By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, SEPT. 15, 2014) — The transcript reads as follows:

THE PLANET: Mr. Chairman, point of order.

CHAIR: Proceed.

PLANET: We request the floor.

CHAIR: Chair acknowledges THE PLANET. We give THE PLANET the floor.

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Well, it sort of went that way. In any case, THE PLANET has finally nailed down (or should we say, “laid down”) the story behind the veddy expensive re-do of the lovely — and dangerous — marble floors inside the first floor of city hall. We have pieced the story together with information from various inside sources.

Ankle Bites and All

You may have noticed a few weeks ago in The Boring Broadsheet published a letter to the editor from Mary McGinnis, the Mayor of Pittsfield‘s (The MOP) former director of administrative services. In the letter, McGinnis spoke of the slippery floors and the money spent on those floors in city hall.

Her letter raised a question we heard several times, independently and from different quarters, each time from a concerned and active citizen. The composited question can be put like this: “How can we spend thousands of dollars moving department offices to 100 North St. when we are unwilling to take care of our current City Hall offices and, more importantly, the people who inhabit and work in them?”

Flash back to 2011 and triangulate bit of seemingly random and innocuous information. The women who work in the City Clerk’s office began to complain that bugs were biting them on their ankles and legs from the 30-year-old carpets. Mayor Jimmy Ruberto, mayor at the time, heard the complaints and agreed to replace the carpets. He asked for money to replace the carpet in the city clerk’s office, the tax collector’s office; the first floor halls; and up the stairs in city hall.

The city issued a request for proposals and received a quote of $33,447 to complete the work. Also included in this money was the refurbishing of the well-worn counter in tax collector’s office. Ruberto agreed. Let the record show that $30,000 was approved in the FY2012 capital budget, with the remaining $3,447 to come out of the maintenance department budget.

In the process of getting the quotes for the carpet replacement, workers took samples from under the carpet to determine if there was asbestos or any other hazardous materials. The asbestos abatement officer was ordered to cut the carpet in several areas of the first floor of city hall, including the city council office next to the mayor’s office. By that time, the city had a new mayor.

In the process of taking samples in the city councilor’s office, sources say, Theresa Bianchi, The MOP’s wife, noticed there was terrazzo marble flooring under the carpet. Theresa asked the abatement officer what he was doing. He explained he was taking samples as part of the carpet-replacement project. Teresa Bianchi then took it upon herself to play Lady McBeth. You recall The Bard‘s famous fishwife, who would do anything to put her husband on the throne and keep him there. Anything.

Sources tell us that Her Highness Lady Bianchi, unelected by We The People but with access to the throne by marriage to The MOP, issued a regal command. They say she told the maintenance department that the city was not going to carpet the floors but refurbish them.

By What Right Does She Do This?

Her Lady “instructed” the maintenance laborer to remove both the carpeting in the city council office and the glue that was on the floor. Let this all sink in for a moment.

1. An unelected private citizen interferes with a policy decision.

2. She unilaterally decides the terrazzo floors on the first floor of city hall are to be refurbished.

3. She tells her husband that he must issue the order.

4. Her husband obeys.

Makes you wonder: Who wears the pants in the corner office?

What’s an Additional $50 Grand If It Pleases Her Highness?

In the FY2014 capital projects request, sources say, Mayor Bianchi put forward a request for an additional $50,000 for city hall floor refurbishing, and then again at the March 26, 2013 city council meeting, Bianchi asked the council to approve another $10,000. This brought the total to $90,000 of appropriations. The marble floors were brought to shine and to this day —

— The clerks are still being bit by bugs from the 33-year-old carpets. No one has addressed their complaints. THE PLANET recommends that you take a trip to city hall. Walk around on the first floor. You will see numerous areas with duct tape patching the tears.

To this day nothing has been done to replace the carpets in the clerk’s office. The clerks continued to complain of bug bites. The MOP’s brilliant and compassionate response was to order the carpets treated with insecticide.

Insecticide? Really? A roach motel?

One of the clerks had an allergic reaction to the chemical sprayed on the carpets. Sources say the maintenance department, now headed by The MOP’s people and not Ruberto’s, told the woman there were no bugs in the carpet. They said the problem was from paper shards lodged in the rugs. We’re not kidding; you can’t make this stuff up.

What did you, Citizen Taxpayer, get for $90,000? Only a fraction of the job is complete. Just a reminder: The total job was initially quoted at $33,447. Look for yourself. You, the owner of the government, now have slippery floors. When wet, as happens in high humidity, when it rains, or in winter, the marble floors are a safety hazard. That explains the floor mats randomly placed so people won’t fall and sue the city.

You’ll recall that McGinnis said in her letter that several people have slipped and hit their heads. No definitive word yet of lawsuits, but there may be at least one in the works. The Maintenance Department was warned the terrazzo floors would be extremely slippery when wet. As a matter of fact, at The MOP’s inauguration in January 2012, his minions were instructed to gather scatter rugs and put them in the halls so no one would fall.

TES Took Care of Himself and Stuffed Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski into the Dumpster

The clerk’s office and tax collector’s office are the two most frequently visited offices in city hall and yet, there is duct tape binding together some of the tears in the carpet. This doesn’t mention the bugs, that have set up their resort city in the beaten broadloom.

Isn’t this ironic. The MOP has resorted to the explanation of creating a safe work environment so he can move 40% of city hall to 100 North St., where he coincidentally happens to have his office at Larry Global Mondello, a.k.a., Global Montello, the energy services company.

You can be sure the mayor has created a work environment for himself that is not only clean and safe but also luxurious.

The whole first floor and up the stairs could have been corrected with the first $30,000 capital expenditure, but Dan Bianchi, at the command of his wife, chose to spend $90,000 to refurbish a fraction of the total job. However TES made sure his office was re-carpeted, repainted, and refurbished prior to his inauguration, complete with an expensive air purifier for his allergies and a new flat screen TV.

The question as it pertains to “100gate” is this: How can the city spend thousands of dollars to move offices out of city hall, and it can’t replace 30-year-old, vermin-infested carpets for workers at 70 Allen St.?

Moreover, sources say that Mayor Ruberto put money in the budget for asbestos abatement. In 2011, the maintenance department used the funds to treat three out of the four building inspector offices in the basement at city hall. Before these abatements could be done, maintenance checked to see if there was any radon in the offices. Former Director of Health Jim Wilutz, sources say, completed a full radon test and inspection of the basement in City Hall.

The tests came back negative. No radon was found.

Doesn’t all this just floor you?

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