USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1916-1955 > Part 21
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Early in 1955, serving his 8th year in office, Mayor Robert T. Capeless announced his decision not to run for re-election. To succeed him, five candidates entered the lists. The October primaries narrowed the field to two. The highest vote went to John J. Dwyer, a Pittsfield-born attorney, who, as a Democrat, had represented the 5th Berkshire District in the state legisla- ture from 1950 through 1954. The runner-up was Harvey E.
*Chief recommendations of the Jacobs Report are listed on pages 248-249.
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Lake, a GE specialist in production statistics, who was serving his 14th year on the City Council.
At the November election, contrary to general expectations, Councilman Lake won the mayoralty by a 1,726 majority. He had the distinction of being the first councilman ever to be elected as mayor, the first candidate for mayor ever to win after losing the primary, the first GE employee in Pittsfield chosen to be the city's chief executive.
At the same election, the question of raising the salaries of the mayor and the councilmen-a matter under discussion for years-was placed before the voters. One proposal was to raise the mayor's salary from $5,000 to $9,000 a year; the other, to increase councilmen's salaries from $300 to $750 a year. Both were adopted.
Everybody agreed that the new mayor would face formidable problems in view of the recommendations submitted several weeks before the election by the Capital Outlay Committee. Again, as so many times before, Pittsfield was suffering from the pangs of "progress." It needed all kinds of improved and additional facilities-schools, water supply, roads, sewage, fire protection, better public transportation.
The Committee recommended an immediate outlay of almost $4,700,000 to meet the city's basic and pressing needs- $3,685,000 for public works, $500,000 for schools, and $500,000 for a new City Hall, with the work on all of these projects to start in 1956. The cost of them would add about $2.25 to the tax rate, not a pleasant prospect. Nor was this all. The Committee pointed to the need of spending as much as $10,000,000 in long-range improvements by 1960.
Still, as the year 1955 closed, Pittsfield had no cause to com- plain. The city was prosperous and moving ahead. The various departments of the GE plant at Morningside reported high pro- duction and sales, and predicted even better business during 1956. Other local industries were flourishing. In December 1955, the average wage of Pittsfield production workers reached an all-time high of $90.73 a week, the third highest in the state.
All of this stimulated retail buying and the building of new
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houses at an unprecedented rate, especially in the outlying areas to the southeast and northeast, but in other directions as well. The city proper was rapidly expanding beyond its once rather narrow confines as people sought and could afford to pay for sun, air, light, quiet, lawns, gardens, and the great personal satisfaction and security of having houses of their own, no matter how heavily mortgaged.
But however prosperous it might be and whatever its accom- plishments, Pittsfield knew that many serious questions re- mained unsolved. It was confident that, in time, it could solve these as it had similar problems in the past.
As Pittsfield approached its bicentenary in 1961, it could look back upon almost two centuries of solid achievement in all fields-economic, social, political, cultural, and religious-con- fident of its ability to meet whatever challenges might come in the years ahead.
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XII
Government
F FROM THE BEGINNING, Pittsfield has enjoyed, for the most part, an unusual measure of good responsible government. It has been remarkably free of corruption and scandal. Perhaps the chief reason is that the community has always had a strong civic pride and taken an active interest in its public affairs, large and small. In such a community, corruption, carelessness, and incompetence have little chance to take root.
Settled as Pontoosuc Plantation, the community had a pro- prietary government until 1761, when it was incorporated as a town and renamed Pittsfield. As in all old New England towns, the center of government was the annual town meeting at which the voters appeared in person to decide on the proposals before them and to elect officers-in particular, the selectmen, who were the chief executives.
Pittsfield's board of selectmen consisted of three members, who divided administrative duties among themselves in the way they thought best. As the office paid no salary, administration of public affairs was necessarily a part-time job for the select- men, who devoted most of their thought and energies to their private concerns.
