By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014) — Soon, we may have an exciting announcement for all the readers and inhabitants of THE PLANET. Stay tuned. The substance of this announcement is still in the talking phase, with syllables exchanged and field trips made. It is that talk that is the necessary condition for creation.

Right now, we’d like to deal with the Mail Bag and share some messages we received that for various reasons have not been posted, mostly because we haven’t had the chance. THE PLANET modestly and humbly leaves out the many “fan letters” (for want of a better term) that come to us. They are most appreciated, of course, and of a type. That type generally thanks us for our work, praises our fight for The Little Guy, loves how we stick it to The Suits, and will often makes a complimentary remark about allowing comments, not taking ads to remain TOTALLY INDEPENDENT, and keeping access to the website free of charge. Most of the writers choose their words to remain anonymous. Thus, we thank them here, now, in this manner.

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LETTER ONE

The first letter has to do with Mayor Dan Bianchi‘s appointment of Julia Berkowitz Sabourin. It comes from a former public servant and one-time player in the soggy water polo that is Pittsfield politics. This person writes:

Sobourin ‘Political Ambitions’

TO THE PLANET:

Don’t know her. Never met her. But my prediction is Sabourin has lofty political ambitions.  She could have toiled away in any capacity within the well-compensated PPS but she chose a job she thinks is a springboard. — WF

PLANET RESPONDS — We must admit the thought hadn’t occurred to us, being that, initially, we take most appointments at face value. That being said, we did have the question of why Berkowitz Sabourin would leave a cushy set-up in the PSD for the agitation of the mayor’s lackey. WF, your prediction is the most convincing hypothesis we have yet seen to answer our query. The post certainly did the trick for John Krol and TFB.

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LETTER TWO

THE PLANET received this e-mail from Ward 1 councilor Lisa Tully in response to our coverage of the school bus vote and the many remarks from readers.

Tully ‘Clears Up Some Misconceptions’

 TO THE PLANET: 

I read your column today and would like to clear up some misconceptions if you will permit me.  I did not use the School Department’s figures to change my vote.  I may not have been clear on that.  The PSD showed me that they calculated the cost of a yearly replacement in 2012 and revisited it in 2013.  I have a copy of the sheet and would be happy to scan it and email it to you, if you request, but it is irrelevant.  It only answered my question that the PSD did consider a replacement plan.

So, just as I did 2 weeks ago, I independently calculated the average annual cost for 5 years of partially replacing the fleet each year.  In the spirit of full disclosure, my husband Mark helps me with the spreadsheets.  He does business plans all the time and is a wizard at Excel.  Most importantly, he humbly accepts his role as secretary.

My cost calculations were not that different from 2 weeks ago.  I added 2.5% to the bus bid price as a premium because we would not be buying 43 buses at once.  I also calculated 20% yearly depreciation after year 1.  As you can see, this comes out to an average annual spend of $615,000 for 5 years.  I thought this was reasonable and affordable and was not willing to change my vote based on this information alone.

The information that I obtained after the first vote that swayed me was the low interest rate the City pays on its bonds.  The fact that our City can issue a bond at 1%, as was done recently, is amazing.  I believe in good credit and using that good credit if it saves us money.  I calculated the annual payment for 5 years at $582,000 using a 2% bond interest rate.  Clearly borrowing will save us money (at least $30k annually for 5 years).  There will definitely be savings from maintenance; maybe not $90k as the PSD states, but definitely some figure.

Finally, I voted no the first time because I had (1) no documentation that an annual replacement plan was considered (2) no documentation indicating that a 9 year replacement life was reasonable and (3) no documentation on the cost of borrowing.  As Councilor Krol wisely pointed out at the council meeting during his questioning with Superintendent McCandless, there wasn’t any new information forthcoming from the PSD since the last submittal.  I was disappointed that there wasn’t new information in the packet, but I wasn’t going to let my disappointment not change my vote when it was the right thing to do economically.
Best regards,
Lisa

THE PLANET RESPONDS — We thank our Right Honorable Good Friend the councilwoman for her diligence in communicating not just with us but with our readers, her constituents, and the citizens as a whole. The mayor could certainly profit from the councilwoman’s example.

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LETTER THREE

As we said earlier, THE PLANET receives many messages and letters privately praising us for the job we are doing fighting for We The People, The Little Guy, and Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. Modesty as well as the senders’ usual desire to remain anonymous prohibit us from publishing these. Far more interesting, and in a certain sense more cherished, are notes like this one. We love them because they stand as proof that this column is fulfilling one if its main purposes, which is to foster discussion, debate, deliberation, and, in doing so, disagreement. When a writer can arouse emotion in a stranger simply by the abstraction of words, that is a beautiful thing:

 ‘You Delight in Destruction’

TO THE PLANET:

THE PLANET RESPONDS: Demosthenes advised listening well to all your critics, and we do that here. It is amazing how some people feel threatened when we “go after” one or more of the cows that are particularly sacred to them.  In this case, the divine moo-moo is the Pittsfield School Department. Obviously, Suzy-Q either works there or has a family member/loved one who does. How dare we place a penny on the tracks over which her gravy train rides?

 Now to her specific remarks. At 5’3″, we admit to being “little.” As for “nasty” and “evil”  the writer neglects to mention all of the canes we have kicked out from old ladies crossing North Street, the times we have absconded with the lunch money of orphans, or the many instances where we have been known to slap a “Kick Me” sign on the jersey-backs of soccer players. THE PLANET would only bring attention to the three words that end every posting on this website: “LOVE TO ALL.” We delight in construction, though it is true that sometimes to build anew, one must first demolish the old, broken, and moldy.

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LETTER FOUR

Coming Up Empty in ‘The Bay of Funding’

TO THE PLANET:

Mr. Valenti you pride on exposes.  Yet day after day you post columns which  take much time and effort. You are well funded. Is source of  income for [T]he [P]lanet certain of your ‘made’ “associates” in  North End of Boston a certain address on Salem Street? — FTM

THE PLANET RESPONDS: We cannot answer this derisible question with a straight face. The letter makes no sense. Can anyone make out a logical connection between sentence one and sentence two? As for funding, THE PLANET takes no advertising. We are unbought and unbossed. Period. Get used to it!

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LETTER FIVE

 ‘Mayor Insults All of Us’

TO THE PLANET:

I voted for Dan Bianchi in 2011, the biggest miscast vote of my life. As Mayor, Mr. Bianchi insults all of us through his job at Global, his unresponsiveness and mainly through his lack of accomplishment. He’s punished political enemies and rewarded his friends. Your [website] is the only source of truthful news about the deal city is receiving at the Mayor’s hands. Thank you, Planet!! — SMcC

THE PLANET RESPONDS: We appreciate your confidence. It is the credibility we have built up with citizens like you through honest, straightforward reportage and commentary that keeps THE PLANET going and growing.

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“She was a long, cool woman in a black dress, just 5’9″ beautiful tall. With just one look I was a bad mess, ’cause that long cool woman had it all.” — The Hollies, “Long Cool Woman,” (1973).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.