The Pittsfield City Council formally adopted an updated affirmative action policy and accepted a state grant to continue funding a downtown streetscape project. One city councilor is considering strengthening the affirmative action policy. Pittsfield’s Affirmative Action Advisory Committee was formed in 2013 and tasked with updating a policy dating back to 1993. Berkshire County’s NAACP chapter has criticized Pittsfield for unequal representation in city hall and the schools. Councilor Churchill Cotton says he will talk with the city’s legal counsel before deciding whether to submit the plan as an ordinance.
“People don’t want what’s happened to the last policy to happen to this one,” Cotton said. “That it just sit on a table and never referred to.”
The council also accepted a $4.5 million state grant to complete reconstruction on North St.
