image description

Pittsfield Council Rejects Call to Refer Investigations of Restaurants

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council does not believe its job is to police restaurants on COVID-19 violations.

The council last week rejected another petition from Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio, this one requesting the Licensing Board review any alleged COVID-19 violations.

This petition was amended from the original, which requested the Licensing Board to specifically review supposed violations at the Berkshire Hills Country Club, the Hot Dog Ranch, and the now closed PortSmitt's Lakeway Restaurant.

This motion failed 7-4, with Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell, Councilor at Large Peter White and Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi joining Maffuccio to vote in favor of the petition.

"I'm not going to be supporting this tonight because we keep going down this road of sort of backseat driving other boards and committees. The ordinances are very clear that the Licensing Board does not report to the City Council, we do not oversee the Licensing Board as a council," Ward 6 Councilor and Licensing Board member Dina Guiel Lampiasi said. "We have so much going on in the city and we have so much that we're dealing with right now, we need to focus on what we as a council are elected to focus on, and we should be spending this time discussing the things that we have the power to impact."

After receiving a COVID-19 violation and complaint report from the Board of Health at the last City Council meeting of 2020, Maffuccio said he wanted to be consistent in referring these establishments to the Licensing Board for said violations because they were similar in nature to the establishments that have been fined and had license suspensions.

There were five complaints about the Hot Dog Ranch, one of which was a confirmed violation on March 23, 2020; Berkshire Hills Country Club received a warning for a wedding that did not follow COVID-19 guidelines, and PortSmitt's was identified as one of the major super spreader events that predated the November COVID-19 surge in Pittsfield.

Though PortSmitt's closed after the event, Maffuccio believes there should be some kind of sanction that could be placed on the owners since they still hold the liquor license for the establishment.

Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said the council doesn't have jurisdiction over the Licensing Board, so when the council discusses handles these complaints it is similar to a person from the public submitting them to the board.



Kavey said it would be more helpful to go through the Health Department with these complaints rather than using council time to vote on them.

"I would just kind of in the future not use our time to direct things to them when we could simply send them an email or call our own Health Department and ask our Health Department to follow through with this since they don't recognize anything we send them," he said.

Though Maffuccio was aiming for consistency, the majority of councilors agreed that these petitions were not suited for them to take on.

"I can't tell you why the Health Department is not doing it besides being weighed down and overwhelmed from the pandemic," Maffuccio said.

Councilor at Large Earl Persip III pointed out that complaints are unfounded and violations are founded.

"I just don't see why we're doing this," he said. "The Licensing Board is not an investigative body, who is is our Health Department, they can look and do the research and kind of investigate and look into it with the Police Department and the Fire Department that's why they send violations off to the Licensing Board."

Persip added that the council will be muddying up the agenda and doing a job that's not its own if it votes on every eatery that has a complaint filed against it.


Tags: COVID-19,   


More Coronavirus Updates

Keep up to date on the latest COVID-19 news:


If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

North Adams Regional Reopens With Ribbon-Cutting Celebration

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz welcomes the gathering to the celebration of the hospital's reopening 10 years to the day it closed. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The joyful celebration on Thursday at North Adams Regional Hospital was a far cry from the scene 10 years ago when protests and tears marked the facility's closing
 
Hospital officials, local leaders, medical staff, residents and elected officials gathered under a tent on the campus to mark the efforts over the past decade to restore NARH and cut the ribbon officially reopening the 136-year-old medical center. 
 
"This hospital under previous ownership closed its doors. It was a day that was full of tears, anger and fear in the Northern Berkshire community about where and how residents would be able to receive what should be a fundamental right for everyone — access to health care," said Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years. It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated county wide system of care." 
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and closed on March 28, 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC was able to reopen the ER as an emergency satellite facility and slowly restored and enhanced medical services including outpatient surgery, imaging, dialysis, pharmacy and physician services. 
 
But it would take a slight tweak in the U.S. Health and Human Services' regulations — thank to U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — to bring back inpatient beds and resurrect North Adams Regional Hospital 
 
View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories