Mayoral candidates Daniel Bianchi, the incumbent, and Linda Tyer, city clerk, met in their second one-on-one debate on Monday night at BCC.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayor Daniel Bianchi says the city's youth deserves better job opportunities than to stock shelves at a big-box store.

 

That's why he said he put a stop to such a proposal to be used at the William Stanley Business Park when he was first elected.

 

In its place, he said he's moved along the Berkshire Innovation Center project, which he hopes will spur growth in the advanced manufacturing field allowing companies to grow.

 

"We shouldn't be asking the taxpayer to spend $110, $120, $140 million on a new high school, we shouldn't ask the state to spend $10 million on an innovation center only to have the only jobs available at a big-box store. We are better than that," Bianchi 

 

His opponent, however, said his involvement in stopping that development halted a project that would have brought jobs and tax revenue to the city, which won't be replaced by the BIC. She said the mayor "shut the door" on a revenue-generating project because "he didn't like the concept." That move has allowed the business park to "languish."

 

"The concern that I have is that the innovation center isn't creating new jobs and there is no new tax revenue being generated from the Berkshire Innovation Center," Tyer said. "We want the William Stanley Business Park to be a job-creating, revenue-generating property."

 

The two sparred on the Berkshire Community College stage on Monday night with Larry Kratka serving as moderator. The incumbent boasted of his resume, track record, and vision saying it stands on its own to be deserving of another term while the challenger questioned what actually had been accomplished.

 

"Mayor Bianchi has wasted your money and he has mismanaged your government," Tyer said. "Last winter, we ran out of sand and salt and put the public in danger. The Fire Department is operating with a broken fire apparatus. There have been multiple lawsuits from employees in various city departments that could result in significant loses of your hard-earned taxpayer dollars and we will see an increase in our health insurance premiums."

 

Since Bianchi took office four years ago, Tyer said the budget has increased by $18 million and taxes have gone up faster than the rate of inflation. Meanwhile, she says Bianchi needlessly spent money on such things as polishing the flooring, a $100,000 legal settlement with Spectrum over the methadone clinic, some $900,000 on a "botched stormwater and paving job" and money to move the city's inspection services to 100 North St.

 

"Wasteful spending and wrong priorities have been a hallmark of his administration," Tyer said. 

 

Bianchi focused on his accomplishments, which include launching a new pavement management system, settling on a multi-year teacher contract, lining up the construction for the new Taconic High School, securing a place in the state's Transformative Development Initiative for Tyer Street, demolishing 55 buildings, launching an affirmative action advisory committee, re-establishing the Youth Commission and Human Rights Commission, attracting new businesses, making improvements to parks and infrastructure, and putting 5.8 megawatts of solar power on the grid.

 

"I'm proud of the work I've done and I've worked hard," Bianchi said "My record stands on its own and it stands in such a way that I hope you will agree to four more years."

 

The gem for Bianchi is the Berkshire Innovation Center, though. The building is being constructed with a state grant and will serve as a research and development facility for a number of colleges, universities and companies. SUNY Polytechnic Institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and at Lowell, Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Albany (N.Y.) Medical College have joined 11 companies in having memberships in the operations.

 

Coupled with building a new Taconic High School and resurgence of its vocational programming, Bianchi sees a pathway for locally educated students to find jobs with new companies or expansions of companies spawning from the center. The city's economic future is in the advanced manufacturing and life sciences fields and the two projects help build the right dynamic for Pittsfield to grow companies from within.

 

"We have to expand the tax base and I think we do that by creating an engine to create jobs not stocking shelves but developing the next device that's going to be implanted in someone's body, that's going to improve life, that is going to create a good job," Bianchi said. "We invested too much in our school system not to create opportunities for those young people."

 

He also boasted of encouraging a number of market-rate housing projects, including some in the downtown, to provide the quality housing the city currently lacks for those workers. 

 

Tyer put her record up in response, particularly with business development.

 

"I have a better record of supporting initiatives that actually create jobs and generates revenue," Tyer said.

 

As a city councilor, Tyer said she supported the Colonial Theater, helping Unistress expand, and a tax incentive to bring LTI Smartglass to the city — all things that have shown tangible results with jobs and tax revenue. She added that Bianchi voted against the last two in that list. Bianchi said LTI was going to move to the city without the tax incentive, which is why he voted against it. 

