Perennial Pittsfield candidate and fathers rights activist -- Hel-lo, Alec Baldwin -- Rinaldo Del Gallo (photo) responds to political observer Jonathan Melle's questions below. Includes link to separate treatise on perceived failings of fellow small-time scribe Jack Dew, of the Berkshire Eagle.
Let me reply, to best of my abilities, issue by issue:
(a) The teen pregnancy rate in Pittsfield continually rose to higher numbers and now doubles the statewide average!
We at the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition have talked about this for years, only to be shunned by the Eagle. Click here, here, and here for our stories and letters to the editor. It is one of the few things government can change, but does not.
(b) The only thing in the Pittsfield economy that has grown has been the escalating WELFARE CASELOADS!
John, I believe that Pittsfield has undergone a massive fall for years—few seem to readily confront this problem. When I ran for office in 2005, the Eagle actually ran stories about the vastly improved Pittsfield economy.
(c) Property Taxes continued to skyrocket under Mayor Ruberto!
There is little public interest in a fiscal conservative such as myself John. All those that ran on a platform that taxes were getting too high lost—and the Eagle ignored us.
(d) Pittsfield Public Schools have seen lower and lower standardized test scores, among other problematic public educational issues. Instead of the public schools getting better, they have demonstrably gotten worse!
Again, we have ideas. Click here and here and here to read them.
(e) Patrick Fennell's Letter in the 2/27/2007 Eagle edition about Mayor Ruberto blatantly breaking state election laws!
Jonathan Levine of the Pittsfield Gazette has written on this subject and I agree with his analysis. Errors were made and laws were broken. Do I think that makes the mayor a monster? No. I think he has learned from his mistake.
(f) The "Good Old Boys Network" is in full bloom, not grassroots democracy!
Jonathon, there is an old saying in politics—dance with those that brought you to the party. Virtually every candidate for office does this. They also want to build on their power base.
(g) The spending of GE's economic development funds on the Colonial Theater and Spice Restaurant instead of industry's that would have created living wage jobs.
I ran on this platform in 2005 and the Berkshire Eagle did not show up, and there was little radio coverage. Even had an economic forum. The economic effect of the Colonial Theater was lower than even my predictions--I thought that it would bring an increase in foot traffic yet has done little. The effect on the local restaurants was also very small—I anticipated a greater return on investment. As you know, I thought the monies could be better spent elsewhere—namely to attract high wage employers.
(h) PEDA being created in the Summmer of 1998 and almost 9 years later having not one private business tenant.
I was the only candidate in 2005 running on PEDA’s underperformance. Again, the Eagle did not show up. Nobody is listening—there is more concern about things such as the gender of candidates.
(i) PCB pollution being capped, not cleaned up. The PCB caps only last a maximum of 25 years, and then they will spread again all over Pittsfield and down south through Southern Berkshire County, Connecticut, and the Long Island Sound.
This is a serious issue.
(j) The implementation of an inequitable garbage collection fee on working poor tenants and their landlords.
I agree. If anybody is to pay, it should the richest not the poorest of our citizens. They claim it is a tax on landlords—those bad landlords—but the cost must be passed along to the tenant.
(k) The impending loss of GE Plastics, and Berkshire County being the number one region in the commonwealth for job losses.
If in 2005 they took up my idea for a business retention programmed, we might be better poised. Eagle editorial slamming a potential buyer was also not helpful.
(l) The proposed selling of the names of the Colonial Theater and Wahconah Park to private corporations.
I am not aware of this but not against this—it is a way to raise capital. Usually, the name “Colonial Theater†or “Wahconah Park†is kept. Obviously, these should be big bucks to warrant such an extreme claim.
(m) The forced retirement of Larry Caprari from the Veterans Office after many decades of quality service to the city's Veteran population because he wouldn't fudge quantitative numbers for Mayor Ruberto.
Know nothing about it so I can’t comment on it.
(n) Imposing a $20 admissions fee for Deval Patrick's Pittsfield Inauguration Ball. From 2003 grassroots candidate to 2007 elitist Mayor!
Jonathon, the mayor was not on the committee—I was. I tried to have a free “Children’s Inaugral†and had obtained a great deal of local talent, lights, and sound, but the idea was nixed. The problem is that the event had to be self-funded. There was a great deal of donated food however.
(o) The possible conspiratorial silencing of Dan Valenti after Valenti exposed Ruberto's violations of state election laws, which was the subject of Patrick Fennell's aforementioned letter.
I don’t know about the subject. Its hard to say that Dan Valenti “exposed†the story—the Gazette did that.
(p) The costly financing of a Pittsfield Cinema Package when North Adams' financing made much more sense without the use of so many public taxpayers dollars.
Tax breaks are one thing—the use of actual city monies is another. I hope it works. As you know, on West Street at the old Big N complex a similar ventured lasted for a number of years but ultimately failed with the coming of the mall. Government is in a poor position to assess the worth of businesses. That’s why I don’t like giving out money until the jobs are created. Tax breaks are another matter.
(q) Opposing the Community Preservation Act to meet the tax needs of business over the residents.
Jonathon, the tax rates on business are too high. It’s a serious concern.
(r) Proposals to raise health insurance premiums to early retirees, thereby taking away their incentive to retire early.
Haven’t thought about this issue.
(s) Supporting D.A. Capless' persecution of 7 first time drug offenders in a Great Barrington drug bust, and supporting the fallacious argument that Pittsfield drug offenders are treated harshly so therefore Great Barrington drug offenders must be treated harshly too.
