PHOTO FINISH: RECENT PIX OF JUMPIN’ JOE, TEX, KUFFLINKS, AND LUMPY SHOWS THAT THE CAMERA DOESN’T LIE … or … BRITT POLITO CHANNELS MATTHEW BRADY
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 28, 2025) — Take a good look at this iBerkshire photo taken by reporter Brittany Polito.
We see four recognizable people in the picture: Kristen “Tex” Behnke, director of finance, school department; Jumpin’ Joe Curtis, school superintendent (not for long); in the background, Bitchfield finance director Matthew “Kufflinks” Kerwood; and next to him, Mayor Lumpy. In short, we have what THE PLANET recognizes as a rogues gallery, without the gallery.
A closer look, please, doctor:
TEX
Tex looks as if she’s just come out of a long bout of irritable bowel syndrome. Her grim expression shows a woman who’s switched fun for glum. Note the vacant look in her eyes reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead. She clenches her specs with lapped, white knuckles and all. Tex also looks as if she hasn’t missed any of Wishbone’s calls at the chuck wagon. If the city paid by the pound, she’d be cleaning up.
Based strictly by Polito’s roving lens, THE PLANET also wonders if perhaps her ringworm expression has to do with the fact that she’s just presented a “request” to the city council for an additional $3,765,084. With 180 school days and roughly 1,170 hours of class time, the added ransom comes to a raise for the school department of $20,917 A DAY!! or almost $3,000/hr.
The extra $20,917 for each school day must be for the great job Jumpin’, Tex, Kufflinks, Lumpy, the council, PHS administration and, above all, skolohlo kummmitcey have done this current fiscal year, keeping everything transparent, above board, and free of scandal. In words Heavy Tex can understand, she gets more cake and can eat it too. We can see from the astrological chart in front of Tex on the desk that she makes out her budget not with a horoscope but with a horrorscope.
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It seems the now-clean-shaven Mayor Lumpy could finally afford his can of Barbasol after he boosted his own pay from a mere $119,313 to $125,279. What a gig!
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JUMPIN’ JOE
What can we say about this dim bulb that hasn’t already consumed the available wattage? In the photo, JJ looks like he’s on the porcelain throne trying to squeeze one between the cheeks that just won’t budge. His left hand is slightly blurred. That’s the one where he’s picking Tex’s pocket. Picking taxpayer pockets has been JJ’s hobby since he got his online degree from an Arizona diploma mill.
His left hands cups a set of brass knuckles in case any councilor should raise a voice or ask an impertinent question. Closeby, four fingers of gin stand at the ready. THE PLANET wonders: Is the glass half empty or half full? Unfortunately, Jumpin’ will be leaving city employment soon to “spend more time with his family,” ready to cash in on a $90K yearly pension. Is “incest” still a four-letter word?
KUFFLINKS
Notice the transformation. In days of yore, Kufflinks earned the nickname of Little Eddie Munster (from Peter Arlos!) for his slicked-back shag, window’s peak, and receding hairline. That was then. This is now. Today, KKK has the Chrome Dome look on high beams.
In the picture, like the good lapdog, Krome Doam Kufflinks mimics his boss, head turned to the left. No doubt, there’s something of great interest occupying the pair. Maybe a heckler has made a crack about KKK’s pink shirt, or perhaps Miss Jane Hathaway’s Moxie has just laid a steaming fresh one on the mayor’s shoes?
LUMPY
As you can see from the photo, the mayor has gone back to clean shaven from the J.D. Vance look. It seems he could finally afford his can of Barbasol after he boosted his own pay from a mere $119,313 to $125,279. The nearly $7,000 hike comes courtesy of the mayor’s FY26 budget, and Lumpy will start on the new salary July 1. Meanwhile, after his close save, Lumpy will have to limp along as best he can on his paltry present salary.
It wasn’t three years ago (2022) that the corner-office occupant/warm body pulled down $102,428. Consequently, over three years, the price of incompetence and corruption has apparently risen by $23,000. At $7,777 a year, taxpayers Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, however, should consider themselves as having gotten off on the cheap.
Remember, good people: Just shut up and pay!
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“Writing is a bitch” — William Shakespeare.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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May 28, 2025
*Sarcasm* I asked Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski if they wanted to pay Mayor Peter Marchetti and his high salaried bureaucrats to manage their hard-earned money. They told me that I was smart to have moved 100 miles away from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
*Sarcasm* I surveyed small businesses and middle-class families if they wanted to move to Pittsfield.
