The City Council sent the order to the Finance Subcommittee on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city is making its first allocation of funds into the other post employees benefits trust fund the City Council established last year.

 

The OPEB, or other postemployment benefits, trust is designed to start addressing the city's liability for the benefits of future retirees. The trust fund intends to put aside money to pay for current employees' benefits once they retire.

 

In 2008, an auditor performed an actuary study suggesting the city will pay out some $250 million over the lifetimes of the current employees. 

 

On Tuesday, an order to make the first allocation of $100,000, which represents $50,000 from last year and $50,000 for this year that were already approved by the City Council, was sent to the finance subcommittee for review.

 

The money is coming from the city's certified free cash and the budgeted money from the last two years will go unspent, and presumably, be part of the city's future free cash.

 

"The OPEB Trust is probably one of the larger financial obligations that Massachusetts communities must finance.  We have a large unfunded mandate. The $100,000 is to show an effort toward fulfilling that obligations," Mayor Daniel Bianchi said in a statement last week. 

 

"We are establishing a committee to help with management of the trust and also one that can offer guidance to this large undertaking facing every municipality in the commonwealth."

 

Saving for those liabilities is a relatively new concept. It has only been in recent years that general accounting practices have included them. State officials have been encouraging cities and towns to start saving. 

 

Ward 5 Councilor Jonathan Lothrop previously said the city should look to invest the money being set aside now in hopes to grow it over the years.

 

Currently the city is paying benefits for current employees and retirees. Should the money be invested now, interest and returns over the years will lower the amount needed to be allocated from the budget every year. Once the current employees retire, they would essentially have their benefits paid out of the OPEB trust fund.

 

For City Councilor at Large Barry Clairmont, who is also an accountant, the issue is of prime importance. He says he fully supports allocating funds to the OPEB trust and said he'd advocate to set aside even more. He said he hopes some of the money generated by the sale of tax liens would be put toward the fund.

 

"I'd probably put in $200,000 to $250,000 [each year]," Clairmont said of the trust fund, adding that the city could benefit for another actuary study to help guide the annual allocation. 

 

On Tuesday, the City Council also accepted a $7,500 grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission to perform an survey of historic properties in the city.

 

"The purpose of the grant is to fund the project to identify endangered historic properties," City Planner CJ Hoss said. "It is about raising awareness of the properties and their potential."

 

The project will survery historic buildings as well as help the owners of those properties connect with historic tax credits and other such resources to redevelop or reuse the structure before it is too late and needs to be demolished. 

 

The City Council also accepted a $2,500 gift from Downtown Pittsfield Inc. to create stipends for downtown ambassadors. The ambassador program was piloted last year and is eyed to put college students on North Street to help direct tourist and visitors as well as providing extra eyes to reduce crime. 

 

According to Police Chief Michael Wynn, the college determined that credit wasn't the best option for students and instead it be offered as a "career exploratory" program in which they'd be paid a stipend for their efforts. Downtown Pittsfield, with support from businesses, provided $2,500 for those stipends. 

 

Tuesday's meeting also featured a continuation of a debate over use of the open microphone period of the council meeting between Council President Melissa Mazzeo and resident Craig Gaetani. The rules give a resident three minutes to speak. Gaetani believes residents have the ability to yield their time so somebody else can speak more. He signed up for himself and someone else and when his three minutes were up, he tried to speak for the other person.

 

Mazzeo, however, said a resident can read comments on behalf of another person if that individual can't attend the meeting, but a person can't just give their time to somebody else. Gaetani said Clairmont told him he could but Clairmont disputes that, saying he explained to Gaetani that one person can only have a total of three minutes whether he or she reads for somebody else or not. 

 

Further, at a previous meeting Gaetani tried to sign up for open microphone after showing up 20 minutes late to the meeting and interrupted the meeting to ask to speak. The rules of order state that one has to be signed up by 7:30, which was the time the meetings started when the rules were adopted. However, the meeting time had been moved back and the City Council is assuming so has the sign up time. A petition is expected to formally change that time in the rules. 

 

Gaetani has been attempting to use the open microphone period to read lengthy campaign speeches for his campaign for mayor and has aggressively argued with Mazzeo when she attempts to limit his time to three minutes. In the past, the Human Rights Commission abruptly closed a meeting because Gaetani disrupted it. And, the City Council had previously called a recess when he refused to stop speaking during the open microphone period despite being stopped by Mazzeo, who presides over of the meetings. That occasion included police standing by in case he needed to be removed from the chambers.