BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JAN. 6, 2020) — Once the new council swears the typically meaningless oath, THE PLANET wonders who will assume the presidency?

Actually, we don’t wonder at all.

C’mon down, Pee Pee Marchetti!

We’ve been polling both the outgoing and incoming numbers of Our Right Honorable Good Friends plus a good number of “interested observers,” and we can report the deal’s in the sack. It’s in the bag in a way similar to the dog droppings you once stuffed in a bag at Halloween to light on fire and place on someone’s doorstep. The redolence is similar, and, like pooch turds gather flies, Pee Pee will get the votes. It’s not Treat. For citizens, it’s once again Trick.

Pee Pee’s the perfect president because he doesn’t understand parliamentary procedure or constitutional process, meaning that he will act as the mayor’s bobo instead of leading the loyal opposition, which is what the legislative should be to the executive. It’s been sad to see what this once-promising lad has become: A shell of his former shell.

How badly does Pee Pee cling to the presidency to preserve a shred of self-respect? When it looked like Melissa Mazzeo might become the next mayor, he tried to make a deal with her. He would stay neutral in the mayor race in exchange for the votes for president. When Melissa said no dice, Pee Pee found himself in a bind about which candidate to publicly back: Mazzeo or Tyer. The same as he did on the Civic Authority issue, the same as he has done on virtually every controversial and hotly contested issue, he did what he’s always done. He waffled more than Eggos. When the heat’s on, he never tales a definable stand. Only when the results came in on Election Night did Pee Pee haul his bubble-gum butt to Tyer’s celebration party to kiss some behind. Said one Important Person there: “The way Pete came crawling back has us all laughing [at him] after he left.”

“Actually, staying neutral is always Marchetti’s goal,” said one council insider. “Earning number-one vote getter is far, far more important to him than helping any other candidate in any other race.”

THE PLANET gets it. Pee Pee has the backbone of a dish of rancid Jell-O and the self-assurance and decisiveness of Hamlet. For those who don’t know this masterwork of The Bard, that’s not a compliment.

Don’t tell anyone you heard it here, but Marchetti has promised Peter “Forest Gump” White the vice presidency. That’s got to make everyone sleep better at night, knowing Gump is “a heartbeat away.” By the way, to hear one pro-Tyer councilor [PTC] brag to us, “[Marchetti] polled all of us except Connell and Morandi to make sure he and [White] have the votes. We’re not sure about [Ward 7  ‘s Tony] Maffuccio. We think we got him, but with Tony, you never know.” When we said that such a pre-vote confab was illegal, our source laughed. “Think that ever stopped [Marchetti]? THE PLANET thanks and respects PTC’s honesty. It’s rare that one of the Administration’s “people” is that frank, but we do have intimate correspondence with a “cuppla-three.”

An interesting aside is one of the rumors floated at the time regarding Chris Connell’s delay in taking out papers in Ward 4. As we all know, Connell did take out papers and he won re-election, both to the relief of Ward 4 residents and The Kapanskis. Connell is the council’s reigning MVP. Anyway, the rumor, still offered by Chris’s enemies, is that he held out until pulling papers because those foes the believe ward councilors should not be council President [ED. NOTE: THE PLANET does not think being a ward rep eliminates a councilor from the presidency]. Without the deal with Marchetti, Connell would have run at-large and Mayor Melissa would then have ensured Connell had the votes for president — so the fiction goes.

Not true, says THE PLANET.

“There was no deal that I’m aware of,” Connell said. ” I held off pulling papers for Ward 4 because I was waiting for Melissa to announce for Mayor. Had she not made the commitment, I would have considered running for Mayor. A long shot at best. I never had any intention of running at large. The other factor in holding off pulling papers was I had to make sure I could deal with my mother’s health issues. If I couldn’t deal effectively with her condition, I would not have considered running for any office. Thank God for Elder Services coming into the picture. It has helped out considerably.”

———- ooo ———-

Once situated, how will the council newcomers — Yuki Cohen, at large; Patrick Kavey, Ward 5; Dina Guiel Lampiasi, Ward 6; returning Tony Maffuccio, Ward 7 — behave with respect to the Administration? Will they be rubber-stampers for the Tyer agenda or will they take on issues independenly based on the merits and the impact on Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. THE PLANET polled a representative cross-section of councilors (ex- and current), press, and other wise-guys on the inside.

The outlook? Grim for the Kapanskis, terrific for the mayor.

Folks, prepare for another four years of caning.

Here’s a compendium of the “expert” — not THE PLANET‘s — views.

• Cohen will definitely vote with the mayor. That’s why others were supporting Jay Hamling for that spot. “Hamling would have been very open minded,” said one. THE PLANET will hold a wait-and-see position.
• Maffuccio is unpredictable at this point, the council’s wild card.
• Lampiasi, as does Ward 1’s Helen Moon, has a full-time position with the district attorney’s office. Given the salt-in-the-wound relationship between the Tyer-Mazzeo camps, a former mayor says “Dina will be all for Dina and anything that supports the mayor and [the D.A.]. ” Again, we will hold off judgment.
• Kavey just got a job at Hotel on North. “Need I say more?” asked one source. “They have bought his vote.” Another source, this a city hall employee, said “Kavey getting the [HON] job? It’s another of those ‘Pittsfield coincidences’ you like to write about, Dan. They were bragging [in City Hall] about it during the election.”
• Connell and Morandi will hold down the job of loyal opposition.
• The ‘Special Interest” constituency — particularly the School Department and the Big Three unions (Teachers/Schools, Police, Fire in that order) — will maintain viselike grip on elections.
• The city’s financial picture will continue to deteriorate.

Another inside view: “Even off the record I will reserve judgment going in with the three new councilors and Councilor Maffucio, who has served in the past. I just hope they will put the residents first and foremost be it in the ward and the city that they represent everyday. All of our decisions that we make in the next two years will affect our constituents and the city going forward. I will continue to do what I feel is right not popular. The decisions we as councilors make on issues through our votes and actions will set the tone on how adversely affected our constituents, neighborhoods, businesses and city will be. They should not be influenced by any political groups or aspirations. We were all elected to be leaders not followers, and I will continue to not be afraid to make that tough decision or vote when warranted as I represent not only my constituents in [my] ward but also all the people in Pittsfield. I will never forget that I don’t answer to anyone else. I will continue to be a strong voice for my constituents and the city.”