Pittsfield police now have greater enforcement authority over public possession of alcohol. That’s after the city council on Tuesday tightened open container laws following a proposal from Mayor Peter Marchetti. With only six of the body’s 11 members present, the council eventually unanimously approved the changes only after amendments to help address concerns that the original proposal was too vague and risked targeting the unhoused community.
“I can't help but think of our homeless community, and any person, whether or not they have a house or not, has the right to purchase alcohol and own alcohol if they're of age," said Ward 2 councilor Brittany Noto, who was against the initial proposal. "So, all I can think of is the stated purpose of this ordinance is to increase enforcement authority. Anytime I hear that, my ears go up and I want to protect the liberty interests of the public.”
The mayor’s proposal, which targets public possession of an open container of alcohol instead of simply targeting public consumption as outlined in city law previously, comes on the heels of tense back and forth about a controversial camping ban in the city.
Noto said Marchetti’s plan lacked clear definitions.
“There's no definition in this proposed ordinance of what an open container is, what that means," she said. "And I, for one, can think of so many times that I've walked from a friend's house or a private function or a party or a restaurant, and perhaps to be a good neighbor, I brought a bottle of something and I didn't finish it, and the host was gracious and let me take it back home. And under this ordinance, as it's currently written, if I was walking on a public roadway with a half-consumed bottle of whatever alcohol, I'd be in violation. I don't think that's fair.”
With that, she offered the first of her own amendments.
“A bottle, can or other receptacle used to contain a liquid that has been opened or has a broken seal or the contents of which has been partially removed or consumed, provided, however, that a bottle resealed and stored out of plain sight shall not be considered an open container,” read the councilor.
Noto’s second amendment continued to clarify the reach of the new law.
“I did notice, and this could just be a clerical error in Section A as currently written, it just says ‘it shall be unlawful for any person to possess an open container’- Within the wording of that subsection, consumption is not mentioned," she said. "So, I would just move that we add ‘to possess or consume,’ because if we leave that out, we're making it illegal to have it, but not illegal to drink it, which theoretically you could grab it from someone, drink it, give it back, and you're in compliance.”
As amended, the ordinance passed unanimously, with Councilors Alisa Costa, Matthew Wrinn, Earl Persip, Dina Lampiasi, and James Conant absent.
In other city business Tuesday, Ward 1 Councilor Kenny Warren spoke on a communication from the Massachusetts Supervisor of Records explaining why his appeal for the investigation into staff misconduct allegations in the Pittsfield Public School system to be released fully and unredacted had been denied.
“I think some of the submissions that the school committee, the school department, submitted to the state were unintentionally inaccurate," he said. "The main justification, if you really read that letter closely, was for the purposes of pursuing discipline. Well, that's incorrect.”
Warren noted that two of the people investigated were no longer employees of the district.
“Clearly, they cannot be investigated for discipline, and no such action was taken," he continued. "The other thing is, if you look closely at the summary reports, several of those incidents had already been investigated, which is sort of disappointing because we didn't know that. And so, we see that the city spent $156,000 relooking into what I count as three to four prior investigations by the school department.”
After a flurry of allegations aimed at Pittsfield High School staffers emerged in late 2024 following a dean of student’s arrest on federal cocaine trafficking charges, an investigation by the Buckley Richardson & Gelinas law firm largely dismissed the claims.
Describing himself as a city finances watchdog, Warren said he couldn’t justify pursuing the issue any further legally.
“If I appealed, can you imagine the legal fees that would be generated by the school department?" he asked. "And if you saw what we got for $156,000 with no litigation, you can imagine what it would cost if there's litigation, and the city taxpayers do not deserve that.”
Despite his frustration, the councilor said he’d come to terms with the fact that the matter had effectively reached a dead end.
“We have new training materials, we have coordination with [abuse prevention nonprofit] Enough Abuse," said Warren. "I think things are moving forward, I think this community needs to move forward. And whereas it's interesting that the school department is active and interested in keeping us informed when they get this letter, some of the problems that we had and that we vocalized at this at this council was the fact that they didn't keep us informed. So once again, I think we need to move forward. I'm willing to move forward.”
Audio from the meeting is provided by Pittsfield Community Television.