The answers centered around the small city’s Level 5 (failed), Group 11 (underclass) school district, the downtown’s rows of social services agencies and empty storefronts, the small city’s violent crime rate doubling the statewide average since at least 1980, the small city’s annual 5 percent municipal operating budget spending increases over the past 4-plus decades, the excessive 7 percent property tax hikes and the 8 percent fee hikes, and the corrupt city’s politics other name being called: RETRIBUTION.
The results of the survey mirrored the over 50 years of losses in population and living wage jobs.
*Sarcasm* I polled the residents on which Mayor of Pittsfield politics had the best sarcastic nickname: The late-Barstool, Aberration, Rolodex, Montello, Gated Community, or Openly Gay?
The poll results stated that they all are failed leaders of a small city that never quite hits rock bottom because of its never-ending downward spiral that leads to millionaire Luciforo’s afterlife, forever home: HELL!
Jon Melle
I went out and talked with the fictional Kapanski’s to and they want a family affair of Jonathan Melle against Mayor Pete Marchetti in the next Pittsfield mayoral race. Are you up for the task Jonny. It will certainly be interesting at Thanksgiving dinners if you do run against Mayor Pete. To hell with the Hatfield and McCoys we’ll have openly gay vs closeted gay in a Peter Marchetti and Jonny Melle matchup. You have my vote Jonny!!
Ironically the school committee felt the new Superintendent with zero budgetary experience will be OK since Tex is at the helm
Word around the water cooler is that Tex is looking to go elsewhere, as is most of the administration.
Cue Bob Marley’s Exodus
I would get out to. When they buried the investigation they made everyone in the system suspect. Nobody knows who they can trust to stay safe. This is what happens when you do the cover up. No one knows what to believe but they are left with deep suspicions.
Dan, I think you might be on to something here that could make you a little extra money. I think you need to market this cast of characters into a TV-type of show. They write their own scripts.
Originally, I was thinking of a TV sitcom like Friends, but with the salacious material involved with the PHS scandal, I’m thinking a streaming service. Nothing screams a good public egubacation from PHS like a pu**y pic of your principal, or a line of coke before class provided by Da Dancin’ Dean, aka-Lady’Z Man.
You have the three main characters already: Mayor Lumpy, Kufflinks, and Tex. I’m going to replace Jumpin’ Joe, with Latifah Phillips, seeing how she’ll be replacing him anyway.
There are a lot of good strong candidates for the fifth and final spot. My choice would be Wimpy White. He’s a cartoon character without even trying. Wimpy’s weekly schtick will be his ever-changing Star Wars/Star Trek masks and costumes that he wears as a 40-something-year-old, “man.”
You could have a revolving list of Bitchfield’s A-list of guest stars too.
*Linda “Flat” Tyer-Clairmont, our former “vibrant and dynamic” mayor.
*Dirty Barry Clairmont, Picklefield’s most feared vigilante.
*Tricia Farley-Country Buffet (d-illegal aliens), the illegal aliens state representative.
*Maggie Eskimo-Harrington-Hyphenate, “retires” with 18 years, 2 more yrs. would add 20% more for life.
*Da Dancin’ Dean-an unqualified guy gets an opportunity of lifetime, blows it selling cocaine.
*Shirley Edgerton-used taxpayer money (ARPA) to fund an all-expense paid African vacation.
*AJ Enchill-given over $1,000,000 in taxpayer money (ARPA) because he’s black (BBEC)-no jobs created.
*William Cameron-much like Lumpy and Wimpy, he’ll be known as “Flip-Flop.” Changes his mind on important issues, like the weather.
The show would be funny, unless of course you are currently a Bitchfield taxpayer and/or a public-school student. Then it’s sad, because it’s reality.
You could even end the seasons show with the ultimate cage match fight. A pillow fight between The Planet’s own JM and Andy Nuciforo, with the winner getting a shiny brass trophy, to be displayed on Mayor Lumpy’s desk during the Christmas season.
Grand Possibilities Trading Limited & Grand Possibilities Foundation… WEB DuBois in Africa, is the Home a home for orphans or inmates.
There may be more behind the curtain than local readers realize.
