DECISION ON TAILGATE-GATE: THS, PSD DECIDE ‘NO HARM, NO FOUL’ … DESPITE ‘ZERO TOLERANCE’ POLICY, PERPETRATORS OF CHILD-DRINKING BASH WILL FACE NO CONSEQUENCES … LETTERS TO THE EDITOR … plus … TAXHAPPY STATE LEGISLATORS LOVE GUV’S PROPOSALS TO TAX YOU BACK TO THE STONE AGE
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, JAN. 18, 2013) — Here’s the “latest,” if we can call it that, on Tailgate-gate, pieced together from several sources, all speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Overall, this regrettable and embarrassing incident has been swept under the rug,” says one source. “Looks like the impossible has happened. No one is saying anything. D.A. refuses to give information, and child protective services refuses to share information due to confidentiality.”
Taconic High School principal Principal John Vosburgh has declared the trip to the UCONN game a “non-school”-related event, sources say. The convenience of this finding is that neither they nor anyone else in the school department has jurisdiction for the what happened, including the behavior of the adults, who are school department employees.
Another source puts it this way: “This is not to say that something won’t happen, but Vinny Barbarotta [THS football coach] seems to have gotten off scot-free. Children’s lives were put at risk. Students are now covering for the adults (except one), stating the adults had no knowledge of alcohol consumption.”
“How can a mother spend a week in jail for allowing her son to consume alcohol at home and four adults put six students in peril and nothing happens,” asks a source? “The one parent with the courage to do anything has been frozen out. There isn’t another parent willing to anything as far as I am aware. I’m disgusted.
THE PLANET also hears that early this week, a deal was struck. No details, officially, from the PSD.
Bottom line, then, appears to be this: Though four adults (employees of the school department) placed six children (students at THS) in jeopardy through the use of alcohol, and despite the THS and PPS alleged policy of “zero tolerance,” nothing will be done on this latest PPS insult to the community in general and taxpayers in particular.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: ‘IT WAS FRUSTRATING’
To THE PLANET:
Have you ever had the pleasure of using the e-services on pittsfield-ma.org
I have used this service 3 times in 2 years.
I complained last week about the snow in the heart of North Street downtown. First, trying to park on North Street in front of Hot Harry’s. The snow in the road by the curbing was all ruts. When you tried to exit the car from the passenger side, between the snow in the road and the snowbank, it was frustrating.
We were going to the Beacon Theatre, and had to walk in the road up and past the Theatre. Shop downtown and visit the small businesses……
I used the e-service to voice my complaint, and as usual got the obligatory reply.., along with we are going to remove the snow on Monday.
What happened to removing the snow on North Street after the storm overnight…Just one more thing that irritates the Pittsfeld Taxpayer who will be fined $50 if they don’t shovel their walk in front of their home.
SHOP DOWNTOWN!!!!! — JS
Pittsfield politics in 2013 will be Mayor Dan Bianchi versus the Good Old Boys.
Can’t it be taken to the police dept if the school district is balking on disciplinary measures?
TEECH
I doubt it. The technicality of claiming the trip was not an official school event conveniently makes this an internal matter. Also, remember that the DA didn’t want to touch this. The people, who have every right to demand that drug-and-alcohol policies of the PSD mean something, have been bitch slapped again.
Can’t it be taken to the police dept if the school district is balking on disciplinary measures?
Scott Brown for governor! I am hoping he does not run for US Senate again as he can’t do much for us there being 1 out of 100. We need him at the state level. We need him to save us from the mad liberal taxing and spending.
KRAK
An interesting suggestion. I can’t see it, though. Brown has not given any indication he would want to be an executive. He seems legislative all the way.
I would vote for him as governor of Ma.
I would vote for any republican for that matter just to keep the reigning democrats reasonably honest… It leaves little room for beneficial dialog and debate on this and many, many other issues. Simply put, the democrats ruling Massachusetts has not worked for decades….. We need a two party system!
Support for Republicans is almost one’s patriotic duty at this point, here in Massachusetts, that is.
Keep the reigning democrats reasonably honest???
Do you have evidence that that is happening? Please tell me what part of Mass gov. is reasonably honest. Use real names if you can think of any.
You do have a valid point! LOL
Scott Brown would definitely be smart to let next year’s senate election go by and then run for Governor. His family must be worn out from campaigning and deserve a break. Besides, if skips the senate race, he won’t have to run against all that national money that flooded into Granny’s coffers.
I’m glad you included a stab @ Armstrong (even though I could care less what any athlete does I think they should allow performance enhancers that way there the authentic guys would get more credit.) But how can you overlook Manti Te’o, the seven round limit passed in NY (even for cops) liability insurance on firearms and Obama using children as human shields?
