BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 23, 2018) — Two meetings set, one for tonight and the other tomorrow, may well determine the economic fate of the city of Pittsfield. The correct vote won’t prevent eventual receivership (assuming the current spending problem is not addressed in municipal budgets), but the incorrect vote will hasten the trip over the edge of the money cliff. As if we need to remind anyone, bankruptcy makes of that fall a long one indeed.

THE PLANET speaks of the meetings of the city council’s finance committee tonight and the regular council meeting tomorrow. At issue: Another crack by the Tyer Administration to induce a $74 million ($80 mill if you count the $6 million already shelled out to “consultants”) upgrade to the city’s water treatment plant. Keep in mind that the facility has no quality issues, is well within regulatory standards, and independent water engineers say the massive overhaul isn’t needed.

To this THE PLANET adds that the EPA directives requiring the city to make the upgrade is highly controversial. The agency, currently in its own crisis of confidence after the charges of corruption made against its director, certainly has no moral footing to be ordering anyone to do anything, least of all a city that has consistently obeyed the law when it comes to water treatment.

Two other points strongly suggest the correct vote is to vote down the EPA arm-twisting: first, the EPA order amounts to an unfounded mandate. Second, the EPA’s bureaucratic throwing around of its weight can be fought successfully in court. If the city calls the agency’s bluff and fights the order, it will discover that the 800-pound gorilla wears a cheaply wrought Cheetah costume. The EPA “beast” is more suitable as an organ grinder’s cup holder.

A third additional factor rests in the empty wallet of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, Pittsfield’s beleaguered taxpayers. Primarily due to the $110 million they are forced to pay for the city’s failing public schools, they reach the end of the month barely — barely — scraping by. They simply can’t afford to be mugged by a corrupt federal agency whose regional aparatchiks play a game of “justify your existence” for the bosses in Washington.

You will recall the last time this measure came before the council, our Right Honorable Good Friends defeated it by 7-4, one vote short of the required 8-3 supermajority. Scorecard: Voting against taxpayers, Moon, Caccamo, Krol, Simonelli, White, Persip, and Marchetti. Voting to save the Kapanskis and the city, Mazzeo, Connell, Rivers, and Morandi. Word kicking around the rooms at City Hall have it that the administration has put the full court press on Rivers to change her vote and Simonelli to stay pat.

The final bird in hand has to be, of all things, the city hall elevators. They’re (in)conveniently on the half shell and no repair schedule has been announced. This means that the meetings might have to be moved to alternate venues due to rules about accessibility for the handicapped. The resulting confusion should assure light attendance by average citizens. You can be sure that the stooges for this project have received advanced secret word from Groucho Marx about the locations.

We hear the water dripping as we write.

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“Nothing to do now but wait for the grapevine to twine” — Steve Canyon.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Usual Disclaimer.