Ward 4 city councilor Christopher Connell – with longtime ally Kevin Morandi of Ward 2 at his side – used his last meeting to continue his persistent criticism of Mayor Linda Tyer’s signature At Home In Pittsfield program.
Both councilors have opposed the loan program aimed at improving Pittsfield’s aging housing stock since it was first introduced in February 2019, citing its funding source – the Pittsfield Economic Development Fund – for the $500,000 behind it.
The pot of money was established in the city’s settlement with General Electric over its decades of polluting Pittsfield in the mid-20th Century. Since At Home In Pittsfield was launched in April, over 80 residents have applied for it with 19 approved so far. A second round of the program will be funded with federal COVID-19 relief money. At Tuesday night’s meeting, Connell said that despite the apparent success of At Home In Pittsfield, it was still an inappropriate use of the original funding.
“I called one of the contractors that's on here because I've dealt with this contractor before,” said the city councilor. “And the question I asked him, did he or his company, hire any new employee employees to do this work on some of these homes? And he said, no. And I said do you know some of these other contractors, and he was aware of some of them. And he said, to his knowledge, he doesn't know of any of the other contractors that he had talked to or he knows who had hired any new people. So I really thought that, and I believe the statement was made when this was presented to us two years ago and now this past year, was that this was supposed to be using the GE Economic Development Fund for job creation. And we were told at that time that these contractors would be hiring new employees. Well, that doesn't seem to be the case. So where is the job creation, right, in funding this program through the Economic Development Fund?”
Tyer rebutted Connell’s claims, noting accurately that the lengthy debate that precipitated the passing of the program did not hinge on the promise of new jobs.
“I'm not sure that I recall that we said there would be job creation,” said the mayor. “What we said is that there would be opportunities for the contractors to have work available to them, which is a form of job opportunity for themselves and their employees. There was no way for us to know if those contractors would need more people or would hire more people. Our point was that this was an opportunity for contractors to have access to work in our neighborhoods for their current employees and for themselves.”
Among other arguments, At Home In Pittsfield was pitched as a means of supporting residents of the city’s low income neighborhoods in building equity by making otherwise impossible investments in their homes.
“I also think it's important to recognize that economic development is not explicitly and only about job creation, it's also about the benefit of the neighborhoods and the quality of life in the city of Pittsfield," said departing Ward 1 city councilor Helen Moon. “I would say that calling a program that has assisted 19 families in staying in their homes, and potentially more, as a pet project is not the appropriate way to look at it. And it's to our benefit that we're getting another million dollars from ARPA funding to increase the program to help more of our residents in the city of Pittsfield.”
Moon used her final meeting to advocate for the city to continue to offer ways for residents to virtually participate in public meetings beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It would be an enormous amount of lost opportunity if we didn't learn anything from COVID and how to move forward. COVID really changed the way that we go to meetings, participate as a community," said Moon. "There was a community development meeting that I attended via Zoom after we resumed in-person meetings and the city staff said they kept it as a Zoom meeting because they had more participation via Zoom than they had with in-person meetings.”
Morandi argued against Moon’s petition, citing concerns about cost and claiming expanded access to public meetings would somehow be exclusionary.
“We have an elderly population in the city of Pittsfield, and a lot of them don't have computers, they don't know how to use computers and access," said Morandi. "So this, to me, is a concern because it seems like we're shutting out the elderly.”
Moon, who otherwise saw support for her measure, defended it against Morandi’s comments.
“I do think it's really important to vocalize that it's not just Zoom," she said. "It's not just online, it is both. So people have the opportunity to come in and be present at meetings. But if you are unable to, you still have the option of either calling in or appearing online via whatever platform. And a range of $500 to $1,500 for a year of participation from the community seems like a worthwhile investment.”
Her petition was unanimously approved and referred to the Tyer administration.
The new crop of Pittsfield city councilors will be sworn in on January 3rd.