IMO NY gun law will not stand up in court, Gov.Cuomo did an ugly thing in rushing the bill through and made half of upstate NY a criminal,,,,,, all for political posturing, Gov. Patrick has got to be beside himself that he was upstaged but then again what more restrictions could be put in place here in MA?? Oh yeah our local reps walking lock step with Gov. Patrick when he is about to stick it to the Taxpayer, not surprised but it makes me feel like i’m being sold propaganda? No way to have an actual conversation about guns everybody seems to hold an extreme position. Lance was just sad last night on OWN, total disgust for the guy.
IDK Kevin I hope so but there seems to be a lot pf folks who care about the first amendment but don’t see how it correlates to the second. How radical is it to suggest that extreme anti gun people should be dealt with as any enemy combatant? I quote this a lot because it’s true “those who would give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety”.
Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
“There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters”
“The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions”
― Daniel Webster
I use BF as well
Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
“There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters”
“The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions”
― Daniel Webster
I use BF as well
Good stuff there Kevin.
I had a teenager ask me to buy him booze over new years and I told him no you shouldn’t even be drinking it’s stupid. I stand by my comment in the beginning of this whole ordeal if someone let’s their kid have a drink at a family picnic whatever that’s their choice but If I send my kid off with someone I trust will be a safe and positive influence on my kid and they violate that trust I don’t even want to say what I’d do.
My wife is starting a chapter of MFDD (Mothers for Drunk Driving). We are parents of a high school footballer. We are appalled as the THS non-action. Our complaints to PSD fell on deaf ears.
There’s a lot of marijuana consumption on the back trail but they pretend there’s not so what did you expect? It’s been like that a long time.
I hear the coaches have started their own chapter of DAMM (Drunks Against Mad Mothers)
another disappointing update. No new information and what you give is a compilation of reports from anonymous sources who only are providing second hand point of views as to what happened. What an investigator.
LMAO Joe…. I was just thinking about the DAMM chapter at college back in the mid-eighties!
There will be skating at the Common Park. Thanks to firemen who volunteereer their time in frigid weather a time honored tradition will continue.This has gone on for 90 years and firemen don’t get much thanks for it. But many do remember the winter wonderland they create and the fun and memories that continue to this day.
Chuck how can you be so insensitive to mention this do you have any idea what Te’o is going through right now?
Scott
Te’o is probably having a good laugh and a few beers with friends for having pulled this off. What a big nothing. To see TV announcers falling all over themselves trying to psychoanalyse Te’o and trying to make something of this is a joke. The worse fools are the grey haired wrinkled old jocks who are saying Te’o hurt himself for the coming football draft and won’t go as high as he would have prior to this silliness.The only thing that hurt him is he showed he was overrated when Alabama exposed him as an average player.
Nice reply!
CHUCK
Exactly. Te’o will rise or plummet based on what he did between the lines. In the ‘Bama game, he looked, as you say, “average.” I could not understand all the Te’o hype in the first place. He’s a kid with some decent athletic skills, but people wanted to make him into a combination of Ray Nitzschke, Lawrence Taylor, and John Hannah. I couldn’t understand it, except perhaps that ND’s Heisman PR Machine was better than the rest.
And people are talking about this nonsense instead of his less than stellar play in the Championship game-Seems it is working out great for Te’o. Isn’t there a saying “any publicity is good publicity”?
My point IS, people are talking about this nonsense…
Please stop insulting the late Jackie O by linking her name with the worst name in Pittsfield politics. Not being red or blue here, it’s just that TFB is …well, you already know.
Berkshire delegates clones.Seems to be a need to scale back state gov’t. Could cut members in half and still manage the lopsided voting. Deval is Obama’s minnie me, hopefully he can find him a job in his cup board.
Thank you for the update on tailgategate. As DV predicted nothing was done in the end. We live out of state now but follow the “local” news via The Planet. Love it. Keep giving it to them DV..
didn’t Vinny get fired?
LARRY
Don’t know if we can call it that. Some say he resigned. Others he was fired. And a member of the staff says the school realized it had made a mistake with this particular hire and was going to make the change, anyway. Never once, though, did anyone from the school or the school department speak on the record about the investigation of this incident. That in itself suggests the strong possibility that the facts of the case were even worse than what emerged through sleuth work from pesky media types (red: THE PLANET).
Te’o is just a GOB on a bigger’ stage than Pittsfield, he’ll just double down on the lie till the story fades away
Someone should come forward and say whether the drinking started here, otherwise it is a Conn. crime and the DA has no jurisdiction.