This system continued in Pittsfield for 130 years, down to 1891. Meantime, the population had grown from some 400 to more than 17,000. The old town government obviously did not fit a community of that size with its increasing complexity of
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needs and problems. Pittsfield voted in 1890 to incorporate itself as a city.
The new charter provided for a mayor and two legislative bodies-a Board of Aldermen of seven members, one elected in each of the seven wards; and a Common Council of fourteen members, two from each ward. The term of office for all of these was one year. A School Committee of fourteen members, two elected in each ward, was established. The members held office for two years, but not all were elected at once. Their terms were staggered so that only seven were elected at a time.
The old autonomous Fire District covering just the center of the city was abolished. Its buildings and apparatus passed to a new city fire department, with George W. Branch as the first chief. A paid staff of regular firemen was recruited. Previously, fire-fighting had been done by volunteer companies.
The police department was reorganized and enlarged, with John Nicholson as chief. The other larger departments were placed in charge of boards or commissions, usually consisting of three members. Frequent changes in the boards did not promote efficiency. Still, the new city charter, whatever its defects, gave the community a better instrument of government than it had had.
In 1916, at a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the city's incorporation, Charles E. Hibbard, who had been the city's first mayor, took occasion to point out the many inadequacies of the 1891 charter, declaring that it was already obsolete.
Authority and responsibility were too diffused for efficient and economical administration. In matters of policy and ex- penditures, the mayor, the councilmen, and the aldermen were often at loggerheads, which caused delay and confusion. There were too many elected officials, almost down to dog-catcher. Officers should be elected for two years instead of one.
Many others levelled criticisms at the charter, urging an im- mediate change. But this question was not to be resolved for some years yet. In 1927, however, elections were made biennial instead of annual. This assured greater continuity of policy and
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administration, and did away with the expense and rather need- less diversions of an election every fall.
In 1934, having been submitted to the voters and adopted by a large majority, a new city charter went into effect, and has been little changed since. The charter provided for elections every two years and stipulated that all candidates should run on a nonpartisan basis, without party label, on the ground that "Democrat" or "Republican" meant little in municipal affairs.
Abolishing the old Board of Aldermen and the Common Council, the charter substituted a single City Council of eleven members-one elected by each of the seven wards, and four elected at large on a city-wide basis. The School Committee was reduced from fourteen to seven members, one from each of the wards, to serve staggered four-year terms. The number of elective officers was drastically reduced, the city clerk being the only other elected official.
The three-member boards which had been directing such larger departments as Public Works, Public Welfare, and Pub- lic Health were abolished. Each of these departments was placed under a single commissioner, appointed by the mayor with the approval of the City Council. All other department heads and chief officials were similarly appointed with the ex- ception of the city solicitor, whom the mayor named with or without the City Council's approval. The mayor could remove any appointees if the majority of the Council agreed.
In addition to his large appointive powers, the mayor could veto the acts of the City Council. To override the mayor's veto, a vote of at least eight of the Council's eleven members was required. Under this "strong mayor" form of government, the powers of the Council were further restricted. It was empow- ered to reduce, but not to increase, the appropriations asked by the mayor in his annual budget or in supplementary requests.
In 1944, the city created a permanent committee to study and make annual recommendations on non-recurring expenditures for permanent improvements such as building new schools, reservoirs, and other large projects. Known as the Capital Out- lay Committee, it is composed ex-officio of the city auditor, the
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president of the City Council, and the members of the Planning Board.
The first Planning Board was appointed in 1913. Like Rip Van Winkle, it slept a long time, waking up occasionally to make brief reports-in 1919, 1923, and 1930.
As a result of studies made by the Board and others, Pitts- field adopted its first zoning legislation in 1927 after rather gen- eral complaints that the city was being "marred, damaged, scarred, and hurt" by indiscriminate building construction and fly-by-night real estate developments. The original zoning ordi- nances were modified as circumstances warranted down to 1953 when a major revision was adopted, based upon a master blue- print drawn by Harold M. Lewis of New York City, consultant to the Planning Board.
