Marchetti was sworn in a year ago after winning the contentious 2023 mayoral race. Ahead of the former longtime city council president’s remarks, members of Pittsfield’s 11-member legislature are assessing his performance to date.
“For me, personally, I've been doing this for a long time- 10 years on the school committee, and this is, what, I just finished up my fifth year on the city council, and I think he has had a very good year," said at-large city councilor Kathy Amuso. “I've been pleased with the work he has done, how he's communicated with us. He has an open-door policy, and that's been a little bit of a change from in the past, and not that there hasn't been good communication, but this has been more.”
She sees finances as one of Pittsfield’s top issues in 2025.
“We have an aging population," Amuso told WAMC. "Many of us, including myself, received a tax bill that was 10% plus more than last year, and we have to work as hard as we possibly can to make sure we're doing the work we need to do to keep those tax rates as low as possible. And on the other hand, we still have to provide the services that are expected by the people of Pittsfield.”
Amuso says Marchetti’s move to replace Pittsfield’s unlimited curbside waste pickup policy with a toter system has been a success.
“I liked the way he worked with the citizens of Pittsfield and had public meetings and listened to their input," she said. "And because he did the work he needed to do, it was a unanimous vote when it came before the council. And we've all heard, I'm sure we've all gotten calls or emails or texts that there's been some bumps, but overall, I think it's been a successful program, and it will save us some money.”
Ward 3 councilor Matthew Wrinn told WAMC that Marchetti will have to address the ongoing crisis in the city’s school district.
“I think the elephant in the room as he is to acknowledge the current state of Pittsfield High School and the whole Pittsfield Public Schools in general," he told WAMC. "It's obviously been tumultuous this year. The whole year, it's been an issue, and I'm sure he's going to touch upon teachers, principals, administrators, students, parents- Across the board, the Pittsfield Public Schools.”
Late last year, multiple administrators at Pittsfield High School were put on leave for a battery of allegations ranging from large-scale cocaine trafficking to sexual relationships with students.
“He inherited a lot of problems, one of, the schools being a problem," Wrinn continued. "It was not under his administration when a lot of these hirings were made, and I think he's done a great job of transitioning into his own administration and putting his own touches on the city.”
Ward 4 councilor James Conant praised Marchetti’s ability to work with the council and hopes to hear more about economic projects in Pittsfield.
“We have some new growth to celebrate, with the hotels getting built and the other possibility of the future projects at the Site 9 at the old GE campus, there's people working on that every week," he said. "I would expect, maybe a possible announcement on that, about some future plans of development.”
While Ward 5 councilor Patrick Kavey expects Marchetti to celebrate his victories so far, he wants to hear more about Pittsfield’s future.
“I'm hoping to hear about some infrastructure improvements that we have planned for the spring and the summer that we haven't really been talking about," he told WAMC. "I would guess he'd also probably discuss some of the challenges he's seen as mayor, so budgetary constraints, I would guess. We'll discuss unhoused individuals, maybe the difference in grant funding with a new federal administration coming in.”
At-large councilor Alisa Costa echoed praise of the Marchetti administration’s communication abilities, and says she wants Marchetti to acknowledge challenges in his State of the City.
“We have housing production issues that I'd love to see him address, as well as making progress with our Homeless Advisory Committee and the human services work that he promised to do," she said. "I'd like to see progress reported on these particular areas.”
Costa says that the lack of affordable housing coupled with stagnant wages has left behind members of Pittsfield’s community who are struggling to stay afloat.
“I think we need to bring as much resources to that as possible, because, as we're seeing across the state, homelessness is draining our coffers, and we need to get to the root cause of that, and in places like Pittsfield, it really is around housing production and bringing offline properties online,” the councilor continued.
She also wants Marchetti to address the opioid crisis.
“It hasn't gone away," Costa told WAMC. "We're still dealing with it. The mayor talked about it in his campaign, and when he first started. I think what happens when we govern is a lot of other issues kind of crop up along the way, and we've certainly had those, but we do need to address it.”
Marchetti will deliver his State of the City address tonight at 6 at Taconic High School.
