THOSE TOILING IN THE DREADED PRIVATE SECTOR: ARE YOU IN FOR A 46.4% PAY RAISE? MAYOR WANTS IT FOR CITY’S ‘PERSONNEL TECHNICIAN’ (WHATEVER THAT IS)
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9, 2015) — Council president Melissa Mazzeo had the fitting quip last night in chambers upon seeing a full house sans air conditioning: “There’s a lot of hot air in this room tonight.”
Not many got the joke. The signer wasn’t on duty, apparently.
Speaking in Code (to Keep You in the Dark, Natch)
There was a lot of routine business (appointments, acceptances) as the council tried to wake up from summer. Item 29 on the agenda, however, though it appeared to be nondescript, actually had content that should have roused the unwashed rabble from their worried, hurried lives to storm city hall. It didn’t happen. Item 29 was written in code. Even your Capt. Midnight Secret Decoder Badge wouldn’t have helped. Fortunately, you have THE PLANET to dig.
In the packet to the council agenda, we find a letter from the mayor to councilors, asking them to approve “an Ordinance amending the Code of the City of Pittsfield, Chapter 16.”
This is accompanied by a letter from The Sheffield Shuffler, city personnel director John DeAngelo, asking councilors to do the same thing.
Judging by the listing of Item 29 on the agenda and the letters from Mayor Lockdown and The Shuffler to our Right Honorable Good Friends on the council, citizens and taxpayers wouldn’t have a clue about the nature of the request. Here’s how the item reads on the agenda:
29. A communication from Mayor Bianchi submitting an Ordinance amending the Code of the City of Pittsfield, Chapter 16, Personnel Technician.
For all that tells you, it might have read:
29. Yothages, othagi cothagan spothageak Gothagibbothagerothagish, hothagow cothagould yothagou tothagell.
Apparently, it spoils some vast, eternal plan in official Pittsfield to state what one wants in plain English.
In unadorned prose, the order would give the city’s “Personnel Technician” a pay increase of anywhere from 25% to almost 50%. Nice work if you can get it, which also explains why the mayor and the personnel director wrote in code when making the request.
It’s Your Money; That’s Why Mayor Lockdown Doesn’t Care About Wasting It
First things last: Does anyone know what a “personnel technician” is or does? Did anyone know the city had such an appendix? It must be a vital post, however, given the pay raise of this Grade 10 job is retroactive to Sept. 1. Digging through the supporting documents, the “personnel technician” compensation will skyrocket from the current Step 1 of $30,474,28 a year to a Step 7 compensation of $44,617,12 a year, an increase of 46.4%. Add another 25% percent for benefits.
The new pay rate increases the seven-step compensation schedule for this position by the following respective amounts:
- +$7,625
- +$7,849
- +$8,083
- +$8,327
- +$8,534
- +$8,747
- +$8,923
Naturally, this being Pittsfield, citizens and taxpayers aren’t deemed fit to receive the information they need to “self-govern.” Nowhere does the city justify the need for this kind of pay raise, especially at a time when so many workers in the Dreaded Private Sector are working two and three jobs merely trying to stay ahead of the latest tax increases.
Making Like Santa Claus
While THE PLANET cannot say why The Suits decided to make like Santa Claus for the “personnel technician” (because the city has not said) we can be reasonably sure that all the incumbents who voted in favor will receive the vote not only of this person but also his or her family, friends, and loved ones.
With so much of the city being reduced to skid row, it’s nice to know the mayor and his buddies are looking out for their own.
As a final word, no one should be surprised that things like this go on all the time at city hall. They need more money? They raise your taxes. Simple. They play. You pay.
Remember this when it comes time to vote.
————————————————————————————————
“I walked down the street, / didn’t have no hat, / asking everybody I meet, / “Where’s my man at?” — Ma Rainey
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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They need more money? They raise your taxes. That pretty much sums up the whole progressive agenda. I watched some of the council meeting last night, but getting beyond the “code” words they used to mislead the public was frustrating. I was waiting to hear something about the Melissa Mazzeo ethics violation, but didn’t hear anything. Did I miss something or was it buried like so many other misdeeds of public officials?
Many of the councilors were actually making the motions of saying they were thinking about saving taxpayer money and they received big claps from Mr. Gaetani, but being only weeks away from an election could have been the reason for their sudden concern about taxpayers. Since the rest of the city is on skid row, the whole giving raises thing has to go underground so the public doesn’t understand what is actually going on. I didn’t hear a peep out of Lisa Tully during the whole meeting and I watched for about an hour.
I saw Lisa Tully at the Tyler St. fair and tried to have a conversion with her…OMG the woman is clueless. Its better off she remains silent on council.
