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Pittsfield Charter Committee Discards City Manager Option
James Boyle of Cheshire, a former Pittsfield councilor and School Committee member, addresses the charter committee. Few residents have attended the committee's meetings.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Consensus on some major points of Pittsfield governance began to emerge Wednesday, following a public hearing held by the city's special Charter Review Study Committee.
By unanimous vote of nine members present Wednesday, the committee appointed to review the city's 80-year-old charter document voiced an early inclination toward expanding the term of mayor to four years and dispensing with the concept of adding a city manager. It also favors keeping the mayor as a voting member of the School Committee, and reducing the number of signatures needed to run for such offices as at-large city councilor, city clerk and School Committee.
The votes indicate merely an expression of consensus in the committee's current leanings in a larger non-binding process expected to continue for several more months, at the end of which time the complete recommendations for a revised city charter will be handed over to the City Council and mayor. Any potential change to the document would also have to be approved by the state Legislature and go before Pittsfield residents for a vote.
"I think we need to start making some decisions," said Chairman Judge Edward Lapointe, on moving on from further discussion of the city manager idea. "We can always revisit the vote, but I think we ought to bring certain issues to a head."
Having the City Council hire a manager to administrate much of the day-to-day operations of municipal government, as is seen in a few cities in Massachusetts, was panned by a panel of Pittsfield mayors, as well as the city clerk, but proved popular with several city councilors.
Committee member Diane Ferrero said residents she'd talked to were "alarmed" by talk of a city manager. "People really like the tradition, and I think it's a feature of our culture here that people for vote for the mayor."
Vice Chairman Peter Marchetti, who narrowly missed election as mayor in 2011, pointed out that of the more than 12,000 voters in that municipal election, only 52 failed to cast a vote for mayor.
Hired consultants from the Collins Center for Public Management had explained to the committee in prior sessions that most cities which have opted for a city manager system of government have done so as a result of a major crisis.
"It does not seem that our current system is broken, so I don't think that we should get rid of a system that's working," agreed David W. Murphy Jr.
The public hearing that preceded these determinations was the sixth meeting of the temporary committee, most of which have been devoted to taking input from current and former elected officials. Sparsely attended, only eight residents spoke, three of them officials who had already addressed the committee at previous meetings.
Jeff Hunt, who served on a previous charter committee in the 1990s, offered some background on the process of that effort, along with some general advice that the committee be mindful of separating the charter from issues which could more appropriately be dealt with through ordinances and city code.
"Some ideas may be better on the council level than the charter level," said Hunt. "The charter's supposed to be hard to change.... I hope you keep in mind that any changes to the charter should be widely supported, nearly unanimous, in order to make it through the process."
Some ideas may be better on the council level than the charter level.
— Jeff Hunt
Pittsfield resident Daniel Colello urged the committee to look closely at the tax impact on citizens before creating any new positions via charter revisions, either that of a city manager or the concept of an enhanced administrative assistant or "chief of staff" position created under the mayor. He also spoke out against compensation for School Committee members, an idea that has heretofore proved popular.
"Get a good look at the city, get a good luck at the positions in the city," said Colello. "I think it's time to justify those [existing] positions before we start spending more money and raising our taxes every year."
The committee was more split on the creation of a chief of staff position, with David Murphy, William Barry and Vicki Kane voting opposed, pending further deliberation.
A 9-0 vote was taken in favor of not specifying term limits for mayors. Currently, only 9 percent of charters in Massachusetts have term limits.
On the scant level of public input received so far, Kane encouraged any public watching to visit the city's website for documents and resources, and to email the committee's clerk through the charter page with any written input.
"We really hadn't vocalized any of our opinions," said Marchetti, who predicted that more input would likely be forthcoming as the committee began making its consensus known on some issues. "To date, we've just been gathering information."
"We will have another public hearing in due course," said Lapointe, pointing out that there is also an opportunity for brief public comment at the beginning of each meeting. The committee will convene again on Jan. 15.
Tags: charter review,


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Over the past two years, we've heard a lot about how the shuttle Columbia's seven astronauts died. But how did they live?
That part of the tragic tale is addressed in "Astronaut Diaries," an hourlong documentary premiering this weekend on the Discovery Science Channel. The show draws heavily on cassette upon cassette of home videos shot by Columbia crew member David Brown, a former circus clown and physician who was on his very first spaceflight.
In addition to his other talents, Brown was a budding filmmaker, and he made it his mission to show the months of training leading up to the Columbia mission in January 2003.
"He wanted to be able to distribute something via the astronauts," Brown's older brother, Doug, told The Washington Post. "When they'd go out to speak, this would be a way for them to have a tape about the training."
After the tragedy, Doug Brown and other members of the astronauts' families, along with expert commentators, helped the Discovery team sharpen the story chronicled in David Brown's hundreds of hours of videos — producing a candid look at seven men and women who first became a team, and ultimately became the heroes of an international tragedy.
The crew's lives and legacies are also the focus of a new book by space reporter Philip Chien, "Columbia: Final Voyage." Chien drew upon his own reporting from before, during and after the star-crossed mission, supplemented by the reminiscences of Doug Brown and other family members. A companion CD-ROM contains more than 1,000 photos, audio and video clips, as well as technical information about the Columbia mission.
"'Columbia: Final Voyage' is a look at the STS-107 mission," Chien said in an e-mail. "Not at the accident, but the mission and the people."
This report originally appeared as a Cosmic Log item on May 11, 2005.
© 2013 msnbc.com Reprints

subset: commoncrawl


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Story highlights
- Bal Thackeray founded Shiv Sena, a powerful political party
- The movement was founded to defend the Marathi people
- He was instrumental in having the name of Bombay changed to Mumbai
- Shiv Sena and PM Manmohan Singh appeal for calm
Bal Thackeray, a staunch advocate of Hindu nationalism in India and the leader of a political party that dominated the country's financial capital, died Saturday, his spokesman said.
The 86-year-old Thackeray was a charismatic founder and head of Shiv Sena, the nationalist movement most powerful in the city of Mumbai and the Maharashtra state.
Spokesman Rahul Narvekar said Thackeray died of cardiac arrest and his cremation will be held on Sunday.
Thackeray emerged in the 1960s as a populist leader for the Marathi people, who dominated Mumbai and the Maharashtra state.
Once a newspaper cartoonist, he rose to fame for defending Marathi interests as migrants from other communities streamed into the city, known at the time as Bombay.
The movement has immense political power in Mumbai, India's financial center and site of the legendary Bollywood film industry.
Its symbol is an orange flag, seen planted across Mumbai. Thackeray was instrumental in having the name of Bombay changed to Mumbai, a Marathi name.
And Thackeray had developed a reputation among many Indians as a bit of a godfather, revered by his followers but feared by others.
Over the years, the Shiv Sena movement grew in popularity across India as a Hindu nationalist movement.
Shiv Sena and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm after his death was announced, and authorities have deployed police officers across Mumbai in the wake of his death.
In a series of Twitter messages, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thackeray's leadership helped build Shiv Sena into a "formidable force" in Maharahstra.
"He was a consummate communicator whose stature in the politics of Maharashtra was unique," Singh said. "For him the interests of Maharashtra were particularly important and he always strived to inculcate a sense of pride in its people."


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MLB Notebook: Xander breaks one of Babe's records
In their seven-game loss to the Senators in the 1924 World Series, the New York Giants penciled in 18-year-old Freddie Lindstrom as their starting third baseman for all seven games. Lindstrom batted .333 for the series and contributed a pair of doubles.
In the 2003 postseason, 20-year-old Miguel Cabrera made a total of six starts at third base for the Marlins. In those games, he collected two doubles and two home runs and helped his club win the National League pennant.
In their seven-game loss to the Senators in the 1924 World Series, the New York Giants penciled in 18-year-old Freddie Lindstrom as their starting third baseman for all seven games. Lindstrom batted .333 for the series and contributed a pair of doubles.
