BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY MAY 2, 2018) — As one of the greatest failures in city history hibernates in amber-encased “lacktivity,” the fiduciary guardians of the public trust continue to ignore disaster. THE PLANET shall explain a bit later on in the column.

First, we take note of the excellent investigative piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe. The newspaper uncovered massive fraud being perpetrated by a group of entities with more-than-ample representation in the Berkshires, namely, the dreaded quasi-public-private agencies. Pittsfield has plenty. The Globe piece revealed that numerous of these monstrous bloodsuckers have hid millions of dollars in spending, defying state law with immunity. The law requires full and transparent disclosure of all financials, but the newspaper examination of records shows the agencies failed to report on payroll expenses as well as operating and capital costs.

These public-private quasimodos combine the worst of both worlds. As Pittsfield has seen too many times to count (Beacon Theater, as just one example), the “public” takes the financial risk while the “private” reaps the rewards, if any. The trouble comes structurally. Such agencies receive state — ie., taxpayer — funds, yet their budgets remain separate with no legislative oversight. More ominously, they operate independent of accounting, reporting to nobody. Deidre Cummings of MassPIRG calls it “a recipe for disaster.” She understates.

Not oddly enough, the named agencies abound in “Authorities.” The word invokes dread, fear, and loathing for any Pittsfield resident wiuth enough institutional knowledge to recall the phrase “Civic Authority.” The Globe piece identified not inclusively the Boston-based UMass Building Authority, the Steamship Authority, and the state Convention Center Authority. THE PLANET, playing word association, conjures the Pittsfield Housing Authority, the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, and especially the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority. We referred to the latter in the first words of this article, though speaking of the BRTA, the Globe reported that 14 of the 15 regional transportation authorities it looked at failed to disclose payroll and financial records, which leads to an idle thought: How do you think the BRTA would react to a third-party forensic audit?

Back to PEDA. How does this failed agency justify its existence after 20 years of N-O-T-H-I-N-G except fat pay for its staff, particularly the round robin of politically connected but evidentially incompetent executive directors (“C’mon down, Corydon Thurston!”). How many staff does PEDA employ? What do they make? What does the executive director make? Has PEDA made all of its financial records available to the public? When? Where? Has it accounted for every dollar spent since 1998?

Meanwhile, “the fiduciary guardians” THE PLANET mentioned in the first line sit with their fingers up their reverse openings. Idiots on the city council — Moon, Rivers, Krol, White, and Persip — spent precious man-woman-hours on the “mosquito.” Meanwhile, that other would-be guardian, The Boring Broadsheet, though the mosquito story rated page one treatment above the fold. The BB, its last ounces of self-respect obviously being rationed for another place and time, the day before reported in the same prime-time spot on page one a story with the headline: “Pursuing a city that works for everyone.”

We shudder.

A crusading local daily would have long ago done an investigative piece on the financials of the local quasi-public-private agencies, as well as key non-profits. Thar’s gold in them hills. PEDA, for instance, has been given countless millions over the years yet not once the we know of has its board released or the city council demanded a widely available public reporting. No temptation there, eh, for theft of services, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, or malfeasance. Nope. Not in Pittsfield. Nevah.

Sleep easy, though. John Krol and Donna Todd Rivers give their personal assurance no mosquito will disturb your slumber tonight.

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“I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk to us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific, or at the United States” — Kim Jung Un

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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