I also tried having a conversation with Tammy Ives and all she did was stare aimlessly into space.
Choice for Ward 1 Dumb or Dumber
Lisa Tully is a pathetic sheep. Like Bianchi, she should be voted out just because. …… She let’s Taxpayers down again and again. I say anybody but these failures. ANYBODY!
Spellcheck taking over my phone. lets
back to namecalling and bullying.
Sometimes it is best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and have it confirmed.
The mayor makes what? $98,000.00 per year plus benefits.
The next mayor will be Pittsfield’s first 4 year term mayor.
So the next mayor will rake in roughly a half million dollars in one term in salary plus benefits.
And ….. the mayor is not required to be only the mayor. He or she can work other jobs and be only a part time mayor.
If such a thing as kickbacks and graft exist, it can only add zeros the amount a mayor rakes in. Money can be kicked back for showing special interest to certain contractors, friends, relatives and other suits.
Does the word Monterosso ring a bell? Scarafoni? Unneeded new high school?
This next sentence is in code:
How many hours does Mayor Lockdown work as part-time mayor, full-time Larry Global Mondello?
Can you use your decoder ring you got in your box of Captain Crunch to deceipher that coded question?
What makes the lousey job the mayor does worth that kind of taxpayer money?
I enjoyed reading the obituary for the late Jake Barnini.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=jake-barnini&pid=175763874&fhid=4866
It reminded me of the Pittsfield I grew up in where people still had class and love for their community. Jake Barnini cared about Pittsfield and the people who lived there.
Jake was an amazing person. He Loved and embraced life to its fullest. Take me out to the Ballgame.
Collingwood is the epitome of the Bianchi Administration. He is a train wreck.
There are so many competent people who work hard and can’t get ahead. Then you have people like this who get elevated because they are protected, and given raises, when they should lose their job because they are not capable.
Pittsfield city government is nothing more than a really bad joke. It has been this way but is somehow getting even worse. In fact it is not really government at all if you check the definition of the word.
The bottom line is that if you choose to stay in Pittsfield, or just cannot get out, you will continue to be shat upon and taken advantage of. Stop fooling yourselves that any Pittsfield election will change things. It won’t. You will never get enough people elected to the council who are not in bed with the special interests. And without that majority the people have zero power to control their own destiny. At some point you just have to stare reality in the face and make bold choices.
I see our transparent Mayor is still opposed to civil service, what a great time to double down on that one. Since half the police department is filling suit against the city for not following civil service. ” http://www.iberkshires.com/story/50079/Bianchi-Still-Hoping-To-End-Pittsfield-s-Use-Of-Civil-Service.html
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Some 15 months after a task force rendered a split decision on the future of continuing to use the Civil Service system, no decision has been finalized. “
Ron,
Bianchi opposes anything he can’t Control.
Did he really say he “would” feel an obligation to the taxpayers?
Effing hilarious. Get him on the Jimmy Kimmel show right away.
Last nite the CC approved the guy who’s job will be to do half of Collingwood’s job after Collingwood recently got a nice payraise
Still a lttle confused about the “bribe” as some called it, Mrs. Mazzeo took for free $500 ticket…she said you can’t take anything over $50 but yet she checked with Ethics and TFBouvier and what she did was ok?
Dan, do you know if the abovementioned position, Personnel Technician, currently has a body warming the chair? Or were they feathering the nest for a future appointee…oops, meant hiree.
According to a Google search (personnel technician Pittsfield ma),
there is a Michael Taylor who holds the position (his LinkedIn profile comes up.)
What happen to Mazzeo and the $500.00 gift she accepted from BTF.
Here is an article from iberkshires about the $500 gift.
http://www.iberkshires.com/story/50121/Pittsfield-Council-President-Mazzeo-Denies-Ethics-Violation.html
Some of the comical highlights include quotes like this:
“It is for us as representatives of the city to talk to people and let them know what’s going on,”
“Essentially, she said being a guest at events is part of the elected official’s job “
Was the sweltering conditions at the city Council meeting last night,the personnel technicians duty?
Regarding the Gaetani petition concerning Melissa Mazeo’s talking a gift valued at $500,it was filed unanimously. Melissa presented her arguments why there was no violation which apparently was confirmed by a discussion with a representative of the state eithics commission. I was not persuaded by her argument and feel she should have simply declined the invite. It should be noted that this was the last item on the agenda and that Mr. Gaetani stayed to the bitter end
I was not persuaded by Ms. Mazzeo’s argument either. As president of the city council, she should have known better. Also funny that several weeks after she attended the $500.00 event, Mazzeo’s catered an event for Berkshire Theater. Maybe the catering was free because she accepted the free gala ticket or at a very reduced price? It still seems like a conflict of interest to me. If she wasn’t a public official that would be one thing, but she is president of the city council.