In the 2003 postseason, 20-year-old Miguel Cabrera made a total of six starts at third base for the Marlins. In those games, he collected two doubles and two home runs and helped his club win the National League pennant.
Last year, Baltimore's Manny Machado -- another 20-year-old -- started at third base in the American League Wild Card Game and in all five of his club's contests in the AL Division Series. In his six starts, Machado tallied three hits, including a double and a home run.
Of all the men to start at third base in a postseason affair, those are the only three who did it at a younger age than that of the starting third baseman for the Red Sox in their AL Championship Series Game 5 tussle on Thursday night: 21-year-old Xander Bogaerts.
2013 ALCS: Red Sox at Tigers, Game 5
Engaged in the fourth one-run game of this series, the Red Sox defeated the Tigers, 4-3, and took a 3-2 lead in the series. The Red Sox had four extra-base hits in the game, with doubles from David Ross and Bogaerts, plus a double and a homer from Mike Napoli.
Napoli's blast traveled an estimated 460 feet -- the longest for any postseason long ball since Prince Fielder's 460-foot shot in Game 4 of the 2008 National League Division Series.
• Bogaerts, who collected his second double of this ALCS in a 1-for-3 night, was 21 years and 16 days old for Game 5, becoming the youngest Red Sox starter in a postseason game. The previous youngest was Babe Ruth, who took the mound at the age of 21 years and 246 days in Game 2 of the 1916 World Series.
With the two-base hit in this game, Bogaerts became one of six players to have multiple extra-base hits in a single LCS before their 22nd birthday. The Mets' Wayne Garrett (21 years old) had two doubles and a home run in the 1969 NLCS; the Giants' Chris Speier (21 years old) had a double and a home run in the '71 NLCS; the Mets' Gregg Jefferies (21 years old) had a pair of doubles in the 1988 NLCS; Cabrera (20 years old) had three home runs in the 2003 NLCS; and the D-Backs' Justin Upton (20 years old) had a double and a triple in the '07 NLCS.
• Boston got a pair of steals from Jacoby Ellsbury and another swipe from Dustin Pedroia. The three steals were the most for the Red Sox in a postseason game. Their previous high of two had been accomplished 12 times, most recently in Game 1 of this year's ALCS.
Entering the 2013 ALCS, Boston had two postseason series in the franchise's history in which they stole multiple bases in multiple games: the 1903 World Series and the 2013 ALDS. Ellsbury has six stolen bases in this year's playoffs. Rickey Henderson (11 in 1989) and Kenny Lofton (11 in 1995) share the single-postseason record.
Ellsbury has 15 hits, four walks, four RBIs and nine runs to go along with those six steals in the 2013 playoffs. The Boston leadoff hitter has had three games in which he has collected at least one stolen base and one RBI. Three other players have had three such playoff games from the leadoff spot: Lofton in 1995, Brady Anderson in '97 and Alfonso Soriano in 2003.
• Koji Uehara recorded his fourth save of the 2013 playoffs with 1 2/3 innings of perfect ball. In this postseason, Uehara has thrown eight innings over seven appearances and has allowed no walks, four hits and one run (the game-ending home run to the Rays' Jose Lobaton in Game 3 of the ALDS) while striking out 11.
Uehara now has three multiple-inning saves in this year's playoffs. Only three closers have had more in one postseason. Goose Gossage had six multi-inning saves for the Yankees in 1981, Mariano Rivera had five each year with the Yankees in '98, 2000 and 2003, and four each in 1999 and 2001, and Jonathan Papelbon had four with the Red Sox in '07. Nine other relievers have had as many as three multiple-inning saves in a playoff year.
• With a tape-measure homer highlighting his line, Napoli is one of 20 first basemen to have a postseason game with at least one homer, one double and a total of at least three hits. He's the third Red Sox player among the 20, joining Mo Vaughn (3-for-5, a double, two homers and seven RBIs in Game 1 of the 1998 ALDS) and Kevin Youkilis (3-for-5, a double and a homer in Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS).
