School Committee member Sara Hathaway speaks against a petition to raise the age of elected committee officials to 30.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council put a controversial petition to rest on Tuesday, but it may come back from the dead.

Ward 2 Councilor Charles Kronick's proposed charter modifications that impose a minimum 30-year age requirement on School Committee candidates and a one-year "cooling off" period for elected officials.  

Kronick reported that, given the counter-arguments, he will be resubmitting with improvements.

"Our goal is to nurture young people," School Committee member Sara Hathaway said.

"And one of the things that tells us we've done a good job is when one of them comes forward and says 'I would like to step into a leadership position in the community. I would like to learn how to be an elected official and join the rest of the elected officials who are making this a better community'."

She said the petition is aimed at one person who has demonstrated a commitment to the community and a great value to the School Committee. Former student representative and Taconic's class of 2022 valedictorian William Garrity, who is 19 years old, has taken out papers to serve in an elected position on the committee.  

"We are looking forward to having more young people step forward and take leadership positions in the community," Hathaway said. "Perhaps even running for Ward 2."

Kronick denied the claims of "ageism."

"The petition was a well-reasoned argument. It was not an assault upon individuals or upon the class of youth nor was it an intent on my part to impose my will on the charter," he said.

"It was a request to send to the Charter Review Commission, an idea was to think and discuss and I leave it in their hands, of course, to accept it, reject it, amend it, or do something completely different that I do not have the ability to predict."

The councilor did not predict the "hate" that the petition has been met with and said it is unjust for his petition not to be heard.

"It is a scientifically established fact that the brain does not mature until the end of your second decade of life toward the end of the 20s. That's true. It's been proven," Kronick said.

"A child is not actually capable of what, therefore, in fact, it's been also determined, it's also in the study which I can get for you, of fully mature thoughts on a consistent basis. There's emotionality, there are mood swings, and all sorts of things that we deal with in our 20s and I was 20, I remember being 20. It was probably the worst decade of my life. I will never go back to the 20s. When I get born again, I'm skipping. I'm going right to 30. It's not is not an insult is a fact of life."

He added that the petition doesn't apply to Garrity because it would not be enacted by the election.

"It wasn't about him until he said it was and made it about him," he said.

The councilor also pointed out that there are student representatives, asserting that they should be rotational so that more students can be in the leadership position, and the commonwealth's efforts to give student representatives voting power.

A number of community members attended the council meeting to speak against the proposal.

Former educator Marietta Rapetti Cawse said that youth needs to get involved and stay involved in local government.

"Schools and the school-related budget is very high and perhaps the highest budget item. Youth needs of voice," she said.

"Ageism is a human rights issue. Let us not discriminate against people on the basis of age. That those who meet the basic and inherent requirements of the school committee and school City Council, those who have the right to vote, be eligible to run for civic offices such as the school committee. Younger voices must not be denied nor dismissed. Let us use our schools not only to educate but to develop leadership. Let us please include young people on the School Committee."

Virginia O'Leary, also a former educator, helped Garrity collect signatures and is excited that he is interested in running.

"I can't understand this ageism cropping up amongst well-educated elected officials of City Council," she said.

"And I have to wonder why it was focused on a single individual who has shown by his behavior, both scholastically and in terms of his commitment to the schools of Pittsfield, his interest in being part of an intergenerational dialogue about how best to educate people who are residents of Pittsfield."

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