Resource of documents that serve to guide Pittsfield back to prosperity and put city government back in the business of caring and responsible stewardship.

City Government, Operations, and Organization

CRESAP REPORT

A Management Study Of The City Government, Cresap, McCormick, Paget. March, 1983

• Contents
• Introduction
• Executive Summary
• Organization
• Fire Department
• Public Works
• Department Of Public Buildings
• Leisure Services
• Health And Social Services
• Administration And Finance
• Police
• Plan Of Action

To understand Pittsfield entropy and poverty (does it reflect organizational challenge, corruption, broader environment/economic issues?), it should be helpful start at the beginning. Historical documents provide safe distance and clarity and allow for cooler determination of current affairs.

The Cresap management report was commissioned in 1983 to provide review and critique the city’s department design and operations. The first thing you will notice is that it is old, but it is an important document as it pertains to Pittsfield’s history. Further, it is worth studying as a model for independent organizational critique for municipal entities.

We need such a study today. Many of the departments reviewed still exist. Pittsfield is experiencing the unrelenting slide to a poverty most uncomfortable which envelopes the working poor and fixed income elderly, loss of industry, decimation of commerce, influx of homeless and narcotics, and a failed-city status of the city’s budgeting prospects, ineffective schools, and failed major infrastructure including roads, waste and sewer, and potable water which is undrinkable in at least one Ward 2 neighborhood.  Unaddressed, our situation will further decline.

It is clear that beyond forensic auditing, which discovers but not correct potential misuse and abuse of funds, Pittsfield needs an independently driven reorganization. Therefore, I submit per your suggestion the Cresap report as a starting place to provide inspiration for city leaders to do what they are elected to do which is lead. We cannot do so effectively without a framework to understand our challenges, and I believe a second comprehensive review would be the first of many steps needed in the redesign the city operations and government.

With the Charter up for review in 2023, we are late, but with the will, there is, hopefully, time.

PEDA

Small Business Grants

Electro Magnetic Applications (EMA) Grant , September, 2019. $140,000 Grant plus tax holiday awarded to company seeking space at the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC).