TES ONCE AGAIN GIVES CITIZENS THE FINGER … STONEWALLS CLAIRMONT’S REQUEST FOR E-MAILS ON ‘100GATE’ … COUNCILOR-AT-LARGE ‘WILL NOT BE DETERRED’
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 29-31) — Dan Bianchi, caught in the act of stonewalling again! What a shocker.
Talk about your quotidian occurrences. Yes, my dear friends, The Empty Suit again has given citizens, taxpayers, and the public The Fickle Finger. The NY Post headline announce in crayon: “TES to Us: TFF”
THE PLANET has learned that councilor-at-large Barry Clairmont‘s requests for the Administration’s e-mails pertaining to the mayor’s proposal to move 40% of city hall into 100 North St. has resulted in the mayor providing a big, fat nothing.
Well, almost nothing.
THE PLANET has obtained the documents, which on the surface appear to be the Administration’s “sticking it” to Clairmont (and of course, by that, to We The People). A more careful reveals several interesting pieces of information that Bianchi likely doesn’t even realize are there. More on that in a moment.
City Charges Clairmont, an Co-Governor, for the Documents
For the privilege of insulting the councilor-at-large, the city actually charged Clairmont $63.95. Apparently, it means nothing to His Arrogance, TES, that:
(1) Clairmont is a sworn officer of the city.
(2) He has a fiduciary responsibility as well as a legal obligation to investigate wrong-doing.
(3) He is an at-large representative of every citizen of Pittsfield, as much as the mayor and even more so, since he represents the legislative and not the executive branch of government.
(4) As such he is a co-governor along with the mayor.
THE PLANET questions not just the legality of the fee but its ethics. Therefore, as an act of protest to the pettiness of His Impetuousness, TES, and also as both an act of support for a councilor doing his job and for you, Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, THE PLANET asks you to join us in writing a check to cover Clairmont’s costs. We will kick it off with a check for $25.95. Please join in. Send your check to “The Committee to Elect Barry Clairmont,” 12 Lillybrook Road, Pittsfield 01201. We shall be mailing our today.
Charging a councilor for public records raises what may prove to be a most sticky point for His Stickiness, TES. Has the Administration charged every councilor every time they have requested documents, or is Clairmont the only one? If the answer is yes, then at least the procedure is consistent. But if no — if, for example, a councilor considered politically friendly toward the Administration has been given any copies of any city records, even once, without being charged — it could well be that His Insignificance, TES, may have another legal matter on his hands.
And we know the answer is “no” because of what Melissa Mazzeo told reporter Joe Durwin of iBerkshires (story posted yesterday in comments section of THE PLANET via Jonathan Melle). She says she has been provided internal documents free of charge. It would seem, then, that the mayor has some explaining to do.
What is Bianchi Hiding?
Yesterday, Clairmont received 62 pages from Carol Nichols, Pittsfield’s IT manager and administrator. Of those pages, 25 are blank pages, with “accepted” or “read” indicated in the subject line. The curious thing about these “blanks” is that many contain references to attachments. None of the attachments are included. This would appear to be a violation of the public records disclosure law.
Another 16 of the e-mails are nothing more than near-blank documents pertaining to the efforts involved in setting up an internal meeting for July 30 at city hall regarding “100gate.” For example, these utterly routine, reveal-nothing pages contain “meeting forward notifications,” responses to the meeting invitation, and duplicates of this gut-wrenching message from TES to Kathy Degnan, city solicitor: “Please note — the meeting is in Room 203.”
Nichols included that startling message twice.
Twelve of the messages deal with an exchange between Nichols of IT and city finance director Sue Carmel. As comedy, this exchange is immune even to satire. As substance, it’s nothing but more nada tinder for Clairmont (and thus you, Pittsfield taxpayers).
On July 1, Nichols sends an e-mail to Carmel. There is no body of text. The only information is in the subject line: “Need time for me today!!” Carmel replies to Nichols: “Are you asking me or telling??” You can “hear” the snit. It would appear to be the beginning of a cat fight, since, in e-mail etiquette, two “??” indicate anger or hostility. Nichols replies: “Asking….. [followed by “smiley” emoticon] maybe both…..[another of those obnoxious moronicons] No sense of humor today?” This would suggest a certain tenseness and inability within Administration departments to effectively communicate. Still, though, the exchange amounts to nothing — nothing times two, since Nichols has again for some reason included a duplicate. Gosh, the Administration couldn’t be toying with an at-large representative of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, could they, by padding the pages?
Nine other pages have to do with efforts attempting to set up another meeting, this one a press conference in the mayor’s office. This, too, seems to be little more than housekeeping and nothing of interest to Clairmont of citizens, except for one little bit of data our code-crackers have extracted.
What’s On Those Missing Pages?
Claimont told THE PLANET there are 170 pages of documents satisfying his request to see the mayor’s e-mails on “100gate.”
What are on the 108 pages the city did not send? Why did they not send those pages? What is Biachi hiding?
The reasonable answer when a government office supplies 63 pages of near nothing and 108 pages withheld is that the mayor is hiding information that is either embarrassing, illegal, implicative, or in some other way revelatory. Keep in mind that Clairmont did not ask for “read” receipts, media contact lists, of the back-and-forth on meeting planning, yet that is essentially what Nichols provided him.
Who at this point is willing to give His Secrecy, TES, the benefit of the doubt? Step forward, all of you. Of course, if Pittsfield’s city council had any backbone, Clairmont’s 10 colleagues would support a unanimous-consent resolution to demand the remaining 108 pages. That doesn’t even address this question: How many pages of documents have been destroyed or hidden, if any? Again, those willing to trust Bianchi, take a number.
Now we can share some information only THE PLANET has in possession (outside of being the first, and to date only, media outlet to publish the content of the 62 pages in hand.
Now The Findings, from THE PLANET’s Code Busters
Finding 1 — The very first document in the batch release is an e-mail from Gerald Garner, city building commissioner) to Bob Macintosh. THE PLANET cannot say definitively who Macintosh is, but a source told us he represents 100 North St. Is he an employee of Scarafoni real estate group? We do not know. Apparently, though, he is not a city employee. If that’s the case, it assumes a great deal of signifiance.
The message is more nothing: “Your message was read on Friday, November 15, 2013 2:59:11 PM UTC.” Again, it’s another of those “read” receipts. So what does that tell us. The date sent is “Friday, November 15, 2013, 9:59 a.m.
This tells is that “100gate” was in the works as of mid-November of last year. This refutes previous statements from the Administration that the project only began in April of this year. This revelation might prove to be a “smoking gun” to show that this cozy move to 100 North St., where the mayor has long rented space for his work at Larry Global Mondello, a.k.a., Global Montello energy group.
Finding 2 — On page 43, we find the following document:
From: Dan Valenti <danvalenti@verizon.net>
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 12:01 AM
To: Bianchi, Dan [city hall address]; Dan Bianchi [Global address]
Subject: COMMENTS WELCOME
DAN
As you may be aware, THE PLANET has been reporting on your alleged dealings with 100 North Street (along with your actions in other matters). I would welcome any comments you have regarding our reports. I also, again, invite you on my TV show … OR, if you prefer … a “print” interview … OR, if you prefer … a more informal gathering over coffee. On the record, natch. Thanks, Be well,
DAN
What does this tell us. #1, that THE PLANET has been nothing but professional, respectful, and diligent in attempting to receive the mayor’s take on the various issues that come before us. This bears out what we’ve been saying all along, that THE PLANET has gone the extra mile to be fair with the mayor, but that the mayor has, for some reason, chosen to ignore us and thereby shoot himself in the head with stubbornness. #2, and more important, you will note that prior to our e-mail, the internal chatter at city hall was on internal meetings, since the public didn’t know about the “100gate” scheme.
After our e-mail, which tipped the mayor off that THE PLANET had alone among local media penetrated the iron curtain the mayor erected to keep “100gate” hidden, the internal discussion turned to setting up a hasty press conference so the mayor could spin the story. In other words, THE PLANET, on behalf of citizens and alone among local media, took the owners of government behind the curtain and exposed what ultimately may turn out to be wrong-doing and criminality. More facts have to be gathered before that judgment can be made, but wasn’t that the point of Clairmont’s request for documents, that the mayor has stonewalled?
Finding #3 — As the mayor “got caught,” he saw the need to begin spinning the story. That’s why the excuses for this move have kept changing, all along. The city would mention one excuse. Reason and public discussion would see right through it. Then the Administration would spin another pretext.
THE PLANET has lost count, but there have been at least three or four “reasons” for this preposterous and slimy move:
1. The city needs to do this because “contractors” have been complaining about the permitting process? Which contractors? Bianchi hasn’t said.
2. The city needs to do this because it will be a revenue generator. Exactly how, Bianchi hasn’t said.
3. The city needs to do this to get all of permitting under one roof. Bianchi has ignored the fact that permitting, save for the fire inspectors, is currently under one roof at city hall, 70 Allen St.
4. The latest spin is that 70 Allen St. is a sick building, with black mold and radon. Really? If black mold, has the health inspector been in? Where is his report? What were the findings? Radon? Has the building been independently tested? Where is the data? Nowhere, man. And a quick check with local contractors reveals that both these problems can be solved without a dramatic move to another building, costing taxpayers up to $500,000.
——– 000 ——–
In sum, note the way the Administration handles this reasonable request about a highly suspect policy matter in which the mayor has claimed unilateral power, one that he first sought to hide and had to openly admit after the work of this website.
* The Administration responded with a lot of nothing.
* It has kept 108 pages hidden.
* It included no attachments on the 62 pages it did send.
* It has charged the councilor $63.95 for services that other councilors have received for free.
Now the kicker. Let’s break some additional news about this gloppy story. Guess what. The mayor will NOT be appearing before the city council on Tuesday Sept. 2. This marks the second postponement. THE PLANET has learned through sources that the appearance by the mayor will not happen until early October, at the earliest.
THE PLANET is looking into the reasons why, but you are the first to learn about it. Why? Because you get your news right here, at this address.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
—————————————————————————————-
“Anytime at all, all you gotta do is call, and I’ll be there.” — The Beatles, “Anytime at All,” (1964).
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
Yes, friends: EVEN MORE TO COME. STAY TUNED LATER TODAY AS THE PLANET WRAPS UP OUR WEEKEND COVERAGE!
COVERAGE YOU WON’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE
# # #
I think Bianchis response does show that he is a mean spirited and vindictive politician who cannot control his power. In fact his response is actually quite childlike. I might expect that kind of behavior from a spiteful eight year old whose twin sister got a larger piece of cake for dessert.
the word petulance comes to mind
SPEC
As a wordsmith, I second your choice of words.
DUSTY
Thanks. You, too, are one of our valued contributors. You know, some people just don’t have it in them to “lead.” Bianchi is not a leader. He’s a poseur, a fake. He could hide it as a councilor by taking care of potholes and serving as the guy who took pot-shots at Gerry Doyle and Jimmy Ruberto. As THE MAN himself, though, he just doesn’t cut it.
I think Jonathan Mele has found a little niche’ for himself, at the Planet.
I still care about my native hometown: Pittsfield. I have lived in Amherst, New Hampshire since 2004 or for the past decade. My family moved there and I want to live near my family. For the most part, I agree with Dan Valenti about Pittsfield politics. I believe Pittsfield has many problems that could be resolved if the people regained control of their municipal and state government from the Good Old Boy network that has ran Pittsfield into the ground over the past 3 decades. I agree with D.V. that Mayor Dan Bianchi is not addressing any of Pittsfield’s problems. I agree with D.V. that the Berkshire Eagle is a third-rate rag that represents yellow journalism at its worst. (D.V. said third-rate is too good for the Boring Broadsheet). Pittsfield can change for the better if the powerbrokers allowed real democracy of, by, and for the People.
Thank you, JM, for your contributions.
THE PLANET welcomes all persons who wish to contribute, that is to say, who wish to move the site forward and not bring it down. You bet JONATHAN has a place here. THE PLANEt has become a force in the political life of the city, which is to say, in ALL aspects of the city, because of how EVERY ISSUE (economy, policing, parks, etc.) are political. THE PLANET will break the vicious cycle. That is our aim, and we are up front about it. We will work as a public service to end the stranglehold of corruption, because if Pittsfield takes one more misstep in the 2015 elections, IT IS ALL OVER. financially, the city will become unsustainable. This is not radical talk or alarmist in any way. It is the sane, sober, mature, and pragmatic assessment of the city’s current state.
The Bostonian accent has trouble with the letter “R”. As was made famous by JFK’s speeches. “Pak the caa in Havad Yaad”.
Perhaps Mayor Bianchi suffers from a touch of this because he reads the “Freedom of information act” as the “Fee-dom of information act”.
You know any good dictatorship begins with suppression of information. Adolf Hitler used a system he called “Enigma” to communicate with his army. It worked flawlessly at keeping his enemies in the dark, until a team of Polish intelligence agents cracked it and gave it to the British. This one thing lead to the Allies victory and the end of the second world war.
The Mayor may be able to keep Barry Clairmont at bay by censoring his emails but a State Ethics Investigation would have full access to them.
Perhaps its time to have a hard drive/server malfunction at city hall. 88.6 Jigawatts of power applied to the server where the emails are stored should keep even an ethics investigator from reading them. Perhaps Bianchi’s missing emails can be released by the factory installed smoke resulting from the electricity overload. This would further add toxic fumes to the black mold spores and deadly radon gas that permeates city hall anyway.
As an added bonus to frying the hard drives at city hall would be all city departments could get brand new computers with a brand new squeaky clean server. Maybe the mayor could even get himself a brand new state of the art lightweight laptop that can easily be carried to Global Montello to his other job. I’m sure he could “find” taxpayer’s money laying around.
A brilliant post, NOSTRO. “Fee-dom.” That says it all. Bianchi probably got it not from JFK but from Steve Grossman, for whom he serves as local lackey.
Off the subject, Tes is flying veterans to Washington DC for the day everything is free from transportation to the airport to flying to DC to going to monuments, food the whole shebang. Sounds like he’s trying to suck up to the veterans considering he just put the screws to them by closing down the veterans office in Pittsfield. Suck up Tes, I hope that you pick up the bill, better yet let’s charge you so much money per mile, like you charged Clairmont for copies of e-mails. Tes makes me want to vomit.
“Suck-up” is a fair characterization of this spineless mayor.
I heard mayor Bianch on the radio this morning in response to Tyler St shooting, while it’s a huge problem to tackle more Shannon grants and getting at risk youth more involved in Science and Technogogy isn’t going to fix the problem any time soon…
RON
You are so right. The beginning of a proper response, if not a solution, is to follow the sage advice on this site offered by Chuck Garivaltis, one of Pittsfield’s elder statesmen and all-around (underutilized) assets: Hire a police chief and free him from the political tyranny of the mayor. If it’s chief Wynn, so be it. He’s got the ability. If it’s someone else, bring in a fresh sets of eyes and brains from the outside. Hire the right guy and give him full support, free of politics. Wynn was left dangling by Mayor Ruberto, but Bianchi has made it much worse by his treatment of a man who deserves not just politics-free operations but respect.
It is quite shocking that it would cost that much for those documents, even if there was a reason to charge for them.
