Pittsfield Council Revisiting DEI Office Rename

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
04:11PM / Tuesday, October 13, 2026Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The conversation about the DEI office renaming that was halted by a charter objection will resume on Tuesday.

The City Council will discuss a request from Mayor Peter Marchetti to rename the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

It proposes to rename the DEI office to the Office of Equity, Access, and Opportunity and merge the Human Rights Commission and Affirmative Action Committee into an Equity, Access and Opportunity Commission.

The Ordinance and Rules Subcommittee supported the changes in August, and in September, Ward 2 Councilor Cameron Cunningham delayed the vote with a charter objection.

Pittsfield's City Code prohibits charter states that "if a single member present objects to the taking of the vote, the vote shall be postponed until the next meeting of the city council." It also stipulates that at least four members must object if it is an emergency measure.

Cunningham also submitted a petition, which was referred to O&R under Rule 27, to replace the DEI Office and the Human Rights Commission with an equity, access, and opportunity coordinator in the Department of Community Development, with formal complaints and Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action functions assigned to Human Resources.

At the last meeting, he spent more than an hour querying the mayor and chief diversity officer about functions and effectiveness of the department, wanting more quantitative data. Cunningham proposed an ordinance that he says keeps Pittsfield's commitment to equity, access, and opportunity, "refocuses it on measurable results for our residents, and delivers it at a fraction of the current cost."

Under this petition, the equity, access, and opportunity coordinator would be a $60,000 to $80,000 per year position.

The DEI Office's fiscal year 2027 budget was about $200,000 after cuts during budget season; $106,700 for the chief diversity officer and $58,000 for the administrative assistant. The coordinator would be appointed by the director of community development and the mayor.

"The current DEI appropriation is approximately $206,000 per year ($193,000 in salaries and $13,000 in expenses). The intended funding for the appropriate Coordinator salary is a $60,000-$80,000 line item within the Department of Community Development, with any additional funding to be requested by the Mayor through the ordinary budget process. That frees roughly $126,000 per year, before fringe benefits, for other resident services," Cunningham wrote.

"… I support the mission this office was created to serve. This proposal is about making sure the money we spend on it is effective and reaches the people it is meant to help, and that we can show it does."

He wants the coordinator to be a technical staff position charged with identifying and reducing barriers that limit residents' access to city services, programs, and opportunities and preparing city employees to carry out duties with this purpose.

"The Coordinator is not a department head, shall not supervise a separate department or budget, and shall report to the Director of Community Development," the proposed ordinance reads.

The equity, access, and opportunity coordinator would be expected to submit a needs assessment within the first year of work, develop annual work plans, apply for and administer grant funds, assess policies when requested, and provide trainings and consultations, among other responsibilities.

This change would also place all formal complaint handling, investigations, and EEO/AA compliance with the director of human resources; another member of the department could be designated for this role. The coordinator would be available to employees as an informal resource, required to refer any allegation of unlawful conduct to HR.

At the last council meeting, Cunningham unsuccessfully motioned to strike the transition of the DEI director's title and budget, and to remove mandatory staff trainings. His ordinance makes training offered by the coordinator voluntary, and bars them from investigating complaints, making findings, imposing discipline, or participating in hiring and other personnel decisions.

In July, the Ward 2 Councilor requested that Pittsfield explore turning the retired Morningside Community School into a police station. Marchetti reported that members of the administrative team recently toured Morningside to assess it for potential use as a police station and community space and agreed to pursue a feasibility study.

"The first step in this process is to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking a designer to examine the possibility of the building being converted to a new police station. This RFP will be issued on October 14th with proposals due back on November 4th. Once proposals are reviewed and a designer has been selected, community meetings will be scheduled. At these meetings, we will discuss the potential neighborhood impacts and gather input as to what the vision is for the community space," Marchetti wrote.

"Once public input has been gathered, the design team will work, over the next year, to create a proposed design. If a feasible design is presented and accepted, we will then need to determine what the funding structure is for this project."

Tags: DEI,

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Lanesborough Open Space Panel Invites FinCom Rep

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:12AM / Wednesday, October 14, 2026

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town's Open Space and Recreation Committee is inviting the Finance Committee to assess its proposed projects.

The committee's Chair Stacey Parsons and Vice Chair Mark Hawthorne updated Finance members last week on implementing the open space and recreation plans. They asked if Finance would provide a liaison to address financial implications and help coordinate grants.

"There's concepts that might involve an existing line item, so something like with DPW or with the recreation committee, things that like reoccurring costs, and then there's things that might be a warrant item where we need to kind of package something together to bring to a future town meeting," Hawthorne said.

He said it would be great to have someone with knowledge of grants and what would be the best for some of the priorities on the OSRP.

"And from what we understand so far with the grants, a lot of them are reimbursements. So we have to kind of go to the town with, hey, we've got this project for X amount. We're looking at these grants that we're going to submit, and whenever the corresponding timeline is, and then it's a reimbursement afterwards," Hawthorne continued. "We want to make sure we're also going to be fiscally responsible, not asking for too much, because a lot of the stuff it's great to have, but it's not like a required necessity, and it may not be a top priority that you guys are going to deal with when you're looking at the next year's budget."

Parsons noted that the planning had representation from different boards and committees, and that "there's a lot of work going on that maybe people don't know about, or resources in one pocket that another pocket doesn't know about."

"So we're being very intentional and asking out to make sure we have the required expertise at the table, and as Mark said, you know the fiscal component comes up in just about every project. So to have someone with that knowledge to say that's not going to fly this year, put it on a five-year plan," she said.

The OSRP committee set 10 objectives for its first year including potential work on Pontoosuc Lake and an age-friendly park project, a site visit with Department of Public Works.

Finance Committee member Kristen Tool volunteered to be the liaison because of her knowledge of grant writing.

In other business, she also suggested holding joint meetings with the Select Doard to discuss the tax rate rather than relying on information passed between the boards. The aim was to make the conversation more efficient and let members ask questions directly of the Select Board and Assessor Ross Vivori.

While the Finance Committee has no say in the tax rate decision, they thought it might be a good idea to ask Vivori questions.

"There have been some questions about how assessments are done that have come up, and I think it would be helpful to be able to ask those with the Select Board and Ross all in one as well, because the assessor is part time. We don't want to be trying to make him have more and more meetings and use up his time," Tool said. "I know we had previously asked about personal property taxes related to the short-term rentals, and Ross had said that short-term rentals are assessed personal property taxes. But then, with the new bylaw that we just started, we kind of learned that none of the short-term rentals were registered as businesses with the town, right?

"And so I'm not sure how they would be assessed personal property taxes if they weren't registered as businesses. So just kind of getting clarity on those questions."

Finance member Vera Farrell, who is the liaison to the Baker Hill Road District said the district had discussed whether the Connector Road could be transferred directly to the state, rather than returned to the town, with state Rep. John Barrett III and state Sen.Paul Mark.

"The representatives recommended that as an option, that it could transfer the Connector Road directly to the state, as opposed to deeding it back to the town to dispense it. If we get to that point, that would be a better option to do it that way," Farrell said. "They would support the town and the district's work towards development of the road property."

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