Once again, if you are raising children in Pittsfield, and you truly love them, make them aware that it is a big country they live in and there are many better places to live than Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In Pittsfield your opportunities are proportionally limited to the number of power connections you have with the political fiefdom.

Go west young man, go west.

Ron:
“They” have let the Civil Service System fall into its current condition. When it (Civil Service) was at the top of its game is insured fairness and equality. Perhaps, that why it was permitted or pushed into disrepair.

I wanted to make a movie about a young lad growing up in a toxic ladened small city and experiencing major health problems due to industrial toxic waste.

Pittsfield seemed like the ideal location.

However, due to the complex political permitting process, the movie had to be scrapped.

Dan,

Wonering if you are planning on doing a column reporting on the Ebola problem spiraling out of control?

Dallas hospital has shut down their emergency room over one man who died there from Ebola:

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/shutdown-a-single-ebola-patient-has-overwhelmed-the-system-dallas-hospital-forced-to-close-emergency-room_10132014

Not even the murder of a US President shut down a hospital’s emergency room in Dallas.

The nurse who contracted ebola from caring for the man – her boyfriend has now believed to have contracted the disease.

Doctor’s and nurses in Sierra Leone and Liberia have walked off the job because the risk’s are not worth it. Too many of them have already become infected.

The World Health Organization is reporting 10,000 new cases every week worldwide.

Also, the CDC is rumored to be preparing for up to 200 million deaths.

I would be interested in your opinion as to what’s going on here.

I forget.What was the question?

The City’s Human Resource Director should be reviewing the credential of “ALL” applicants and ” validating their credentials and insure that they meet the MEQs. Once everything has been VALIDATED the HR Director should then recommend the top three (Explaining How They Received Their Rank). If the mayor decides to go select someone other than the individuals recommended by HR Director then the Council should be informed of this “FACT”.
If the mayor or the council wants to add another step in the process they can have the three names given to the appropriate committee for its review.

I know that it easy to blame the mayor and perhaps it is the right thing do at this point I don’t know. I agree he has got himself into a couple of real situations.

I think that this is fairly transparent. It’s just my opinion!

The move to 100 N st was done without council knowledge or involvement. The switch to BC-Bs was done without council knowledge or involvement. I talk to several councilors including my own and they found out first about it from DV and this website.

I would love to see DV run for mayor. He’s the only one I would trust at this point.

The appointing process begs for director of personel (HR John De Angleo) to speak up and out about it. Or is he too a wimp?

NEWS ARTICLES:

“Anne Wojtkowski dies; engineer, educator and Pittsfield’s first woman mayor”
By Jim Therrien and Dick Lindsay, Berkshire Eagle Staff, 10/13/2014

PITTSFIELD — There were few glass ceilings in Berkshire County that Anne Everest Wojtkowski didn’t smash through.

Wojtkowski, who died Monday at 79, was the first woman to serve as mayor of Pittsfield (from 1988-92), championed equal pay for female college faculty, spearhead early childhood education, all while being dedicated to her family.

“My brother [Tom] and I were the most important to her,” said daughter, Dr. Marcella Bradway. “She gave up plenty of opportunities to go elsewhere.”

Instead, Wojtkowski chose her native Pittsfield to make her mark in public education and politics.

An engineer by trade — the first woman in her class at Boston University — the Pittsfield High School alum returned to the city in the 1960s from the Boston area with her husband, Thomas, and two young children. She would embark on a 35-year career as a professor of mathematics and engineering at Berkshire Community College, retiring from BCC in 2004.

Her first taste of a mayoral campaign was in 1981, when she ran for mayor and lost in the preliminary election. Six years later she successfully won the first of two consecutive two-year mayoral terms, breaking the gender barrier in the corner office at City Hall.

“Clearly she was a trailblazer for women in politics,” said state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox. “She not only cracked the glass ceiling, but she broke through it for other females to follow.”

Former state Sen. Andrea Nuciforo Jr., Wojtkowski’s nephew, said his aunt wasn’t about being first, but what’s best for her hometown.

“Anne got into public service for the same reason she got into education — she wanted to make a difference,” Nuciforo said. “She entered city government during a difficult time: GE was pulling out, PCBs was becoming a hot topic and the economy was in a downt[ur]n.”