In 1953 zoning regulations divided the city into fourteen "use" districts. These were divided into three main categories- residential, commercial, and manufacturing. Areas where light industry and heavy industry might be established were defined. The areas where two-family houses might be built were re- stricted. The ordinance decreed that in all future building, whether residential or non-residential, off-street parking had to be provided.
For purposes of study, the Planning Board divided the city into twenty-three proposed neighborhoods, each to have its schools, its center of stores, and other concentrated facilities. Studies of three of the proposed neighborhoods have been com- pleted, and more are under way.
The municipality has long followed the practice of calling upon active and qualified private citizens to serve on special commissions appointed to study and make recommendations on important problems and projects. These commissions have often been authorized to engage professional experts to assist them in their deliberations by making surveys and proposals for action.
Among such commissions in recent years have been the School Survey Commission (1948), the School Building Com- mission (1950), the Fire Survey Commission (1948), the Fire
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Department Building Commission (1950), and the Traffic Survey Commission (1952).
Feeling that municipal operations and administrative struc- ture might be improved, the city engaged a public administra- tion consulting firm, the J. L. Jacobs Company of Chicago, to conduct a survey and make recommendations. Submitted in November 1955, the Jacobs Report urged wide and rather dras- tic changes.
It recommended a four-year term for the mayor and the mem- bers of the City Council to insure "continuity in administration required for more effective management." Pittsfield should have a full-time mayor, or city manager, to be paid a salary of $12,000 a year. When the report was submitted, the mayor's salary was $5,000 a year. But at the municipal election a few days later, the voters adopted a proposal to raise his salary to $9,000, and the salaries of councilmen from $300 to $750 a year.
The report recommended a sweeping reorganization of the city departments to reduce their number from 22 to eight. One of the eight would be a newly-created Department of Adminis- tration and Finance. This would unite in one integrated opera- tion the offices of the city auditor, treasurer, assessors, tax col- lector, city clerk (no longer to be elected, but appointed by the mayor), licensing, and voters' registration.
A new central purchasing division would be added to the Department. All accounting and bookkeeping now done in the separate departments would be centralized in the auditor's office. The assessors' office, instead of being in charge of a board of three, would be directed by one person, who would be assisted by two civil service deputies.
The other of the eight departments would be Public Works, which would take over the maintenance of all public buildings and grounds, except parks; Health, which would furnish and arrange for all required public medical services; Police, which would add a new division composed of the inspectors of build- ings, wiring, and plumbing, and the sealer of weights and
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measures; Welfare, Fire, Parks and Recreation, and Veterans' Service.
Of the "highest possible priority," said the report, should be the building of a new City Hall. The small old building on Park Square was quite inadequate for present purposes and pre- cluded efficient administration.
Also, there should be an upgrading and reclassification of all personnel. The level of starting salaries and of maximum salaries in all grades, from top to bottom, should be increased. The report found that the salaries of municipal office workers were average for a city of Pittsfield's size, but that the pay of administrators and of laborers was comparatively low. The per capita cost of city government, the survey revealed, was $130.18, about average for comparable communities in the state.
An exhaustive study and a well-reasoned document, the Jacobs Report aroused wide interest and lively discussion in favor and against. As the year 1955 ended, no action had been taken on any of its major proposals.
Following are the histories of the municipality's chief agencies and larger departments since 1915, with two exceptions. The School Department and the Berkshire Athenaeum (city library) are discussed in other chapters.
City Clerk and Treasurer
Under the present charter the city clerk, as remarked before, is one of the two executive officials-the other being the mayor -elected by the voters at large. His term runs for two years. Previously, the city clerk had been elected jointly by the Board of Aldermen and the Common Council for a three-year term.
Since 1950, the city clerk has also served as city treasurer by appointment of the mayor. While the legal identity of the two departments has been preserved, they operate as one under city ordinance.
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The first city clerk elected under the charter in force since 1934 was Harold F. Goggins, who served until 1943, when he was succeeded by the present city clerk, John J. Fitzgerald.