SARAH
From what I understand through sources, the drinking began in the van, here in Mass., on the way down to UCONN.
RIV-
You should contact the MIAA to let them know the situation, you may get some results, it wouldn’t hurt.
Chuckie G-
Right on, Bama made Te’o look like he was full of Teo’s hotdogs, def overrated.
Off ttopic but: Tuesday I got a parking ticket for being 19 minutes in a 15 minutes zone. Yesterday I brought the ticket to city hall and handed it to the clerk in the window. After perhaps 4 minutes of taxying around with a mouse and looking at a screen she said, “Just ten dollars.” I asked, “Isn’t the first one free?” Back to the mouse for three seconds and barely looking at the monitor she replied, “You’re OK.” So I left. She knew all along there was no charge but she would have taken my money had I not asked. How many people every day are bilked by this deception. I wish that I could chalk this up to incompetence but she knew exactly what she was doing. BTW, the next one is $3.00 and the third one is $5.00 if any of you find yourselves in the same predicament.
How about you just put the adequate amount of money in for the time you need? It’s not that difficult to just throw in .50 I put in a quarter in Adams and I was in the store 15 min. Don’t be such a cheapskate the city needs the money more than you.
SCOTT
Maybe so, but, four minutes? You don’t give a ticket for that. There should be at least a 10-minute grace period.
I was being a wisea… To me a quarter is worth the freedom to go about my business or is it really freedom? Ahh freedom at a cost just like liability insurance on firearms…
I have no problem with the ticket. Parking tickets are like speeding tickets. Just bad luck. I was just pointing out that she would have taken my money if I didn’t say anything. The first ticket is free for everyone, even if you mail it in. That’s the way the law is written. As for Scott, if he was at all observant he’d know that there are no parking meters in Pittsfield.
So you deliberately defied a no parking sign and refused to take responsibility for it?
AMBROSE
This sort of scam behavior is routine in the city. They wan’t to make it as difficult as they can on people. especially when it comes to parking. Glad to hear that your knowledge of the law stopped their shakedown in their tracks. It makes the case for the importance of citizens being well armed with knowledge when it comes to dealing with government, especially with a local government as corrupt as the city’s. So much for treating citizens as “customers.” Pittsfield treats citizens as “criminals.” Way to create a new culture in city hall, Mayor Bianchi.
Clerk should be written up if true,,,,
Clerk should be written up if true,,,,
Clerk should be written up if true,,,,
The city could’nt manage a lemmon aide stand. I park at free spots and walk, hear it’s good for you. The city can uses someone else’s change to piss away.
They sure are good at leaving a sour taste in your mouth though!
If I believed Ambrose’s story I would be worried, but I think he has relatives with the last name Te’o. Send us a copy of your ticket (along with a copy of your birth certificate) and I will be a believer-I’ll even send you a roll of quarters for future parking needs.
Nice!
Dave
I’ve carefully read Ambrose’s post for the past years and I find he has a steel trap memory that is unfailingly accurate.His message is important. Quite likely it will help and save money for a lot of people.I believe him. His message is not asking for anything but is given to help people. I thank him for it and hope the civil servent who tried to cheat him out of $10.00 reads this and does not do it again.
Maybe the civil servants are working on commission.
Maybe we could start using parking meter money to pay the school board.On the other hand I have a large container of pennies I would like to scatter at their feet just so I could watch them fight each other for them.
Chuck, no disrespect intended, but if we believe everything we read here without verification then Pittsfield is in worse shape than even I think it is.Dan responded with “this type of scam behavior……..”. I think he wrote this without ABSOLUTE knowledge that a ticket was actually written and contested.If this did happen, kudos to Ambrose for giving us insight into the disregard of ordinary citizens and their plight dealing with city hall, if not……I enjoy reading Dan’s writing to get the stories that would otherwise not be printed, but along with that comes weeding out the BS along the way.
DAVE
I took AMBROSE at his word, for one, there was no reason to do otherwise, except illogically. Second, I have known of this type of “scam behavior” to take place. That’s fact. So as you see, once again, there is no BS. Just someone who took truth for guano. That would be you.
Who wouldn’t dispute the ticket? In fact I’ve had a ticket once and they told me the first one is free. I also know you can get a freebie if your on official business at the police station.
Thanks Chuck. Us Pomeroy guys gotta stick together. Miss Tate would be proud of us for paying attention in her civics class. They don’t teach civics anymore.
