Maffuccio Petitions Against Two Fellow Councilors Rejected
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — An attempt to force the resignation of one councilor and push another off the Licensing Board was shut down when the petitions were rejected for placement on next week's City Council agenda.
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio submitted two petitions calling for a vote of no confidence in Councilor at Large Yuki Cohen and her resignation, and the second requesting Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi resign from the Licensing Board, alleging she partook in a Covid-19 health violation at Cohen's Methuselah Bar & Lounge on or around Dec. 14, 2020.
Council President Peter Marchetti said Wednesday that the petition regarding Lampiasi and the Licensing Board was not put on the agenda because the Council had already voted on this topic when a citizen's petition was submitted by Mark Tully in September 2020 asking for Lampiasi's resignation from the board.
That petition, introduced by Maffuccio, was voted down 6-3 by the council.
Marchetti said he doesn't generally put repeat petitions on the agenda.
In regard to the vote of no confidence petition, Marchetti said he is following the recommendations of the City Solicitor Stephen N. Pagnotta by not putting the petition on the agenda. Marchetti said he asked Pagnotta about the validity of such a petition and that Pagnotta informed him that there are no provisions within the city charter for the council to take votes of no confidence.
Maffuccio has been highly critical of his fellow councilor's business operations at Methusela during the pandemic. In early December, the council voted to refer Cohen to the Licensing Board on a petition by Maffuccio.
"Just because she [Cohen] is a city councilor and one of our colleagues, we cannot protect her," Maffuccio said in the last council meeting. "What's right is right and what's wrong is wrong."
The Board of Health had recorded four official complaints on Cohen's establishment as of Dec. 21 and Methuselah was related to two outbreaks of COVID-19, one in the surge following Halloween weekend that sent the city into a high-risk classification. Cohen had reportedly received a written warning but after the council meeting, she was hit with a $1,000 fine for two of the violations. She said she plans to contest the fine and a Gofundme for her has so far raised $4,700.
Maffuccio has said he believes that Cohen is being protected by the council after other restaurants that were reported for violations were fined and suspended.
Included in his petition was a testimony from a woman who said she caught the virus from patronizing Methuselah while it was overcrowded and not following COVID-19 protocols.
Also included in the personal account were time-stamped pictures depicting patrons standing at the bar without a mask on, standing around tables unmasked, and a densely populated back area.
The woman did not wish to be identified but said the pictures prove she made a "bad decision" to be at the lounge on Oct. 30.
"Looking around I noticed that no one was eating, it was well after 10 PM and it was clearly a bar scene. I was wearing my mask and decided to have a drink," she wrote on Dec. 18. "I ordered the drink at the bar, and the chairs were scattered, some people sitting. People were gathering all around standing, some with masks on some without. Yuki served me a drink and she was indeed wearing her mask."
She said she started feeling flu-like symptoms on Nov. 4 including fatigue and loss of smell with the rest of her family starting to experience the symptoms on Nov. 6. The family tested positive days later for COVID-19.
The woman said she had been very careful but made "one bad decision — and it was bad," and doesn't blame the bar for her desire for social interaction. She does have a problem with Cohen defending herself in the media.
"Methuselah and Yuki Cohen, the owner, need to be held to the same standards as all other restaurant owners," she wrote in her testimony. "Take responsibility, admit you made a mistake, and pay the price."
Cohen has said she was following pandemic protocols and, after learning of an exposure, had shut down voluntarily for two weeks after Halloween as a precaution.