International nonprofits tied to youth aid and “refuge” often operate under noble missions, but questions emerge when these same organizations overlap with real estate development, private enterprise, and public funding streams.
One such children’s home abroad has been promoted as a sanctuary, but its classification — orphanage or institutional holding? — remains ambiguous. Meanwhile, federal relief funds were reportedly used to sponsor overseas trips under the guise of cultural enrichment.
Behind these efforts are individuals with deep ties to both nonprofits and for-profit enterprises, including former assistants, business managers, and regional developers. What appears as empowerment or education may be functioning as an investment framework dressed in humanitarian language.
When faith-based missions, ARPA funding, and land development converge without transparency, the public deserves to ask: Who benefits, and at what cost to integrity?
Or as someone once put it: “Either we confront ignorance, or ignorance will confront us.”
Imagine getting a $7,0000 raise. What we working class people could do with that amount of money. Pay toward a new car, take several great vacations, and have enough money to pay ever increasing cable, electricity and fuel bills. Between the out of control budget for the school department (75% of the total city budget) and politicians who are not looking out for the working class, most people in Pittsfield are struggling financially.
These Democrats keep calling Trump a “King”. We don’t want a king the Democrats shout in a TDS frenzy. North Adams city council is the latest to call Trump a “King” because Democrats all think alike and keep repeating the same words and phrases.. Some elderly man at the North Adams meeting said that putting down Trump should come from our local government not the people. What? Where has this man been for the last 8 years as the Democrats have skewered Trump at every turn. You need to have intelligent people to have good local government and, sadly, many locals are not up to the task. Voters, like in Pittsfield, just vote to keep the money flowing to the schools or to keep themselves dependent on government. No government officials are held accountable because too many Berkshire County people have no idea what is going on in their cities and towns. Look at the faces in the crowd of this group from North Adams and it’s just as scary as the Pittsfield politicians.
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/northern_berkshires/north-adams-trump-dictator-resolution/article_a0f25857-9ebd-40ee-9ad1-23a21c70eef6.html
Our city governments are being hijacked by the vocal minorities
I find it disturbing that they all scream about the constitutional rights while constantly shitting on the 2nd amendment to the constitution. Lets cherry pick our narratives to suit our purposes.
Ashley Shade, HE needs to take a long walk off a short pier. I guarantee it’ll break before he reaches the end
They also, in North Adams, shit on 33% of their constituents who vote MAGA.
Good for Councilor Bona for speaking up for preserving the integrity of non partisan (no parties) self governance and the People.
We the people have had enough. We need a Trumpian type mayor to make Pittsfield great again. Or is it too late?
And a serious DOGE scrub
May 28, 2025
In 2024, Pittsfield’s population was 43,121 residents.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VxSZu/1/
One may search for Pittsfield in the Table.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FGlsW/1/
Pittsfield fiscal year 2026 municipal operating budget that begins on July 01st, 2025, totals:
$226,246,942
Per Capita cost per Pittsfield resident is:
$5,246.79
But NOT every resident pays the above Per Capita cost. of course. Furthermore, Pittsfield receives tens of millions of dollars in state administered, federal aid funds per fiscal year. I estimate that the average Pittsfield tax and fee payer pays close to $7,000 in fiscal year 2026.
When I looked at similar sized small cities to Pittsfield, I found that Pittsfield pays tens of millions of dollars more than Westfield and similar small cities per fiscal year over the previous fiscal years.
Jon Melle
Eric Lamoureaux is in charge of school dtudents safety and is a confident of Joe Curtis.He should also be fired for failing schools student safety and being unproffessional.That administración is overpaid and underworked.They need paycuts and work ethics.This man Eric Lamoureaux is not doing his job.
The I T guy for the City said the Cloud Migration is going way up this year. Dizzy Dina and the rest of the Clowncil didn’t have any questions. Reason ? They’re heads were probably in the clouds. probably didn’t understand what the hell he was talking about anyway.
This city council is Pathetic
Dan check out the heavyweights lumpy and links.
Dan. You’ve got your hands full with these city clowns.They just be taking acting lessons from Barrington Stage.Wouldn’t doubt it one bit if all of the rhetoric is staged. Trying to cut 100 grand from building maintenance? Really. Missing links has been transferring money from accounts for decades. lumpy‘s there with his bowling shirt on and lumpy and links both look like they get a bowling ball for a belly. It’s a $220 million budget ass clown trying to cut 100 grand jackasses.