Isn’t it like $0.20 cents a page? and even if they were to go to a time and materials billing, it is the cost of the lowest paid person that could do the job. This is like a 10 minute thing. As for confidentiality, no such word should exist in something that is a public record. We are not dealing with employment issues or medical information or even contracts that are not part of the public record.
If you plan on spending $100K-$500K on rent you can bet EVERY DAMN BIT of that process is public information.
62 pages. $63.95. That’s nearly $1 a page. Keep in mind that other councilors get theirs free. We don’t know what Councilor Clairmont is planning, but we can’t imagine this is the end of it. It would appear that the mayor has, again, left himself and the city wide open. The people in Boston must be shaking their heads at those hicks in the sticks.
It seems to me a not too reactionary response would be to seek to impound the hard drives of the mayor, finance person, counsel AND the email server records…which by the way, are redundant and off site. The ISP who host the Pittsfield web and mail servers has ALL the emails. So even if the hard drives are…fried somehow, those emails never go away. They are accessible.
Can we get that poor excuse for a mayor out of office? Do we not have any way to remove this lunatic for lack if a better description. Sad…. So sad that this is allowed.
It can be done. All it takes is for a sufficient number of people to act upon their dissatisfaction of this mayor.
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/08/steve_grossman_lands_endorseme.html
This didn’t sit very well in my opinion, I think it would be less bothersome if an endorsement was made in the general election. I’d rather see more power in the hands of the people than endorsements and fund raising by unchallenged elected officials myself. I encourage everyone to do their own homework and come up with your own choice of who can best serve but, that’s just me. ..
The happiest person hearing of these endorsements was probably Martha Coakley!
I guess we now know whose pocket this guy is in. And everyone else whose endorsed him is a GOB. They might as well have colors like the gang members.
All I had to hear was the Bianchi endorsed Steve Grossman. I had just made a contribution to Martha Coakley. I am not alone in this I’m sure.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth has determined that most e-mails to and from public offices and public officials are public records.
Consequently, confidentiality should not be expected.
Doesn’t sound like the transparency promise was kept to me.
Thank you councilor Clairmont …
Next Council meeting will really test TES. I think Barry is going in for some real answers and won’t hold back this time.
Dan,
What does filing a FOIA cost (FOF?)
Then the Feds are involved too.
Although Holder and Obama are BOTH racist SOBs and left of chairman Mao.
Seems this CRAP, is all relevant and might have saved you, me Barry, Mary Jane and Joe……..cash to live on in poverty stricken PITTSfield.
But….
Mayor Tyrant has no concern for Citizens nor Underlings he can intimidate.
Yeah, you can see what kind of job the mayor is doing by the people’s two best options:
1. Move Out / Escape
2. File Bankruptcy and have the city go into Federal receivership
The Generalissimo was told at city hall that he needed no permit to dictate. So, by extension neither does Bianchi.
Will he answer all Barry’s questions respectfully and honestly?
What do you think?
Just some random thoughts…
Is Carol Nichols this mayor’s Rosemary Woods?
I’m thinking that “confidential” may be his code word for incriminating.
He also strikes me as someone who is becoming increasingly more paranoid as he tries to tighten his inner circle around him. I don’t know if Pittsfield can survive this man until 2015.
He appears to epitomize “The Peter Principal” where managers rise to their level of incompetence.
If City Hall is such a “sick” building, why isn’t everybody being moved out?
out of the ruins, out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistake this time
We are the children, the last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are going to change it
Living under fear until nothing remains
We don’t need another hero
We don’t to know the way home
All we want is life beyond 100 North Street
Also known as THUNDERDOME..see ya Tuesday!
Mr. Valenti. I am relatively new to Berkshire County and new to your blog. Let me say your site has instantly become my daily pleasure, with my morning cup of joe.
I am in academia in northern Berkshire, and the volume of your output, the quality of the writing, and the depth and breadth of your coverage is first rate. Your site is the talk of the area, as I learned when we first moved here.
