Final Debates Set for Berkshire District Attorney Candidates

02:29PM / Monday, August 13, 2018Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The three district attorney candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in September's primary will meet at least three more times.

Paul Caccaviello, Andrea Harrington and Judith Knight are vying for the nomination that will essentially determine the winner in the race since there is no other candidate on the general election ballot.

Caccaviello was first assistant district attorney for 14 years until his predecessor, David Capeless, stepped down in March so Caccaviello could run as the incumbent. He has worked in the district attorney's office as a prosecutor for nearly three decades.

Harrington is a civil and criminal defense attorney who has defended death row inmates in the state of Florida and is now an attorney at Connor & Morneau LLP. She has been practicing law for more than 15 years and first ran unsuccessfully for state senator two years ago.

Knight worked as a prosecutor and a public defender before entering private practice in 2003. An attorney for more than 20 years, Knight ran against Capeless in 2006 with a campaign centered on overzealous prosecution of youth caught peddling marijuana but lost.

The upcoming forums and debates are:

• Tuesday, Aug. 14, at 6:30 p.m. at Becket Town Hall. Sponsored by the Becket Democratic Town Committee with state Sen. Adam Hinds as moderator.

• Monday, Aug. 20, at 7 p.m. at Berkshire Community College sponsored by the Pittsfield Gazette with former Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathaway as moderator.

• Thursday, Aug. 23, 7 p.m. at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, 270 State Road, Great Barrington, sponsored by Hevreh, Berkshires Interfaith Organizing, and Multicultural Bridge.

• Tuesday, Aug. 28, 1 p.m., Berkshire Theatre Group's Fitzpatrick Main Stage, 6 East St., Stockbridge, sponsored by BTG and WAMC/Northeast Public Radio. Moderated by WMAC's President Alan Chartock, Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes and News Director Ian Pickus. To reserve seats: 413-997-4444 or berkshiretheatregroup.org. It will be broadcast on live on WAMC, wamc.org and on Facebook.

Tags: candidate forum, debate, election 2018, primary,

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Pittsfield Switching to OpenGov for Permitting Software

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:09AM / Tuesday, February 24, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city plans to move on from its "clunky" permitting software in the new fiscal year, switching to OpenGov instead.

On Thursday, the Finance Subcommittee supported a $199,269 free cash appropriation for the conversion to a new online permitting software. Chief Information Officer Kevin Zawistowski explained that Permit Eyes, the current governmental software, is no longer meeting Pittsfield's needs.

The nearly $200,000 appropriation is for the software license and implementation. Going forward, the annual cost for OpenGov will be about $83,000; about $66,000 for the next fiscal year, not including building permits.

"We've had significant issues across the board with the functionality of the system, right down to the actual permits that they're attempting to help us with," he said.

"Without going into details with that, we have to find a new system so that our permits can actually be done effectively, and we can kind of restore trust in our permitting process online."

The city is having delays on permits, customer support, and a "lack of ownership and apology" when mistakes are made, Zawistowski reported. Pittsfield currently pays $49,280 annually for the software, which Open Gov is expected to replace after July 1.

Running alongside this effort, the city wants to bring building permitting software under the city umbrella, rather than being countywide under the vendor Pittsfield is moving away from.

Finance Director Matthew Kerwood explained that the city has gone through a procurement process, OpenGov being the lowest bidder, and the vendor has been paid with contingency money "because we needed to get this project moving." He said Permit Eyes is a "clunky" piece of software, and the company has not invested in technology upgrades where it should have.

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