• The Red Sox improved to 38-11 (.776) all-time when collecting at least four extra-base hits in a postseason game. The overall record for all teams in such games is 495-192 (.721).
• After going a combined 12-for-90 (.133) in the first three games of this ALCS, Red Sox batters were 22-for-75 (.293) the past two contests.
• The four games decided by one run in this ALCS tie it with 1997 for the most in any ALCS.
• Jon Lester (5 1/3 innings) and three relievers held the Tigers without an extra-base hit in the game. The most recent postseason game in which the Tigers had nothing but singles and won came on Oct. 5, 1984, when they defeated the Royals, 1-0, in Game 3 of the ALCS. Since then, Detroit has dropped seven straight when failing to collect any doubles, triples or homers.
• The Tigers had 10 singles in the game. Those 10 were the most the club has had in a postseason contest in which it also had no extra-base hits. In Game 1 of the 1907 World Series, the Tigers had nine hits -- all singles. The most hits without an extra-base hit for any club in a postseason game is 14, a mark shared by the White Sox in Game 2 of the 1917 World Series and the Orioles in Game 2 of the '71 World Series.
Roger Schlueter is senior researcher for MLB Productions.


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Coinsetter, a venture-backed bitcoin exchange and trading platform, announced Wednesday the availability of a new API for the Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol.
The New York City-based company, which was co-founded by former Wall Street veterans and promotes itself as "the only platform with Wall Street performance," believes its FIX API is crucial to supporting financial services professionals looking to access the bitcoin market.
"Well-built exchanges with low latency API connectivity for professional traders are of growing importance in creating a deeply liquid bitcoin market, which supports growth of the wider bitcoin industry," the company explained in a press release. "We believe that the feature we're announcing today is one of the most substantial industry milestones towards bringing bitcoin to large market makers, professional traders, and institutions."
Using the FIX API, those market markers, professional traders and institutions can connect their existing trading systems to Coinsetter. Once connected, they can access market data, such as Coinsetter's order book, and execute bitcoin trades through the Coinsetter exchange. The company's developer portal contains full documentation for the FIX API, and to assist with integration, Coinsetter provides a development sandbox.
Sometimes You Need More Than REST
Prior to launching its FIX API, Coinsetter offered REST and WebSockets APIs. But if bitcoin is ever to break into Wall Street in a major way, financial institutions are going to need to be able to tap into bitcoin markets with the same efficiency present in other markets and using the same trading systems that they've invested billions of dollars in.
In an industry where milliseconds can mean millions of dollars in gains or losses, REST and WebSockets aren't going to cut it. By launching a FIX API, which is used to trade trillions of dollars in securities every year and has the backing of some of the world's most important financial institutions, Coinsetter hopes that professionals will look at bitcoin differently. "We believe our FIX API is a reason for professional traders who have been waiting on the sidelines to become actively involved in bitcoin," the company stated.
While the demands of Wall Street might be higher than average, Coinsetter's decision to build an API for the FIX protocol serves as a good reminder that in some markets, it takes more than a REST API to drive adoption. Legacy and industry-specific protocols may not get much press or love, but in some cases supporting them can be crucial for API providers.


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Grim Prospects
Ever get the feeling something bad is about to happen?
You know, just a general, inexplicable feeling of foreboding?
And then people start giving you strange advice?
Or acting like they know something you don't?
Regret is a dish best served cold...
so two scoops of ice cream, please.
Sometimes it's just a subtle emphasis on a word, or an odd visual aid:
Other times it's more direct:
(I'd pay up if I were you, Patrice.)
Still, even if it's all in your head, it's good to know that some things, at least, are never a bad sign.
Right, Lucky?
Aw, don't look so Grimm, boy; we know you're not Sirius.
Thanks to Cindy S., Jena P., Monica S., Jennifer H., Meghan R., Alicia A., & Alisa B. for the Harry situation.
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