BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 4, 2026) — Peter Marchetti is a walking conflict of interest, serving both as Bitchfield mayor and chair of the city’s sochol committee (SC). The two roles put him in double jeopardy for voting on the school budget while proposing the city spending plan.

As both mayor and chair, he can’t consider policy on either side with an objective point of view. Not only should the mayor NOT be chair of the committee; he shouldn’t be ON the committee.  Lumpy is an ex-officio SC member, meaning he’s there only because he holds the other office. That rule can and should be changed.

That’s bad enough, but what Marchetti  did April 29 at the most recent committee meeting might be cause for impeachment, recall, or criminal prosecution.

He forged another committee member’s name. What else can you call it putting an item on the agenda in another member’s name without that member knowing about it?

———- ooo ———-

In February, the SC voted to make public the PHS scandal report by Feb. 18. Finally, citizens, taxpayers, and the rest  would see the insides of a document that Lumpy, for some mysterious reason, has desperately tried to keep under wraps. That’s the way Bitchfield does its dirty business, in secret … in illegal meetings … in granting influence by non-office holders over the public’s business.

Of course, the February deadline passed with no report issued. Lumpy cited vague, outside legal threats for keeping the document hidden.

Right.

Meanwhile Ciara Batory, without the support of SC colleagues, kept raising the issue of the report.

“When will it be released?” she kept asking.

Of course, the Boring Broadsheet, the anorexic local daily once known as the Berkshire Eagle, ignored the story. Only THE PLANET among local media dared to run with it. Shortly after, those paying attention noticed a cold front had swept over the remainder of the committee, who suddenly got “buyer’s remorse” over their vote to release the report. Had someone gotten to them? That’s the scuttlebutt at Mercer and around city hall.

———- ooo ———-

At the April 29 meeting, Marchetti introduced a motion IN CIARA BATORY’s NAME, for a second vote on releasing the report. Mayor-chair Lumpy was counting on members having been “set straight” on the vote. Apparently, Lumpy doesn’t know Robert’s Rules of Order, where’s it’s illegal to make a motion or place an item on the agenda, with or without consent, in the name of another member. He was probably banking on no one noticing or caring. He didn’t count on Batory’s persistence.

At the meeting, Batory emptied both barrels, upbraiding the mayor for using her name in vain in filing an illegal agenda item. She began a withering cross examination, eventually causing Marchetti to hide behind the skirts of Heather McNiece, SC vice-president. Finally, in answer to Batory’s question about who used her name to put the motion to reconsider the vote on the report,  Marchetti, in a voice barely audible, said “I did.”

In the meeting, the tape of which THE PLANET ran on its most recent Weekend Edition, you hear Batory call for a “point of order” rather than a “point of information.” The difference between the two is how she sprung the trap for Marchetti. It also shows how closely Batory studied Robert’s Rules of Order. Allow THE PLANET to explain.

Robert’s Rules are not Demeter’s. The first is more formal, the latter more casual.In Robert’s, a member calls for a “point of information” when they’re confused about a motion or other action of the committee. They notify the chair of a “point of order when they see a rule violation. That subtle difference led to Lumpy’s admission.

Instead of submitting the motion to reconsider the PHS report vote in Batory’s name (a case of forgery?), the mayor-chair could have and should have made a motion to reconsider the earlier vote. That would have been legal and no doubt would have passed 1-to-6.

It remains to be seen where this fiasco ends up.

If there is any shred of legality in town, Marchetti’s underhanded action should at minimum be rescinded, he should be censured, and the report immediately released.

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“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact” — Arthur Conan Doyle.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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