At-large City Councilor Pete White serves as the head of Pittsfield’s 11-member legislative body.
One of the items on tonight’s agenda is a message from Massachusetts Supervisor of Records Manza Arthur forwarded to the council by school committee chair Dr. William Cameron. Despite pleas from some community members and the council itself, the commonwealth found that unredacted copies of a publicly funded, more than $150,000 investigation into staff misconduct at Pittsfield High School will not be released to the public.
“I think that we've gone as far as we can with it," White told WAMC. "I know the general public has had a different take on it, that, the taxpayers paid for it, they want to see everything that's in it. But I think when you're dealing with personnel matters, you need to be careful, because we're taking care of things within the system, but also we have to be open that we still want people to come to work here.”
The investigation was prompted by a deluge of accusations against staffers at PHS following news that Dean of Students Lavante Wiggins had been arrested and federally charged with large-scale cocaine trafficking. The findings ultimately dismissed misconduct allegations against most of the staff members, and some not implicated have returned to their work in the district. Wiggins has pleaded not guilty.
With a municipal election coming this fall, White says Pittsfielders have a very clear route forward to express discontent with the school committee’s leadership.
“I think with the school committee in the school system in general, we have to be very cognizant of who we elect this year to the school committee, and not just coming to the city council to deal with school matters when we have very little say in what goes on in the schools," he said. "We need to make sure we have school committee members that are representing the people, and that those school committee members are out there enough to get to know people, so people are comfortable going to them instead of just coming to the city council when big things come up. Because really, at the end of the day, what we can do is approve their budget or not approve their budget or reduce their budget. We don't have day-to-day say in any of the school matters, even though we fund them.”
White is also leading the body through fervent local debate over Mayor Peter Marchetti’s camping ban proposal, which business owners have backed against accusations of a war on the community’s most vulnerable from civil rights activists. White, a longtime ally of Marchetti, backs the ban.
“I think overall, it's something that the community that I'm hearing from, not just the community that shows up at council meetings, wants to see it passed, and I just want to see things around it that still protect the unhoused people and still work on places for them to go and not criminalizing it, or making it harder for them to find jobs, or making it any harder on them, but still looking for that alternative space for them,” he explained to WAMC.
The council’s ordinance and rule subcommittee, which White sits on, stripped the legislation of any explicitly criminalizing elements at a tense meeting in June. With the ban set to come up again before the subcommittee later this month, White says it won’t be a silver bullet for Pittsfield’s ongoing issues around supporting the unhoused.
“Regardless of what direction we need to go, the issues are still there, and they still need to be tackled," he said.
Some considerations include creating lockers and air-conditioned spaces that unhoused members of the community can utilize.
“We need to try to do more to create those spaces overnight as well, and just continue to tackle it, working with people as people, and listening to their stories, and trying to find a balance of making sure people are still comfortable coming downtown," said White. "I think everyone should feel very safe coming downtown, even with current conditions.”
As far as tonight’s meeting, White highlighted two other agenda items: a vote on regulating municipal flag displays in Pittsfield and revising ordinances around the city’s open container laws.
“Having a flag ordinance in place is going to be a good step for the city, just so no one can come to us and just say, hey, put this flag up, even though it's something that city government for government speech doesn't support," the council president told WAMC. "And also giving the police the tools they need with the open container amendments that we're making that having an open container of alcohol, not having to see somebody actually sip from it, would be enough that they can take action if needed on it.”
