BATORY GETS THE BEST OF CHAIR LUMPY IN WITHERING PERFORMANCE ON BEHALF OF CITIZENS
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 1-3, 2026) — Today and for the weekend, THE PLANET takes you to the movies. Now, it’s not our upcoming Stanley Kubrick Film Festival. It’s a tape of the most recent meeting of Revenge of the Nerds, otherwise known as the April 29 gathering of the city school committee.
Let’s get right to the chase. You can skip the dreadfully boring opening and fast-forward to 31:55. That’s when you will see The Only Elected Public Official Who Gives A Spit go to work, Ciara Batory.
At 31:55, Batory begins to question Mayor-Chair Lumpy, bringing forth questions citizens have asked her to ask. In the process, she takes the chair to the woodshed over the Lump’s shady maneuver to illegally rescind an earlier vote (February) to release to the public a redacted version of the PHS scandal report.
Taxpayers paid two connected ex-judges $155,000 to do the investigation. You can be reasonably sure though not certain they furnished the recipes by cooking the books. Nonetheless, despite the suspected sanitization, for some reason, Lumpy is terrified to let The Kapanskis–citizens, the public, taxpayers, We The People, owners of government– see the report.
Batory holds the floor until 51:04 of the meeting — almost 20 minutes of the best political theater we’re likely to see this year. The link of the PCTV broadcast is below.
———- ooo ———-
Batory’s brilliant performance rates up there with other legendary public hurricanes, including the time Mayor P.J Moore pole vaulted naked into a packed council chambers, as well as when councilors Jim McCaffrey and Peter Arlos staged their re-enactment of Jake LaMotta v. Floyd Patterson.
“You can’t make your own rules,” Batory thundered to a rattled mayor. “I’m not going to play this game.” Repeatedly, she asked when the dancing, dodging chair when the committee would release the report. “You’re abusing your position as chair. Stop protecting these people [named in the document]. Release the report.” Those attending applaud.
At about 44 minutes into the meeting, a discomposed Lumpy surrenders the chair. Vice chair Heather McNiece takes over. And the band played “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”
Another interesting exchange occurs when Sara “Twenty Muil Team” Muil apologizes to Batory for her February vote to approve releasing the report.
Huh?
Twenty gives the pathetic excuse that she was new to the committee at that time, fresh off the turnip truck apparently, and didn’t understand Roberts Rules of Order. She’s admitting that in her vote, she DIDN’T KNOW WHAT SHE WAS DOING! Rather than accept the apology, an incredulous Batory understandably asks why Twenty did not study the rules before taking her position on the committee. Amateur Hour.
Muil states that it’s the committee’s job “to work together as a team.”
Batory corrects her, (paraphrasing) “No. Our job is to represent citizens.”
Game. Set. Match.
———- ooo ———-
In sum, Batory gave a performance for the ages, passionately speaking on behalf of the bedraggled Kapanskis.
Finally.
Watch for yourself. Go to 31:55 and continue to 51:05.
Click this link.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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May 01, 2026
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
Pittsfield politics is corrupt. The 6-figure, taxpayer-funded legal report on the alleged school scandals remains hidden from the general public. The Pittsfield School Committee recently unanimously voted to close Morningside Elementary School, which includes the vote of one Ciara Batory. They are dealing with a $4 million school budget deficit in the 2026 – 2027 academic year.
Pittsfield’s public schools have Level 5 ratings. 679 students chose to choice out to neighboring public school districts in the 2025 – 2026 academic year. Enrollment numbers in the Pittsfield public schools are always diminishing. The new faculty turnover rate is around one to three years.
Pittsfield has the 2nd highest Commercial Tax Rate in Massachusetts; Holyoke is 1st. Pittsfield spends tens of millions of dollars per fiscal year more than its peer similarly sized small cities. To illustrate, Westfield spends over $62 million LESS than Pittsfield per fiscal year 2026.
Pittsfield’s close to $1 billion in municipal debts plus unfunded liabilities will be paid off by Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, “Jon Melle the have-NOT”, Kufflink’s cooked books, Lumpy’s financial expertise, Jimmy Ruberto’s Rolodex, Nuciforo’s marijuana millions of dollars, and all of the Fortune 500 corporations that are nowhere near the polluted PEDA debacle.
Earl and the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics pounds, pummels, pulverizes, punishes people’s purses. The aforementioned three stooges are said to be getting ready to propose the city’s elusive fiscal year 2027 municipal budget of up to one-quarter-of-one-billion-dollars. The Mayor still has NOT released his fiscal year 2027 municipal budget proposal that begins in 2 months time on July 01, 2026, while most municipalities in Massachusetts have already done so.
North Street has around 15 empty storefronts. North Street is sarcastically called “Social Services Alley”. The distressed inner-city neighborhoods that surround North Street are called “The Ring of Poverty”. The only economic growth in Pittsfield is in its excessive underclass population.
There is NO MONEY to pay for Pittsfield politics anymore. Don’t you all understand that Pittsfield is really financially insolvent?
It is fun to pretend to put the career politicians in Pittsfield (Mass.) in the toters with wheels and then pretend to throw all of them off of the cliff (Nilan)!
Jon Melle
That meeting told on itself.
Peter Marchetti puts a motion on the agenda in Ciara Batory’s name, spends months dodging it, then finally admits it and just… stands there like it’s normal.
Like we didn’t all just watch that.
You don’t borrow someone’s name for a motion like it’s a spare pen. That’s not how this works.
And the second it hit the room, you could feel it shift. That quiet “oh… so that’s what we’re doing now” moment.
Then Heather McNiece grabs the chair and tries to settle everyone down like it’s circle time. Ma’am… this isn’t about tone. That ship already sailed.
And Sara Muil… that wasn’t growth. That was someone realizing way too late that people are actually paying attention.
Because they are.
Not to the performance. To the pattern.
And that’s the part nobody in that room can talk their way out of.
These people are not trustworthy in these roles. And Batory is the only one willing to say it out loud.
She’s going to need backup.
Yes, VAL. Great insight when you mention that it’s “not the performance” but the pattern. The key moment is when, after trying every which way including loose, Batory asks again who put that original motion, in HER name, on the agenda. Finally, Marchetti says, “I did.” With. Game changer. That’s clearly an illegal maneuver, perhaps enough for an impeachment. Too bad it will largely go unrecognized. If we had a legit local daily newspaper, and I’m the managing editor, that’s a Page One, Above the Fold story. It’s rare that such corruption, self-admitted, appears in open session.
I have not witnessed such a courageous stand against our own local “deep state” since Mr. Terry Kinneis stood up to the mob. We all saw what was done to him. Hope for a different outcome this time.
Im not 100% convinced the “voters” mean anything to Lumpy and many others but donations.
Except every two or four years….and even then.