Ambrose
I didn’t know.What a great roup of guys we had there. I hung out with Jimmy Kordana and skipped school with Doug Hugabone, Jack Manson, Joe Quetti, Butch Pisani, to name a few.Yes, Miss Tate was a tough old bird as was Miss Mahon. Mr. O’Brien was our coach and history teacher and one of the finist men I have ever known. There were others. Remember Miss Porter, Mr. Cary, Miss Laphman (I think), Miss O’Brien, and a great guy for a custodian, Bob. I forgot his last name.
It is a shame they don’t teach Civics today. It was, and it should not be past tense, a valuable subject. And here’s a shocker, in Mr.Shield’s room there was a map on the wall and you had to know where Japan was and could find Chicago. I wonder if 7th and 8th graders can do that today? Do they know waht a map is?
CHUCK & AMBROSE
Great point about civics. Chuck, I agree. It’s a shame it’s not being taught. Kids are graduating without a clue on hos our system of government works. And no, most couldn’t find Japan or Chi-town on a map.
Dave, You right all of us should make sure that al that we read and hear is the truth. Just like the main stream tv and radio
Mr. Valenti,
Speaking of Berkshire County’s ultra-high-caliber legal talent, be sure to check out Saturday’s BB — one cannot make such things up.
The story: The City of Pittsfield lost in Berkshire Superior Court and now owes big bucks to a local slumlord because the City illegally demolished her apartment complex that was ‘unfit for human habitation’.
Now Pittsfield is suing its own former city solicitor, the one that gave the go-ahead on the demolition.
Pittsfield claims its solicitor gave City officials ‘bad advice’.
(This is the same City Hall that has been defending the actions of another City Solicitor for the handling of the Spectrum Health Systems fiasco in which the City ended-up having to pay Spectrum big bucks regarding a different screw-up.)
‘Pittsfield alleges malpractice in suit against former city solicitor Richard Dohoney’
By Andrew Amelinckx, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Saturday January 19, 2013
PITTSFIELD — The city of Pittsfield, after losing a lawsuit over the demolition of an apartment complex, has turned around and sued a former city solicitor for malpractice, blaming him for the go-ahead to tear down the building and asking the court to make him pay whatever damages are assessed in the case.
According to court documents filed in Berkshire Superior Court, the city alleges that attorney Richard M. Dohoney, the city solicitor under Mayor James Ruberto’s administration, informed the Pittsfield Board of Health in January 2010 that the demolition of a building located at 11-15 Melville St. was legal.
The building was torn down in April 2010. Two years later, in May 2012, the building’s owner, Pesu Inc., filed an amended complaint in Berkshire Superior Court stating that the demolition was illegal because there had been no required condemnation order in place before the building was demolished. Dohoney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
In a summary judgment by Judge John A. Agostini from November, Pesu won the case. The company is asking for $175,000 in damages; a hearing on the damages could happen as early as next month.
In his decision, Agostini wrote that because “the [Board of Health] did not issue a condemnation order, they did not provide sufficient notice and thus were without authority to demolish Pesu’s building.”
The Secretary of State’s Corporations Division lists Madeline C. Culpo of Pittsfield as president of Pesu Inc.
According to court papers, four apartments in the complex were cited six separate times between 2000 to 2004 for various sanitary code violations, including a non-functioning toilet and insufficient heat. In 2006, the Board of Health declared the property “unfit for human habitation” and issued a condemnation order, but rescinded the order three days later. It was unclear in court documents why the order was rescinded.
The next year, another apartment in the complex was cited for violations, and in October 2007 the city ordered the property demolished.
In August 2008, the Board of Health told Pesu that if it could find a buyer and present a purchase and sale agreement as well as a plan to repair the property by the next month, the board would rescind the order. No sale materialized and after a final inspection in January 2010 determined that the original violations hadn’t been corrected, the complex was demolished.
The city alleges that it went ahead with the demolition based on Dohoney’s advice. The court file doesn’t yet contain Dohoney’s response to the accusations, which isn’t due until May.
The case is scheduled to be in Superior Court in July.
Mayor Daniel L. Bianchi was on his way to Washington, D.C., on Friday and was unavailable for comment. A call to current city solicitor Kathleen E. Degnan was not returned by press time.<<<<<
Only in Berkshire County:
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_22407017/pittsfield-alleges-malpractice-suit-against-former-city-solicitor
As you say, GMH only in Pittsfield. Whatta buncha bums.
They were motivated and didn’t worry about the rights of the owner when moving forward with their vision of downtown.
That property in question was a dump. We are better off with it gone. I wish they could or would do it to all the slumlords but then bianchi would be out a ton of lawn sign locations