Maffuccio Motions to File His Own Petition Against President Marchetti
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — After submitting a petition for Council President Peter Marchetti to relinquish his leadership and step down, Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio motioned to file his own petition for the sake of unity.
This motion resulted in unanimous approval — and may be a step forward for council that has had members publicly reproving each other.
"I submitted this petition on two key factors: Councilor Marchetti has taken it upon himself to filter through my petitions not once but twice when supporting documents to this petition were presented and new information developed I tried resubmitting them," Maffuccio said. "This is freedom of speech to me, we have a job to do. I am very frustrated with the way things were handled inappropriately because it was a colleague."
Maffuccio, who has filed numerous petitions including a few calling out council colleagues, felt that Marchetti was censoring City Council content after rejecting two of his petitions for the last meeting. When requesting a motion to file, he stated that he respects all of his colleagues, including Marchetti.
The first petition called for a vote of no confidence in Councilor at Large Yuki Cohen and her resignation, and the second requesting Ward 6 Councilor Dina Guiel 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.
Marchetti said the petition regarding Guiel 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 her 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.
Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said the first petition asking to remove Cohen from the board was out of the council's jurisdiction. In regard to the second petition, he said it was based on a blurry photo that did not depict Guiel Lampiasi violating a guideline. The alleged violation in the photo was of Cohen, who appeared to not be wearing a mask while serving behind the bar.
"The second petition had no legal standing," Kavey said. "And regardless of how the council voted it would have no effect on whether or not our colleague stayed in her seat."
Kavey said said continuously submitting petitions with no legal standing is not an appropriate way to conduct council business. He said he understands Maffuccio's concerns of censorship, which he does not support, but it isn't appropriate to continue sending petitions that have no legal standing to the council.
"The only petitions that I will support moving forward with the removal of anyone from our body need to meet the legal requirements," he concluded. "it needs to meet our legal jurisdiction, and needs to back backup documentation available to basically support the claims being made."
In August 2020, the council grappled with a petition to remove Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell by claiming he no longer lived in Pittsfield. After a conversation that lasted until 1 in the morning, they denied the petition.
"I understand Councilor Maffuccio's frustration, I really do," Connell said. "I'm a firm believer in open government, and I read councilor Maffuccio's petitions, I didn't feel they were repetitive at all."
Connell suggested that in the future if the council wants to make a move like this, it establish a formal process for the removal of a president or vice president.
"If in the future, future councils want to consider a move like this, then I feel that we have to have a process in place in the council rules," he said.
Councilor at Large Earl Persip III said he thinks Marchetti does a "fabulous" job corralling the council and preparing the agendas.
"I think we've come to a crossroads here and I will be the first to take responsibility for my actions going after other councilors," he said. "This seemed to be started with Councilor Connell and continued on to other councilors and now to the president."
Persip said he thinks the council needs to just move forward. He disagreed with the petition against Marchetti being placed on the agenda in the first place.
"Let's move forward and stop filing petitions going at people, I think the residents and citizens are sick of this, we're wasting their time with these petitions, we're wasting their time going at each other," Persip said. "I think we just need to all take a deep breath, start over, and actually do the work of the people."
Maffuccio concluded by saying he wanted to put this to rest and move on. He apologized if the councilors don't agree with some of the petitions he places or if they think he places too many.
"I am just looking for unity with this body so that we can move forward," he said. "I ask that we become a unity, we respect one another from here out, and I respect council president through all the years, we've gone back 15-16 years now, even further. And that's why I've decided to file this petition and not make a big stink about it."
Kavey appreciated the councilors' call for unity.
"I think we can all agree that we need to move forward in a positive and productive way," He said.
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