The city clerk has the usual duties of the office, the most im- portant of which is the keeping of official city records and vital statistics on such matters as births, marriages, and deaths. He is ex-officio the clerk of the City Council and responsible for transmitting to the proper officials the decisions taken by the Council and the mayor.
The system of keeping records and vital statistics in the office was completely renovated and modernized as a WPA project in 1939 and 1940, which was of the greatest help during World War II and since. There have been increasing requests for copies of records, especially birth certificates to prove age and citizenship for military service, and in questions of dependents' allotments and defense employment.
It is also the city clerk's duty to conduct elections by making arrangements for polling places, providing equipment, training election officers, and determining and posting the official results of elections.
Voting machines were first used in the city in 1941, when twelve rented machines were tried in Ward 2. The experiment proved to be so satisfactory that a purchasing program was started the next year. In 1946, Pittsfield became the first city in the Commonwealth to vote entirely by machine.
Curiously, one of the first companies making such machines, the Triumph Voting Machine Company, established itself in Pittsfield in 1904, moving its operations ten years later to Jamestown, New York.
City Solicitor
As City Solicitor Paul A. Tamburello remarked in the city's Annual Report for 1954-55, the work of his office serves "to drive home the fundamental fact that the city is governed by laws, and not by men."
The solicitor's office is the city's law department. It appears in court as the city's legal representative. It is called upon to
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draft innumerable orders and ordinances. It is called upon to interpret such orders and ordinances, and other questions of law. Department heads turn to it for counsel on legal points arising in their field of operations. When an issue arises, the solicitor or his assistant file opinions on a great variety of sub- jects, ranging from "disposal of city-owned property, both real and personal," to "conducting an antique show on Sunday."
As previously observed, the City Solicitor is appointed by the mayor. Unlike other department heads, however, he does not have to have for his appointment the approval of a majority of the City Council.
Public Works
Among other duties, the Department of Public Works has charge of the city's water-works, streets, sidewalks, bridges, drains, gutters, catch basins, sewers, and the collection and disposal of garbage and trash. From 1916 to 1934 its activities were directed by a Board of Public Works of three members, elected by the voters at large.
Between 1916 and the onset of the Depression in 1930, the city's rapid growth severely taxed the department's ability to provide water mains, sewage disposal, streets, and other nec- essary public facilities for the increased population. The Public Works budget, which had been $478,500 in 1916, rose to more than $1,000,000 in 1930.
In this period, motor vehicles replaced most of the depart- ment's teams and wagons. In 1926, the department bought its first heavy tractor snow-plows-four of them-and soon added a snow-loader. It built a new municipal garage and yard on West Housatonic Street, still in use. It widened the West Housatonic railroad underpass near by, greatly reducing traffic hazards at that point. In 1928, to help relieve growing unem- ployment, it spent $15,000 to grade the city dump, hiring "idle men with families" who were rotated on the job.
The next year, for the first time since 1914, water had to be pumped from Onota Lake to relieve an acute shortage. Pittsfield has always been rather wasteful of water. Every year since 1891,
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the installation of water meters has been recommended-a question still being debated.
During the 1930s, with business bad and tax revenues de- clining, the department had its budget slashed, which greatly reduced its regular working staff. But much maintenance and construction work was accomplished by using the unemployed on the local and Federal relief rolls.
Pittsfield's drinking water was chlorinated in 1934 as advised by the State Health Department. Three large permanent im- provements were constructed, with Federal grants supplying almost half the cost-the Sand Wash Brook Reservoir, adding more than 250,000,000 gallons to the city's water supply; a large addition to the sewage treatment plant; three new bridges on Pomeroy and Columbus avenues and Lakeway Drive.
Under the charter that went into force in 1934, the old three- member annually-elected Board of Public Works was abolished and the department placed under a single commissioner, ap- pointed by the mayor with the approval of the City Council. The first commissioner, Arthur B. Farnham, remained in office till 1940, when he was succeeded by Leon H. Reed, who had been deputy commissioner.
World War II brought a curtailment of activities because of the acute shortage of labor and materials. Not much more than maintenance of existing facilities could be accomplished, though water and sewer lines were extended. A firm of consulting en- gineers was asked to review its 1931 report on the city's water problems.
Submitted in 1944, this revised report laid out a plan for water resources development designed to match both the needs and pocketbooks of the taxpayers. The report stressed the ad- visability of installing water meters to prevent wastage, for Pittsfield's consumption of water-7,360,000 gallons a day- was far higher than for most cities of its size. In 1945, water from Onota Lake, an auxiliary supply, had to be pumped into the system for nine months of the year.
After World War II, though labor and materials were still in short supply, it was possible to undertake new large public
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works. Some were constructed under private contract. A special Board of Water Commissioners, with William A. Whittlesey 2nd as chairman, was appointed by Mayor Fallon in 1945 to direct the building of the Cleveland Brook reservoir, the biggest water project ever undertaken by the city.
Completed in 1950, the reservoir held 1.5 billion gallons, more than all of the city's other reservoirs combined, assuring the community-for the present, at least-an ample water sup- ply. This allowed beautiful Onota Lake, no longer needed as an auxiliary supply, to be used once again for its proper pur- poses of recreation and sport.
A large new $500,000 incinerator was completed in 1948. It had long been the function of Public Works to collect garbage. Now the department was delegated to collect burnable rubbish and food containers, creating a new Sanitation Division to do this work.
The incinerator proved to be very expensive to run and keep in repair. Tests proved that a much cheaper and more efficient way of disposal was by the land-fill method. The city now uses this method almost entirely, so that its new incinerator stands a bleak monument to "Progress." Some have suggested convert- ing it to make black-top for use on Pittsfield's streets and roads.
In 1954, through the efforts of the local Civil Defense agency, the department was equipped with radio, which is used to direct vehicles, saving time on the road and increasing the efficiency of operations.
The post-war commissioners of Public Works have been Can- field S. Dickie (1946-47), Archibald K. Sloper (1948-49), Robert L. Mclellan (1950-52), and Morris E. Lundberg, who resigned early in 1956 to enter private business, being succeed- ed by a career man in the department, John F. Daniels.
Public Health
In Pittsfield, as throughout the nation, the development of modern medicine, especially after World War I, has focused increasing attention upon matters of public health and sanita- tion. It has emphasized the importance of preventive measures
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to minimize the incidence and spread of disease. Immunization against more diseases was developed by the discovery of new vaccines and other means. New and stricter sanitary codes were written and enforced. Infant mortality decreased, as did the deaths of women in childbirth. Certain communicable dis- eases like diphtheria, once a scourge, had all but disappeared by 1955.
In 1916, the city's public health work was carried on by a clerk, a nurse, and a part-time sanitary inspector under the direction of a Board of Health of three members. The depart- ment was chiefly concerned with routine checking for possible sanitary code violations, inspection of slaughtered animals, and the control of tuberculosis through the registration of cases and the hospitalization of those for whom such care could not be provided by private means.
The severe influenza epidemic that broke out late in 1918 and swept the country claimed some 400 lives in Pittsfield within a few weeks and sent 10,000 or more to their beds with more or less serious infections. All ordinary health and medical facilities and services, both public and private, were overwhelmed by the demands made upon them. Much of the care for the stricken had to be performed by volunteers, and Pittsfield's response to the call for volunteers was exceptional.
The crisis made the city realize that it had no proper health department to deal with such an emergency. As a consequence, it engaged Dr. A. L. Stone, trained at the Harvard School of Public Health, to establish a modern health department. San- itary inspectors were placed upon a full-time Civil Service basis. A full-time inspector of slaughtering was employed. The nurses of the School Department were transferred to the Health De- partment, and their duties were soon extended to include care of the children in the parochial schools.
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