Just under 21% of Pittsfield’s 27,000 registered voters made it to the polls on Tuesday – a slight drop from the 23% who turned out for the city’s last non-mayoral municipal election in 2017.
In the race for the four at-large city council seats, incumbents Peter Marchetti, Pete White, and Earl Perip all successfully defended their seats. Yuki Cohen, battling controversy around her bar Methuselah’s multiple citations for failing to follow public health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic, lost her seat to challenger Karen Kalinowsky. After placing fourth overall in 2019’s field of eight candidates, Cohen ended up with the least votes for at-large this year with just over 1,800 in her sixth place finish. Second-to-last finisher Craig Benoit received 2,577, and Kalinowsky got almost 2,700.
“I think that the at-large race was pretty aggressive with all six candidates really working hard," said Marchetti. "The bottom line was going to come to who work the hardest. And I think the results showed that.”
The city council president swept through another election with the most votes of any city councilor, with almost 3,900 voters backing his bid for an eighth nonconsecutive term.
“I'm truly honored by the support of the people of Pittsfield," Marchetti told WAMC. "I think that the people of Pittsfield sent a loud and clear message that experience and leadership matters and facts matter.”
Marchetti says it’s clear what the new council’s tasks will be come 2022.
“I think that's already been really predetermined by the ARPA funding and the direction that we need to move Pittsfield forward with, with everything that we have been given with ARPA funding,” he said.
He’s confident that he’ll remain council president through its next term.
“I absolutely intend to run and I believe at this time, I can tell you that I think I can make that happen,” Marchetti told WAMC.
In the ward races, Kenneth Warren beat Andrea Wilson in Ward 1, Charles Kronick defeated Matthew Kudlate in Ward 2, James Conant beat Andrew Wrinn in Ward 4 and incumbent Dina Guiel Lampiasi fended off a challenge from Ed Carmel in Ward 6. Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey and Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio ran for re-election unopposed, while former Council President Kevin Sherman was elected to represent Ward 3 without opposition.
In the school committee race, Mark Brazeau was the top vote getter with over 3,200 votes for a second two-year term.
“I think the biggest reasons and the biggest concerns of community right now is living wages for our teachers, safety in our schools, mental health issues in our schools, and just really listening to the community and pulling all of that together and saying, I hear you," Brazeau told WAMC. "We have a lot of hard work to get done a lot of hard decisions to make moving forward, and I will do everything in my power to make this happen for our community.”
Incumbents Alison McGee, William Cameron, and Dan Elias – as well as newcomers former Mayor Sara Hathaway and Vicky Smith – were also selected by voters for the next term of the Pittsfield School Committee.
City clerk Michele Benjamin faced no contenders in her successful bid for re-election.
