BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION OCT. 21-23, 2016) — At a recent meeting of THE PLANET‘s Right Honorable Good Friends on the Pittsfield City Council, the sanctimonious trio of Kathy Amuso, at-large and former school committee chair; John Krol, Ward 6 and noted defender of politics as usual; and Sweet Pete White, at-large and council water boy snuck an item on the agenda. They did it with an assist from Peter Marchetti, at large, council president, and eternally afraid of controversy or rocking the boat.

The measure asked councilors to endorse a “no” vote on Question 2. This question on the Nov. 8 ballot asking voters to expand the number of charter schools in Massachusetts. A “Yes” vote will allow up to a dozen new charter school to be opened in the Commonwealth. As a country-western song once put it, “Always say ‘yes’ if ‘yes’ if the answer.

On Question 2, “Yes” is the answer.

School Committee: Manipulation, Malfeasance, and Misappropriation of Funds

The Friends brought the item forward for debate. Fortunately, cooler heads brought forth prevailing winds. Notable among the Cool-Air Navigators was Donna Todd Rivers, Ward 5, former assistant city solicitor, entrepreneur, and attorney. She essentially said, “Woah. You can’t politick on public property. This here is city hall, owned not by us but by Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski.”

The matter receded under this wise care. Will it be brought forth again? Be warned, Mr. Council President, for if you do so, you will be in violation of state ethics laws that prohibits such blatant political activity from public employees, particularly of the elected variety. It will come back to haunt you.

Not to be outdone and perpetually skating free from public scrutiny, the apparatchiks on the Pittsfield School Committee (PSC) took a similar course. Of course, knowing the corrupt game of manipulation, malfeasance, and misappropriation of funds regularly practiced by this criminal group, can you be surprised? Being professional functionaries of The Party Machine, they not only (a) put the measure on a recent agenda and (b) discussed it, but they also (c) voted. Sea-hag of the PSC, Kathy “Lady Boots” Yon, left the chair to hog the open mic and, still as chair, led the cheers for a view that, if passed, will further guarantee the erosion of public school education in the Bay State.

Advisory 11-1 of the State Ethics Commission addresses “Public Employee Political Activity.” The advisory is poorly written and at time contradictory, but the proper reading makes it clear that state law (G.L. c. 268A) limits the political activity of those feeding from the public trough. The reason is obvious to everyone except the public employees themselves, at least most of those from Pittsfield. They have a vested (usually financial and always political) interest in seeing that policy matters go in one direction as opposed to another. By the way, neither the advisory nor the ethics advisory restricts what a public employee does on private time with private resources.

What a public worker cannot do, especially those in elected or appointed office, is “use his public position to engage in political activity (Section 23(b)(2)(ii) of the state’s Conflict of Interest Law).” They can’t do it “because a public employee who does so is using his position to secure for himself or others (such as a candidate or a ballot question) unwarranted privileges of substantial value …”

The “substantial value” for the PSC is riding herd over 75 cents of every public dollar spent by the City of Pittsfield. That number keeps rising because of contracted pay raises stolen in one-sided “negotiations” and the dreaded “automatic step raises” that each year guarantee hefty pay hikes for teachers and administrators irrespective of the continuing decline in academic performance.

‘Yes’ on 2 Improves Public Education

A “Yes” vote on Question 2 will allow more public charter schools. Charters outperform traditional public schools on less money by relaxing the stranglehold teachers’ unions have over the politics of education, specifically through their control of jelly-spined politicians and equally invertebrate school committee members. “Yes” on 2 will will improve public education. Voting otherwise will guarantee that this generation continues to fail the next.

VOTE YES ON QUESTION 2.

With that, THE PLANET opens The Comment Line. Don’t embarrass yourself. Keep it intelligent.

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“The man who does not value himself cannot value anything or anyone.” — Ayn Rand

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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