This is exactly why her actions were and are a violation of the law
I was amused by the council’s refusal to pay 22 invoices totaling a little more than $37,000 because the invoices were held over from last year. Much clamoring about being good stewards of public funds. I would like to make 2 points: first, the payments were tabled which means they will be brought back at the next meeting and paid and second: representing yourselves as good stewards is almost comical. That boat left the dock when you voted for obscene pay raises, when you approved the expenditure of millions for the new Taconic in less time then it took to deny paying these tiny expenditures and when you voted for the current budget.
Amen, Chuck.
Bruce Collingwood sated that many of these unpaid bills would have been properly paid last year if the process was not stopped. He said this several times. Isn’t a natural question: who stopped the process? I guess we will never know. Maybe someone will ask when the invoices are paid either next meeting r the one after that.
Chuck, all 3 of your posts make good points. And because they make good points, and use logic and reason, they will be ignored completely by this administration.
I was surprised that nobody asked who stopped the process. But one could also ask why didn’t Mr. Collingwood state who stopped it when he found himself having to defend his actions.
Good point chuck. They just push things off when they don’t feel like dealing with it. Just like they did with the Heavy Commercial traffic ban on Pecks Rd and Highland Ave. How long do we have to wait? Oh, I know, lets wait until the new paving on Highland Ave. that we waited for years to happen is destroyed by tractor trailers useing our residential neighborhood as a speedway for their own purposes. Guess we don’t rate like Crane Ave. who gets more speed enforcement than any place in the city.
That Barry Clairmont did not ask ‘who stopped the process’ when he had the opportunity is astounding. I wonder why.
Maybe I misunderstood, but I though I heard him take responsibility for stopping the process.
Barry
I only heard him say that the process was stopped. I don’t remember him saying that he was responsible for stopping the process.
Then a follow up might be, “why did you stop the process?” But really, why even bother. None of that tribe will ever give a straight answer.
When do taxpayers get a raise? When taxes go down.
A written ruling from the Ethics Commission is the only ruling that really counts. A additional written ruling from Campaign Finance may also be needed.
Don’t know if the info is accrate but if it is you should know about it.
Is Best Buy closing because their rent has been raised 33%? If this info is accurate look for a major retailer or two to close their doors after the Christmas shopping season.
Could be an opportunity for Coltsville – the new “upstreet’.. Don’t blow it, and we’re capaple of this, on the cappuccino and caffe latte area.
Change of subject. Wish the folks that live near the proposed turf field at BCC would come clean. They don’t want it built near there homes because of increase in traffic and noise during tournaments. Stop hiding behind wet land issues, which have been addressed. Also the safety of the materials used in the turf. Work with the committee that are trying to bring something special to the City.
Good work on the speech tonight Tammy Ives. Now tell the constituents what you will do for the Ward and let Tully trip over her own feet.
Tully needs to go. She has failed 100%
I just heard a candidate say because of the persistent advocacy the Taconic project became a realty. Basically what that means is, it was shoved down your throats, taxpayers! Now a couple candidates want to have greater examination of how our tax dollars are spent and even go so far as to have an independent body to make that happen. You can’t make it up.
I think Kathy Lloyd supports progressive thinking as opposed to progressive spending, it’s a tough act to juggle, but think she will be just fine. She’s a small business owner and very smart, in my opinion. Ward 7 should give her shot. However, Tony Simonelli has delivered for the Ward 7. It will be tough to beat Tony Roads.
Kathy Lloyd is linked to no-one. Willing to step up for her City. That is what people should stand behind.
I think Kathy Lloyd supports progressive thinking as opposed to progressive spending, it’s a tough act to juggle, but think she will be just fine. She’s a small business owner and very smart, in my opinion. Ward 7 should give her shot. However, Tony Simonelli has delivered for Ward 7. It will be tough to beat Tony Roads. Prediction…. Tony wins.
Great pickup on the 46 plus percent payraise DV. I’m one of those who work two jobs trying to make ends meet. This infuriates me.Appreciate that you brought it out in open.
It infuriates everyone. The sneakiness is absurd, and very signature in this City. Keep the taxpayers un -informed.
If I made $10 per hour and my salary were raised to $15 an hour in the dreaded private sector, over 7 years, some hard hitting investigative journalists might say I got a 50% raise, but most people would still realize that I was undercompensated and working for less than a living wage. And I’d probably be called names and bullied, or Mayoral candidates would call me and threaten my life, allegedly.
Just wondering what it would take to change Pittsfield’s form of government? I think a town manager and a select board might be a better fit. Could even give the citizens say in how our tax dollars are spent.