$20,000 could be cut from the roadside flower decor line item. The flowers etc. would not even be missed. (by the taxpayers) though the contractor supplying the plant life and fancy containers might get pissed off at city hall. this line item seems to grow expoentially every year.
So who, pray tell, is\are the lucky connected botanical vendors the mayor seems to love so much?
Cuts? Start and stop with the schools and the 85-15 health insurance. Tens of millions to be had, but, alas, there’s not one person of public office strong enough, bold enough, or visionary enough to bring up, let along implement.
Teachers are the third rail…everyone knows thats where the out of control costs are. But everyone is afraid to touch it. They want a salary they can live 12 months on but only want to work 8 months. I’m okay paying 12 but i need 12. They should be working summers, running intervention programs.
If the office holders eliminating all the waste in the school department then changed the 85-15 insurance split, no other department would need be impacted. That’s how big the bloat is in the PSD.
Yeah. We don’t get the quality candidates if health insurance isn’t an affordable perk. I e dancing Dean. Abd ppd two for one job traffic jobs.
So according to the article in today’s paper, Bishop reported on the middle school restructuring project at the school committee meeting. Possible additional electives including lifeskills classes for the middle schools are being discussed. The article also states that discussions include “whether a firm will be hired to study potential instructional models for the new schools.”
With all the brain surgeons employed by PSD, is no one capable of determining this on their own? Surely models were studied – which brought the restructuring plan to this point! Every time a new idea pops into the heads of the administrators, consultants are hired. Still no elementary schools have been closed despite hiring consultants to opine on the topic!
The middle school restructuring plan will be costly, as transportation costs as well as special consultants fees will pile on and increase the already bloated & mysterious school budget!
In addition to the brain surgeons, don’t forget the rocket scientists and the nuclear physicists. Farming this out is another way of the school department admitting its incompetence. It doesn’t believe in itself. It knows that a consultant is actually paid to take the blame if it doesn’t work out. Nothing else. In Bitchfield, consultants are considered a form of insurance against responsibility.
I thought maybe the Superintendent had a role in instructional programming.
Latifah the queen of DEI?
Bishop, asst super who is looking for another job?
Hire competent people!
That’s my point. The School Committee is supposed to be made from people who have a working definition of education that would serve any generation in any day. They would understand that definition, form from it a mission statement, and hold it as the core objective of their job as serving on the SC. They would then hire supers and administration that agree to pursue their mission statement and make certain that the curriculum does not stray from it nor undermine it.
Right now you have 5 useless people, some are liars, some are children, some are strictly dull. They are amazed by fancy resumes and trendy language. How can you expect any return on investment on any hire or consultant?
Both the federal and state government school funding will be significantly chopped and yet the bean counters in Pittsfield have their hands out expecting more and more and more taxpayer money.
This is going to be the year the city falls apart financially. Guarantee that. We have hit the tipping point where a significant number of middle income homeowners will not be able to keep up with their own personal higher insurance costs for medical, automobile and home ownership on top of ever increasing food and other daily necessities.
Marchetti is going to have to form a new department just to deal with delinquent taxpayers and to process taking peoples homes away from them. Especially many elderly on fixed incomes. He is probably smiling thinking about it knowing his investor friends will be buying them right up rather cheaply and adding them to their rental portfolio.
Obama for prison!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/wayne-root-president-trump-why-isnt-barack-obama/
ICE rounds up 40 illegals on the islands – and Healey is UPSET! She obviously could care less about protecting the legal citizens of her state!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/massachusetts-governor-throws-fit-after-ice-rounds-up/
Also this.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/29/business/video/dario-amodei-ai-future-job-losses-anderson-cooper-digvid
Why does Berkshire Mountain Pickleball, composed of county residents, control who plays on which courts at the new city facility off Benedict Road?? Friends of mine were kicked off the courts because they were told the BMP club has priority.
Mr. McGraf?
Yup. When they were rolling those things out and trying to garner public support for the expenditure they assured everyone that anyone could use them. Only an idiot believed them. These were more special interest venues and they knew it. And if you think a renovated Waconah Park is going to be for the general public you are an idiot. The general public will pay for it and its eternal maintenance but special interest will be running it and in charge of everything that goes on there. And reaping any income from its events and food sales.
Photos….Looks like Booze. Sad.