BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 18-20, 2022) — On Monday, THE PLANET reported on the four 6-4 votes by our Right Honorable Good Friend on the Pittsfield city council not to support a plan presented by Charles Ivar Kronick along with Ken Warren, Karen Kalinowsky, and Tony Maffuccio to use $5 million of the $40 million in ARPA grant money to offset the ruinous double-digit rate increase on water and sewer backed by the Tyer Administration.

The wise guys had told THE PLANET  the day before the meeting on the impending 6-4 vote, naming the enabling six: Sherman, Conant, Lampiasi, Marchetti, White, and Persip. Amazingly, our predictor was so Nostradamus that they even called Kavey’s absence. That would support the notion that Kavey ducked the meeting , chickening out (not to mix metaphorical animals) so he wouldn’t have to vote either way.

The mitigating plan by Kronick et al would have reduced the rate hikes for FY22 and FY23 from Tyer’s 12% and 10% to 3% both years. It would have save precious dollars for the battered, beleaguered, and baffled Mary Jane and Joe Kapanskis.

This tells you all you need to know about the word “cahoots” when it comes to the mayor and her council lap dogs.

How screwed up is this city? It can’t even agree on the size of the ARPA grant. Is it $40 million, $41 million, or $43 million? All three figures have been used. Ah, but what a few millions with the spendthrifts in city government who are “representative” in name only? Chump change. That’s what it is, with the Kapanskis as the biggest chumps. The fact that this royal screwing took place in a near-empty chamber tells you all you need to know about another thing plaguing the city: Apathy, with otherwise good citizens going through the “why bothers?” after realizing the level of arrogance on the council dais and in the corner office. As it has been for more than a generation now, in Pittsfield, the leaders “know better” than you do. Your role is to shut up and cough up.

So where will the $40 million be spent?

C’mon down, Deanna Ruffer and Gina Armstrong. Ruffer resigned as city OCD director. Armstrong did the same as director of public health. Voila! Like magic, two new gigs opened up for them as mayor Linda Tyer put the two in charge of deciding who gets what of the $40 million windfall, which will be given in two doses of $20 million each this year and next. Funny how these things work. Appointed, not elected.

The good part is that the ladies can get paid, act as kingmakers, an still accrue more time for dem lucrative city bennies. Tough work, but somebody’s gotta do it. Public service and public servants, at their best!

The mayor and the two gentlewomen have pretended for the public that “they will not have autonomy to decide where the funds will go. That will be a shared responsibility.” Technically, that might be true. Practically, however, it just might be a different story. You may be shocked to know that things like have been known to happen in the merry ol’ land of Benigno Numine.

As mayor of Munchkin Land, Tyer gave the gals an advisory board of nine people, not one of the a Kapanski:

• Brett Westbrook, executive director of Head Start.
• A. J. Enchilli, Berkshire Black Economic council.
• Rev. Joel Huntington, recently retired pastor of the South Congregational Church.

• Sheila Irvin, a teacher in the Pittsfield Public School system.
• Dr. Alan Kulberg, M.D, of Berkshire Health Systems.
• Peter Marchetti, the man who need no introduction.
• Ellen Speak, president and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village.

• Kaman Taliaferro, local chapter NAACP.
• Dubois Thomas, executive director of Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.

No doubt, a good gathering of decent do-gooders, but who will likely present requests that will be graded and shaded for certain minority subpopulations. THE PLANET just hopes these good people have waders, because the spit’s going to be knee deep from all the please, pleas, cajoling, hand-outs unfolding from the “gimme groups.”

Below, THE PLANET shares the city’s language on how the money should be spent. Be on the lookout for this line: “Building the power and voice of lower-income people and people of color so that all residents share in the future of our community.”

Do we have to draw you a map? If you’re a Kapanski, you’re screwed.

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For comic gold, here’s the official language about ARPA money taken direct from the city’s website:

Over the next two years, Pittsfield will receive about $40 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This funding can be used to:

1. Respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
2. Address the negative economic impacts the community has experienced as a result of COVID-19.

3. Provide assistance in disproportionately impacted neighborhoods (for Pittsfield this is defined as the
Morningside and Westside neighborhoods).
4. Provide premium pay to low income employees who are doing or did essential work – working in
businesses considered high risk, worked with the public, and/or distributed goods – during the
COVID-19 public health emergency.

5. To offset reductions in local government revenue due to COVID-19.
6. Invest in water and/or sewer infrastructure.
7. Invest in broadband infrastructure.

The funds cannot be used for:

• Tax reductions or cuts
• Pension fund payments/deposits

• Legal settlements
• To meet federal grant match requirements
• Roads and bridges

The Treasury Department and the Massachusetts departments of Revenue and Administration and Finance have and will continue to provide guidance and monitor municipal use of and reporting about these funds.

Guiding Principle

When invested in people and places through shared community engagement, the American Rescue Plan provides an once-in-a-lifetime infusion of funds that can transform Pittsfield into a city:

• of social and economic resiliency for everyone, especially for people who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by racial inequity and generational poverty,
• where people are able to live up to their greatest potential, achieve prosperity, and experience health, well-being and joy.

In keeping with this Guiding Principle, the following goals have been established.
Goals

1. Striving toward ensuring city residents have a comfortable, safe and dignified place to call home.
2. Creating safe & healthy neighborhoods supported by quality infrastructure, access to affordable childcare and opportunities for job training and financial security.

1. Enhancing community access to public health, mental and behavioral health, and youth services.
2. Strengthening and engaging community partners to increase community access to services, housing resources and economic opportunities.
3. Supporting creativity, the expression of culture, and artistic excellence so that everyone has access to the arts and an opportunity for self-expression.
4. Building the power and voice of lower-income people and people of color so that all residents share in the future of our community.

The City sought input from the public about how these funds should be used through four community forums. Please click here to view input from these forums.

For more information or questions about ARPA, please email arpa@cityofpittsfield.org.

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One last idle thought: How much of this money do you think the Kapanskis will get for being pounded by COVID, inflation, and huge increases in assessments, fees, rates, and taxes?

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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.

LOVE TO ALL.

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