I respectfully disagree with our District Attorney’s view that prosecutorial discretion is inherently arbitrary. The reasons why DA’s have it, and why prosecutors should use it, is of such widespread knowledge that extensive commentary is not needed. The first hope of the criminal justice system is to turn the lives around of criminals before they become heavily involved in crime. Throwing the book at people for minor first time offenses, such as very small sales of marihuana nowhere in the presence of children seems to make little sense. I was not aware of mayoral support of the DA's position.
(t) Replacing a more qualified woman chair of the city's licensing board with "Good Old Boy" Carmen C. Massimiano, Jr.
Why a woman chair? I personally like Carmen—though I know you had problems with him. I have been offended by people that would not sign my nomination papers. I sign everyone’s nomination papers, even people that I even ran against. I think everyone deserves a right to run. I don’t view signing papers as an “endorsement.†That’s my position. Carmen probably looked at it as an endorsement and opposition to Andrea Nuciforo—I respectfully disagree with this position, but he is not alone in that belief.
(u) Pittsfield's high and socially unjust public school dropout rates by demographics:
PITTSFIELD GRADUATION DATA - FOR STUDENT SUBGROUPS:
***Low-income students: 41.3 percent of 189 students graduated in four years.***
Special Education: 31.3 percent of 115 students.African-American: 43 percent of 35 students.Hispanic: 40 percent of 15 students.Limited English: 58.3 percent of 125 students.Male: 64.1 percent of 287 students.Female: 71.7 percent of 240 students.Asian: 100 percent of seven students.
(u) The loss of Pittsfield Public School assistant Superintendent Dr. William Cameron to another public school district, and the possible loss of Superintendent Katherine E. Darlington to another public school district, if she is hired.
I don’t think it’s the mayor’s fault. I also think there is an element of trying to hop off a sinking ship here.
(v) Jack Dew's news article "Ruberto denies columnist's claims" (Eagle, 12/21/04) that alleged that Mayor Ruberto told Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Director Nat Karns to either censure Andrew Lenton's wife's, Liz Levine's, First Amendment Free Speech Rights or have Andrew Lenton retaliated against and ultimately have his employment terminated.
I would give very little credence to a Jack Dew article. I treat it like any other urban legend—it might be true, it might not. Click here to find out why.
(w) Ruberto and Deanna Ruffer's restructuring of a city agency without regard to the career status of Tina L. Bernat-Samia, who has been employed by the city of Pittsfield for 21 years.
Is this the Parks Department story? I do agree that people should not learn they are losing the jobs through reading a story in the Eagle. I don’t know enough about the particular merits of the case for further comment.
(x) The awarding of the internet design contract to a North Adams company with close ties to Mayor James Ruberto for the city's municipal web site. Boxcar Media — which produced Ruberto’s campaign web site — was the only local vendor invited to offer a quote to develop the new City of Pittsfield web site. Boxcar received the contract even though an out-of-area vendor provided a lower bid.
Why would you want to use an out of area provider unless they were MUCH less expensive? Keep the jobs in the Berkshires.
(y) Jim Ruberto's unethical backstory: One of several corporate executives to bankrupt a Texas plastics company, Ruberto takes a cut of the corporate loot after screwing over many investors and workers and makes a run out of state to his mother's Pittsfield home. After moving into his mother's Pittsfield home, Ruberto decides to run for Mayor and loses. Ruberto then places his mother into a nursing home under the pretenses of Alzheimer's Disease and then remains living in his mother's home, never having to pay a mortgage or purchase the property. Ruberto then runs for Mayor again two years later not only with his cut of the corporate loot he took from the Texas Plastics Company he bankrupted as a corrupt corporate executive, but now Ruberto has control over his mother's home that he USURPED by placing her into a nursing home and remaining in her Pittsfield home.
Jonathan, I have every confidence that Mayor Ruberto loves his mother and would never in a million years do anything to harm her. I also thought that he helped save the Texas Plastics Company, not hurt it. I have not studied his past corporate dealings in depth.
RINALDO: Jimmy Ruberto needs to be voted out of political office. It is like Ken Lay has taken over Pittsfield. You, Rinaldo, have solutions. You have written about Pittsfield's economy many, many times to me, and most of your ideas are good and effective ones. You, Rinaldo, have a case against Ruberto, and a platform ready made to turn around Pittsfield's many socioeconomic problems. When you run for Mayor of Pittsfield, Rinaldo, I pledge to you my full support! Please run for Mayor and bring good results back to our beloved native community.
Johnathan, I have a much different vision for Pittsfield regarding focusing on industry, PEDA, and seem to be much more willing to be “hand on†in such social issues as the dropout rate, bullying, or teen pregnancy. I like Workshop Live, but there seems to be little interest in focusing our efforts on ventures of this nature. We need more Workshop Lives—using incentives to bring business, but not actually giving them money unless they produce. As for other areas of economic development, my predictions became realities.
Jonathon, I very much appreciate your kind words. But nobody is really listening to folks like me who are focused on industry, high tech, and these other social issues such as the dropout rate. To the extent they talk about the problem, they offer no solutions and then degrade my proposed solutions.
The Eagle will not cover me Jonathon, and that makes change nearly impossible. I cannot run even an effective “issues†campaign let alone a real campaign because the Eagle ignores my press releases. And change in the one thing that Pittsfield needs.
I hope the Mayor decides to work with us in the future, and enlist his current help with regards to the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition’s efforts to raise the age for dropping out of school in Pittsfield with a municipal solution instead of relying on the state.
I thank you for your kind thoughts Jonathon.
Rinaldo
