By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 29, 2014) — Fireworks opened the meeting last night of Our Right Honorable Good Friends on the Pittsfield City Council. We refer to the appearance of Pittsfield resident Craig Gaetani during the open mic session.

Gaetani, for those who know him, is “direct and forceful” in speech and manner. For those who don’t know him, he is “loud and abrasive.” Yes, we come back to beauty and the eye of the beholder. Overlooked is the valid point Gaetani had the courage to bring up: Why have the petitions he filed with the city council disappeared?

Why Does City Government Ignore Citizens?

THE PLANET has seen this ignoring of citizens in other administrations, but the foul practice has only increased under the current one. Petitions are referred under Rule 27 to the Phantom Zone. Other petitions end up in subcommittee, where they get buried better than a squirrel’s soup bone. Other just “disappear.” The sad fact is this: If you are an ordinary citizen of Pittsfield and you dare to petition the government you own, you risk suffering marginalization, humiliation, or worse. Some way for the politicians of Podunk to act, wouldn’t you say? It’s not the pot calling the kettle black. It’s the double amputee calling Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest human, a cripple.

From the open mic, Gaetani ripped council president Melissa Mazzeo for her recalcitrant dispositions of his petitions. Mazzeo was clearly agitated by the attack and sought to stifle him, but Gaetani would not be stopped. He kept talking. When he had finished, he asked Mazzeo if she was calling the police on him. She lost her cool, which is something the chair should never do. There are few “nevers” in politics, but that is one of them.

Regardless of whether Gaetani went over his time or not, his criticisms could have been handled with more aplomb by the council president. Discretion is often allowed with the three minutes, and it should have been in this case, no matter how stinging the rhetoric. Sure, no one likes being criticized, but that’s the nature of political office. As the late, great Aging Greek God Peter Arlos used to say, “It’s a public pissing post.”

Lost in the excitement was the point of citizens petitioning their government. It’s clear that The Bianchi Administration does not want citizens to be involved. TES‘ consistent record of secrecy, opaqueness, lack of transparency, and bullying of opponents makes that clear, and this uncivil, hostile manner has unfortunately trickled down into local offices run by employees and bureaucrats who live in fear of a tyrant.

Such treatment of citizens at the hands of local government is intolerable. THE PLANET doesn’t know what it will take to awaken the Sleeping Giant that is the electorate or even if it is possible. We know this — As long as this Administration continues to function unopposed with no accountability, it will continue to suppress freedom, spend taxpayers money on projects that benefit The Special Interests, and move the city toward the direction of insolvency.

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Enrollment Dips & MCAS Performance Too, So Let’s Build A New High School

For the first time in “the modern era,” enrollment in the Pittsfield public schools has plummeted below 6,000. The most recent figures show a little more than 5,800 students are in the system. That’s bad enough, but this being Pittsfield, there a “scam” angle to it.

THE PLANET learned from former school committee member Terry Kinnas that the city’s enrollment figures include 135 children in pre-school. As unbelievable as that sounds, it is true. Pre-K is counted toward the pupil population. This means the true K-12 figure approaches 5,600. That compares to the 12,000 figure of the late 1960s, just before Taconic High School was built. The city managed just fine with one high school. Double sessions may have been an inconvenience but not enough to hamper performance.

Speaking of which, the latest MCAS results (last spring’s testing) were the worst in memory. According to Kinnas, not one Pittsfield school met its improvement goals. THE PLANET got a laugh to learn, however, that several showed “improvement below target (IBT).” That’s the bureaucrat’s way of saying “They’re still getting Fs, but a better F.” It’s like getting the “Most Accomplished Loser” award.

In the background of all this, of course, is the $115 million new THS project (the final cost, as we all know, will come in much higher than that once the payoffs are made and the shakedown money is delivered). Pittsfield has have precipitously declining enrollment with worsening classroom performance, and yet a tiny group of Suits is rail-roading the unnecessary new school into reality as a “miracle cure.”

Folks, it ain’t bricks and mortar that determine learning. It’s the quality of teachers and students.

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Sabourin: Another “Half There’ Performance

Finally, THE PLANET shares this quick item from the council meeting. At the open mic session, Julia Sabourin, No. 2 in the corner office and the mayor’s chief boot licker, showed up with an announcement of eminent forgetfulness. It wasn’t what she said that counted. It’s what she didn’t say. When Sabourin gave her name, she did so correctly. When she gave her address, as all open mic speakers are requested to do, she listed her address as 190 Orchard Circle. That much is correct but she left out the city or town. That happens to be Richmond.

Yes, as THE PLANET exposed last week, Sabourin and her husband joined the long list of city department heads and managers who make their bread in Pittsfield but come 4 p.m. high-tail outta Dodge to various corners of the region. Between them, the Sabourins probably make $120,000 plus bennies on, from, and out of Pittsfield taxpayers, but they don’t love the city enough to want to live there.

“190 Orchard Circle.”

Woman, thy name is “Deception.”

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“I’ll tell you this. No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.” — Jim Morrison and The Doors, “Stoned Immaculate,” from The Immaculate Prayer album, (1978).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.