 is not a holiday in Pittsfield.
Yes it is. Gerry Doyle drinks a keg of green beer on that day.
And every other day?
How much money does the city of Pittsfield owe on loans? And which banks might they be? Is this protected info or wood Mr Kerwood like to be forthright and provide it?
It is probably an astounding, astronomical, embarrassing figure which the mayor would like to keep hidden in a dark corner.
Oh, and how much more are her toters going to add to it? Seriously..what is the number..the real number Linda?
and should we get that number what is the interest we may pay on that borrowed money and how long will it take the taxpayers to pay it? So how much of our annual budget goes to pay down debt?
Nobody knows nuttin right?
All that information should be in the budget and on public view I’d imagine. I know it is for school districts.
Wow you are so smart…..you are not helping
The Russian plan to influence elections is important.The only people who believe its a hoax and should not be investigated are the misinformed Trump voter and Fake News Network viewer
Trump knows exactly what hes doing and as he said he could kill someone in times swuare and his followers would not hold him responsible….that is the question ….you cant answer by saying Hillarys name
The Russians have KGB agents running DelGallos and the Rasr Side. Tell Tyer what to do. TSC is a Russian operative.
I met one in a bar. Must have been a Russian.
Bona got the idea from Trump…dont ask any questions.Toters for the masses
Behnke and behnke,McCandless, curtis=500k and its time for Dan Elias to be a banker and do budgets….the question is how much money do I have and how do I run a school system,not I will just get the elderly to pay for anything everyone wants….We need leadership not yes persons….Yon must msture in her thinking on how to spend your neighbors money….SS at 13k is how you do it ,laziness causes big budgets and now its time to work not collude with Behnke and Jake
Yon is at 52k in retirement
Plus stipend, PP 50 -wife gets fifty, they all get fifty.Mr Lew gets fifty, Carm gets 90, maybe more.
Check out the 2005 audit at the Berkshire County Sheriffs Department, item like gym equipment stationary bycicle worth 32 hundred listed for 337 g another item, backhoe bucket listed at 3G a price of 80g? What the hell is that? Where’s Jonathan?other I te resting tidbit items pay for in the following year?
Interesting article on Chapter 90 funds in our area. Looks like Pittsfield officials are saving up the funds to fill one giant pothole or have already spent the funds on another road project I’m not aware of.
http://www.iberkshires.com/story/56486/BRPC-Wants-to-Know-How-Towns-Spend-Chapter-90-Funds.html
Sorry if this has been previously posted somewhere else on this site. After hitting a crater that was on Newell Street today that was as big as a cement pond, I thought it appropriate.
http://www.iberkshires.com/story/56486/BRPC-Wants-to-Know-How-Towns-Spend-Chapter-90-Funds.html
Mad as hell. The streets in this entire City are broken. What these Mayors don’t get is…..This is the stuff that makeTaxpayers irate! Taxes in this City keep rising, but the Citizens are not seeing tangible improvements in their lives! it’s bullshit , and this Mayor and the toters is pushing it over the edge!!
Spa check out the ridiculous meeting tonight, that road is fractured also.
Those school committee members are so much smarter and know way better the the city council, they’re so edjumacated. Cameron needs to speak street English, for the peeps. I say cut the
Ratio in the health insurance, it’s time.
It is time!! I agree with you.
Is there a money problem at Crosby school,Word on the street says there is a secret about something missing there and Behnke is covering it up
россияне виновны
Excellent comments gauge.
The mayor is bleeding the residents