At times, Wojtkowski butted heads with the City Council, only because she was adamant about getting things done, according to her daughter.

“It bothered her that she was misunderstood [as mayor,]” Bradway said. “She was contentious with the City Council, but if she had a point to make, she stuck with it.”

Wojtkowski’s re-election bid felt short in 1991, losing in the preliminary to her eventual successor, Edward Reilly.

The former city solicitor lauded Wojtkowski for being gracious in defeat and helping him transition into the mayor’s job before he was sworn in January of 1992.

“When I got elected, she gave me all the ins and outs of the office,” he said. “Even some of the people loyal to her stayed on during my first term.”

Reilly also praised Wojtkowski for being among active supporters of the efforts that led to a $16 million restoration of the Colonial Theatre a decade ago. She also helped the city buy and convert the old Capitol Theatre and movie house into the present-day senior center on North Street, which opened after Reilly became the city’s chief executive.

Wojtkowski’s mayoral career was sandwiched between her being a pioneer for the Pittsfield Public Schools and a trendsetter for higher education.

In 1967 at the age of 32, Wojtkowski won her first election as the city’s top vote-getter, winning a four-year term on the School Committee.

“There isn’t a good reason in the world why the Pittsfield school system can’t be one of the top systems, not only in the state but in the country,” she said in one of her first public statements after the election that year.

Wojtkowski went on to call for “an orderly reorganization of the [school] department along the lines recommended by [a consulting firm].”

Between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, she also served as the chairwoman of the School Building Needs Commission that oversaw a $9 million modernization project at Pittsfield High, completed in 1977.

Seven years earlier in 1970, she helped the city school system establish one of the nation’s first early childhood education programs, still in existence today.

“She was most proud of that,” Bradway said. “The kids were the most important to her; she was a very nurturing person.”

And persistent.

In 1983, she and another female professor initiated a lawsuit against BCC over an alleged lack of promotional and pay equity. The Massachusetts Teachers Association joined in the legal action and expanded it to include female educators and professionals at all state community colleges. Nine years later, the suit was settled for $10.6 million, considered the largest of its kind in Massachusetts and a springboard for the national movement for equal pay.

After taking a four-year hiatus from BCC to be mayor, Wojtkowski returned to the West Street campus, devoted to higher education and helping rebuild the local economy through the community college.

“I know we have engineers in Berkshire County and beyond who credit Anne with providing them with a top notch education,” said BCC President Ellen Kennedy. “They have successful careers because of Anne’s teaching.”

Wojtkowski also co-founded Berkshire Enterprises, an entrepreneurial program that has trained hundreds of Berkshirites to start their own businesses and create more than 1,100 jobs.

“We are a better community for her leadership and innovation,” Kennedy said.

In later years, Wojtkowski was an author, writing “Porcelain and Pottery Shoes,” and other books. She was a collector of souvenir china, past president of the Berkshire Historical Society and considered one of the best ever to sail on Pontoosuc Lake, The Eagle reported, sharing a love of sailing with her father, A. Walter Everest.

“She also made a killer chocolate cake,” Nuciforo said. “If people knew she was coming to an event bringing a cake, they would show up.”

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“Pittsfield’s First Female Mayor, Long-Time Educator Dies At 79”
By Jim Levulis – WAMC – October 14, 2014

The first female mayor of Pittsfield, Massachusetts died Monday at the age of 79. She’s remembered as having touched many lives through her work in education, public service and politics.

In 1988 Anne Everest Wojtkowski became the first woman to lead Pittsfield as mayor, an office she held for two terms until 1992. The Pittsfield native was an engineer by trade, becoming a professor of mathematics and engineering at Berkshire Community College for 35 years along with serving on the city’s school committee. Former State Senator Andrea Nuciforo remembers his aunt as a confident and committed person.

“She came into office as mayor at a time that was very difficult for the city, but she believed in the city, she believed in the promise of the people that live here and she was confident that she could make a difference,” said Nuciforo.

Wojtkowski led efforts to renovate the Colonial Theatre, convert the Capitol Theatre to the senior center on North Street and modernize Pittsfield High School.