Pittsfield, Massachusetts city councilor Pete White is running for re-election in this year’s municipal election. It would be his fifth two-year term on the 11-member body as an at-large representative. He has served as vice president for the past two. Before that, he served as the city councilor for Ward 2 from 2010 to 2011. In the 2021 election, White was the second-highest vote getter on the council behind President Peter Marchetti, who is now running for mayor. Pittsfield’s preliminary election is September 19th, with the general on November 7th. As the city gears up for a changing of the guards in both the corner office and in city council chambers, White sat down with WAMC to explain what he sees as the community’s most pressing issues.
WHITE: I think that staying consistent, not being complacent, and not taking any voter for granted. Knowing that we need to be listening to what issues they bring up, not just the issues that we're seeing. But, homelessness, panhandling, all of the issues surrounding the police department, issues surrounding how we handle mental health issues, housing in general, with rentals being higher, with the cost of homes being higher, these are all things on the forefront. And then public safety as far as what are we doing for our streets. We've got the West Street project going in, we're going to have a project on Holmes Road that was just approved. Also, whatever North Street is going to end up looking like. If we're not putting it on the ballot, will residents put it on the ballot themselves. So, I think there's a lot of things out there, and then just, how do we try to focus on not having taxes go too high while still providing the public services that we need, like trash, fire, police. The things like- The issues that affect people every day are the ones that are most on their mind, not the ones that necessarily we put the most into, as far as politics go. I have relatively few people who will get a hold of me and say, North Street is terrible, as far as parking or the bike lanes, but I do have people getting a hold of me all the time about potholes, about, my trash didn't get picked up, and things of that nature. Trees down in their yard, after the storms, and just making sure that they have people that they can contact, that the parks continue to be clean, safe places for them to go. So, the issues that they see every day.
WAMC: When you look back over your own track record over the last decade and point to things that say, this is a good example of my leadership and this is why I should return to city council chambers, what issues come to mind for you, especially over this past term?
This past term, and any term, what comes to mind is I listen to people, and I really find out what the people in our community are thinking. That can be through Facebook posts, being out there in the community. I'm not a big person for putting in petitions, though. So, you're not going to see what I consider the wins necessarily on council nights. To me, it's when a resident contacts you and you're able to fix the issue on their street, whether it be a flooding issue, a pothole issue, a sidewalk issue. If you're able to get to those, those are the big things. So as far as things that we've been able to do on the council, I think having more mental health presence in the city, of social workers working with the health department and police department, are things that I'm proud that we all got done together. I don't think we are anywhere near where we need to be. However, we're moving in the right direction on issues like that. And with public safety, we're having more traffic calming measures and we're looking at ways of having those introduced so they also don't upset as many people who used to go fast down the street. Now they have to slow down, and saying that we're going to have tons of accidents because of the thing that was put in and it turns out that all's we're having is people slowing down and we're having safer streets. So, I would really say the constituent service is what I'm most proud of. Having people come to me with something and trying to find a solution for them, rather than just the big wins on council nights.
Looking at the mayoral race, we see two very well-known quantities to Pittsfield battling it out to replace Linda Tyer. The two most prominent are of course the current city council President Peter Marchetti and former city councilor John Krol, two men you've worked with closely over your time in public service. At this time, do you anticipate endorsing anyone in the race and what do you make of this matchup between two long-serving public servants?
I've worked with both John Krol and Peter Marchetti for a long time now. I know both well, I would consider both of them a friend. I would hope they both consider me a friend. And looking at it moving forward, I think we just see two people who are in love with Pittsfield, want to do what's right for Pittsfield, and they may have differing visions or they may be pretty close to what they want to see. For me, I will be- I have endorsed Peter Marchetti, our current council president. I've known him so long, his dedication to Pittsfield. I met him for the first time when I was in the math lab out at Berkshire Community College. I got to know him back in ’01 and ‘02 when I was first looking to run for my first time and his commitment, dedication to the community, not just government, not just politics, but everything he's done working for the Pittsfield Cooperative Bank for the last 35 years, working with him on the Morningside Initiative, working with him on the Pittsfield Parade Committee. I know him so well, I know what his leadership style looks like. Nothing against John Krol. However, I'll be with Peter Marchetti for the mayoral race. And I have worked with them both, and whichever one of them wins, I know I could work with either one of them as mayor. So, it's not a situation that I don't want to work with either of them. I just think Marchetti is the person who's best qualified to lead us right now,
As an outside observer of the city council – and admittedly, a vocal one – I'm fascinated by this idea that I could be talking to you right now the next city council president in that you're consistently a very high vote getter, with Marchetti no longer seeking an at large position, it seems like in a lot of ways, if you need to put money on Pete White as council president, that'd be a relatively safe bet. Based on your experience working under Marchetti and based on your own experience as a city councilor, when you think about leadership of the council, what would you want to bring to that role?
I would want to bring to the role somebody who knows the rules of the council so we can have fair and, you know, debate that is not based on my political beliefs or anyone else's political beliefs, but let's just follow the rules. Let's get through agenda items following those rules. And really, when you’re council president, you take on more responsibility. You help shape what subcommittees are going to look like, you help pick who that chair is going to be for those subcommittees, but your role is to be the liaison with the mayor and city council, make sure that you're working with the city clerk, that things get on the agenda as they should. You're making sure that public hearings are held properly, and that at the end of the day, you ran a fair and impartial meeting. And you know, if that happens, that is up to the council. It's also up to the people of Pittsfield, because I would have to be reelected first. So, I'm not putting the cart before the horse on that. But I would enjoy working with fellow councilors, as I always have. I feel I have a strong sense of our council rules and also Demeter’s, which is similar to Robert's Rules, but a little bit different, to where I know the procedural things that help keep the city's business moving when on the agenda.
What do you feel like was the defining debate of the last couple of years? When you think back over this last term that's led up to this election, what stands out to you as one of the major conversations the council deliberated over?
Definitely, most recently, use of free cash, which is that unexpended amount at the end of the year that has the worst name ever in politics, talking about how we're going to use that, whether we're going to borrow for certain things or whether we're going to use that free cash, and should we be saving it for bigger items, or we should be using it for everything. I think that trying to review while we didn't have a direct discussion or direct say in how [American Rescue Plan Act] money was being used has been huge. Knowing that some of our biggest conversations were about housing, and making sure that the homeless had places to go, and now that ARPA money is going towards that. And I think we've talked a lot about traffic on North Street. We're definitely- When people look back, that's probably one of the most popular topics that have continued to come back up. When it was originally done, we made sure that the commissioner knew that we didn't like the first iteration of it. Through public input, our constituents told us that had to change and we convinced the commissioner to change it to what it is now. And I still think there's a third iteration of it out there that looks a little different, maybe is marked out a little bit different, but still provides public safety and safer crossings of the street, having a bike lane that's really just there as the traffic calming measure and also provides micromobility opportunities for people coming into the city. So, probably, I would have liked to have gotten to the trash talk. I would have liked to have had us get further in that. But when the plant out on Hubbard Ave closed, that kind of shifted and it put that a little bit into more of it into our future of how we're going to have to deal with that going forward and what the costs are, but I'm hoping we still take that up before the election this year. And we continue just doing the business of the people of Pittsfield.