 

When it comes to the William Stanley Business Park, Tyer said she'd get rid of the mayoral seat on the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority Board — a position Bianchi created. PEDA is in charge of redeveloping the land and Tyer says the mayor's role makes it susceptible to politics. She said she'd look to hire a commercial land developer to fill out the land. 

 

Business development needs to expand beyond that, Tyer said, with a recruitment program to attract young professionals to the area, increase the business development expertise in the Office of Community Development, and expand access to high-speed Internet. And to help dissuade major employers from leaving the area like SABIC just recently announced, she said she'd hold regular meetings with leadership to see how the city can help.

 

As for SABIC, the mayor said that was "strictly a business decision made halfway around the globe" and he had no control over the company opting to move its headquarters to Houston. But, he immediately spoke with state officials, who brought the Rapid Response employment team to Pittsfield. Over the next 12 months, the mayor said he is rolling out a plan to help keep those who are being left behind employed by connecting the workers with other jobs — including some 100 jobs at General Dynamics.

 

"We've worked diligently with our federal delegation and our local delegation to safeguard those who lost their jobs and create opportunity," Bianchi said.

 

Tyer emphasized her efforts to clean up blight and crime in the city as ways to help attract companies. When a prospective company researches and visits the city, Tyer said she doesn't want them to find blight and crime.

 

"As soon as I am elected, the first thing I will do is ask the chief of police to bring me a plan of how we can hire more police officers. A city of our size should have 120 sworn police officers. We have only 85. We have seven patrolmen per shift keeping our city safe. That is not enough. We have command staff that has to spend time every shift calling officers who had just worked a shift and mandatory assigning them a second shift. This is not sustainable," Tyer said.

 

Tyer called for the creation of a traffic bureau, changing the organization of the anti-gang unit, and bringing back community policing to bolster public safety.

 

Bianchi says "we cannot arrest our way out of societal issue." The Police Department is authorized for 91 officers but is below staffing. He says the focus is to get back to full staffing before adding "millions to the budget" to hire more officers that may not solve the problem.

 

The debate was moderated by Larry Kratka.

The mayor said the city needs to work on the social environment causing youth to turn to crime and violence. He said the Pittsfield Community Connection program is linking mentors with at-risk youth, there are an array of outreach programs, and the city opened community centers in public housing. The community centers have reduced arrests, call volume, and vandalism in the developments and has trigger increased social engagement. 

 

He said efforts like that need to be tried out and if the city then still needs to hire officers, he said he'd hire them.

 

He added that he would love to build a new police station but that the cost is in the $25 million range and falls in priority to the Taconic High School project. He said he is thinking of creative ways — such as partnering with the state to build a new facility for the courts and the police. He is also looking for federal funding to help build a new station. Bianchi had already hired a consultant to look for locations and needs for the station.

 

Tyer also focused on blight saying "we need to make our city ready for good things to happen." She supports efforts to hold absentee landlords accountable for upkeep of their property.

 

Bianchi said the city's blight is related to "smart growth initiatives" begun by former Mayor James Ruberto. He said that pushed too many low-income rental units into the city's market and paved the path for modern blight issues. He said he's been working internally to combat those conditions now.

 

Tyer supported those initiatives because they provided quality low-income housing to the residents. She said there were low-income units but because of absentee landlords who did not have commitments to the city, the properties were not kept up. Ruberto's program provided a better standard of living for low-come residents, she said.

 

"We have too many absentee landlords in a way that provides quality housing for the low-income residents of Pittsfield."

 

The two exchanged blows over the city's recent shift from the Group Insurance Plan for health benefits to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Tyer said the mayor pushed through the shift without informing the City Council, displaying a lack of transparency in his administration. She said she'd have a more open and inclusive conversation about such a major change so it doesn't breed discontent among other city officials who were left out of the process.

 

"This is a significant cost on the city's balance sheet. This is a major decision that excluded the members of the City Council. Had they been included it could have been a better process," Tyer said.

 

Bianchi said it is illegal to have a more inclusive conversation and the only reason why the City Council was brought in the first time was because it was a new state program and the council needed to vote to adopt the new law. The Blue Cross Blue Shield switch will now save the city some $2.1 million, Bianchi said.

 

The mayor also added that exposing the work to the City Council could have derailed the effort, particularly because of a few councilors' political motivations.

 

"I wouldn't like a couple city councilors trip us up," Bianchi said.