BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 25, 2018) — Once of anything is a fluke. Two is a pattern. Three a trend.

When the proverbial “They,” in this case the board of that erstwhile great institution formerly known at the Berkshire Museum, brought in a new executive director, “They” did it with a long-term plan. He would usher in a number of expensive changes, finance them by debt, sell off the place’s greatest treasures for almost $50 million, then “retire,” falling into a 5-star life after pulling the ripchord on the golden parachute the board made sure he got.

“They” did it again with the airport. Each time “They” wanted another multi-million “improvement” of the runways, “They” would bring in a new airport manager. This last apparatchik got hired, fronted the latest windfall, then left town after 16 months on the job, again, set nicely.

And when “They” knew a nearly $80 million “upgrade” to the sewer planet might be exploited, “They” made sure political sad sack Donna Todd Rivers got elected. “They”‘d need her vote. “They” got it, and Rivers landed in a plum no-show job.

This phenomena has become so commonplace in Pittsfield that it scarcely draws notice. So many city operations run that way, including, of course, politics. One favorite trick “They” use to perpetuate the gravy train and ensure the skeletons remain buried is electoral bait-and-switch. That’s where a Machine-backed stooge makes the usual promises, wins election, then bails out early (Peter Larkin, Chris Speranzo et al)to make way for the “They”-appointed successors. The new kid, undeserving as he or she may be, gets the job and the perks, with only one duty: Obey the Commandments, a list that invariably includes “Thou shalt keep covered the past and current scandals of this office.” More bluntly, “Follow orders, or else.”

Is that what’s going on with the early retirement of Berkshire County District Attorney? Many think so. Cape retires and, with the blessings of the governor, Paul Caccaviello inherits the prosecutorial crown. Now Cacc may be the best prosecutor since William Tallman, but the fact is he walked into office without an electoral blessing. He will seek the latter in September with a huge leg up (preferably not to piss on the trunk of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski), a large treasury, and backing of The Machine when he faces primary runoff against challengers Andrea Harrington and Judith Knight. That race IS the election, since there’s no Republican challenger.

Caccaviello’s election would preserve the long, gray line going back from Capeless, to Downing, to Ruberto — all the way back to and before Bernie Baron. One has to wonder if it has become an Absolute Tenet of the office that any newcomer must be fully vetted and sworn to secrecy. What devastating secrets must that office protect? It’s just a question: Are there Very Powerful People who would be embarrassed if an “anarchist” became DA, that is, someone willing to expose whatever hidden injustices that office has up-covered?

THE PLANET doesn’t know, but we can tell you that with every uptick in Harrington’s campaign, nerves are being rattled.

The question for Andrea Harrington becomes: How badly or goodly does she want to win? The vital clue: How does she campaign from here to September? All in or daintily? The first provides her only chance to win. The second polishes the incumbent’s crown.

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“The author that interested me most was naturally Sirin. Across the dark sky of exile, Sirin passed … like a meteor, and disappeared, leaving nothing much else behind him than a vague sense of uneasiness” — Vladimir Nabokov, from his memoir Speak, Memory.

OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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