My field includes sociology, psychology, and political science. I have lived in many areas of the country. I can state confidently that the Berkshires are fortunate to have this type of coverage, and free no less. This is “world” quality work, sir.
Wow. That’s all I can say, LAWRENCE. Appreciate the nod. THE PLANET is proud of our readership’s level of intelligence. Welcome aboard.
When you see this type of behavior you wonder how one person was ever given so much power over such a large amount of people. And then you see the new city charter which gives a mayor even more power. We seem to be going back to medieval times somehow.
Mayor Dan BIanchi posted Rosanne Frieri’s former job (Director of Veteran Services) on the Internet. I have the link:
https://www.smartrecruiters.com/CityOfPittsfield/78834626-director-of-veteran-services-
The real qualifications for Bianchi to appoint you:
* Must be part of the Good Old Boy network
* Must kiss Dan Bianchi’s behind and put up with his abuse
* Must be liked by non-Veteran Jack Downing
I feel sorry for Rosanne Frieri that Bianchi is posting her old position. She got screwed over by the Good Old Boys who run Pittsfield politics.
Jonathan thank you for the link. The “real qualifications” are funny, sad funny because its so true. I would add “must be a good liar” and “must keep telling the naked king he has a cute outfit”…also must have no character or spine …
Dan
This won’t surprise you. We were chatting about the Spartan influence a few of the local Greeks may have had and it was no surprise the ageing Greek God, Pete Arlos, had Spartan blood that flowed through his veins. He was as tough and as smart as any of the historical Spartans. I decided to look up the antecedents of one of America’s great athletes, Harry Agannis, and found similar DNA. No surprise to you, I am sure. Agannis was from the Spartan area of influence, too. This was of interest to me because as a PHS senior I was aggressively recruited by Boston University when Harry was a senior and Buff Donelli the head football coach. BU used Harry in an effort to recruit me. It almost worked. It was a free ride but Larry and I decided on Colgate and never regretted the decision.
CHUCK
Most interesting. As a thought experiment, I am picturing you and Agannis as a Murderer’s Row for BU. You were in his class as a hitter. That’s a great story, that Coach Donelli used The Golden Greek as a recruiting tool. I’m curious: Were they after ace pitcher Larry Bossidy, too? It’s a great story, either way.
DAN
They were after Larry and were not hesitant using Red Sox scouts to aid their recruiting efforts. In a West. Mass. semi-final game PHS beat a Worcester team with Larry going 9 innings (no pitch count then) and striking out 19 Worcester players. He was known to scouts before that game but after that game he was top man on all major league scouting charts. If Larry’s plans were college after high school the Sox thought BU was where they could keep in close contact with him. Neil Mahoney was top Sox scout and aided in that failed effort. Colgate won out and 2 years later pitched Colgate to their one and only invitation to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Larry’s arm went bad by his senior year and pro baseball was not to be. But he did okay in the business world. He never forgot his Pittsfield roots. Always a winner .
Hey Dan how about some followup on some older stories…
What was the final resolution with Nilan and the car hit? Lawsuit?
Has Interprint actually met the hiring numbers for the grant and low interest loan they and Pittsfield got for the sewer extension?
What about General Dynamics? Where are those 500 jobs? Last count i think they were down to about 75 or so and many were transfer hires from within the company.
What about the “glock 45” in the lake? Did they ever find it? Was he charged with a crime?
Any fallout with Stracuzzi and the Probation department?
What is the status of the federal investigation of the Pittsfield Police Department? Did steroid gate and drug racket protection gate just go away?
What happened to the serial arsonist? did they ever catch him or her?
Any movement on the murder in south county? the woman that cut her throat cut on a side road, was it a hit for some thugs who work with unions in NYC?
What was the outcome with that body found in Pittsfield State Forrest?
What happened to the pot plants on Hancock Shaker Village property? Who put/planted them there did they ever find out?
What were the alleged charges against that guy at Berkshire Works or whatever?
CRAIG
That’s some follow-up list, each one a worthy candidate.