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Speak at the next Pittsfield City Council meeting to protect youth voice in this city and to prevent a proposal putting an age requirement for serving on the School Committee from moving forward!

When: Tuesday June 13th @ 6pm (come early to sign up)
Where: City Hall Council Chambers, 70 Allen Street

The City Council will continue to discuss a proposal amending the City Charter to implement term limits for office and requiring School Committee members be of 30 years of age.

This proposal will harm youth voice in the city in a time where it is desperately needed!

Though this proposal has a long ways to go before even being enacted, stopping it now is the best way to ensure youth voices no longer remain on the chopping block in this city!

Ask the City Council to file this petition instead of referring it to the Charter Review Committee for consideration!

Unfortunately due to a class I am taking at BCC I am not able to attend the next city council meeting to speak during public comment. However, I have sent all City Councilor’s an emailed copy of what I would have said at the meeting, which you can find here.

Information about the Petition

June 13th, 2023 City Council Meeting (Petition on page 19 – 23)

May 24th, 2023 City Council Meeting Recording (discussion on the petition at 1:39:00)

My Prior Statement to the City Council

iBerkshires Article on the Petition and Deliberation at the Last City Council Meeting

Good evening members of the City Council,

I’m William Garrity, I reside at 64 Alcove Street in Pittsfield, and I am a 19 year old candidate for School Committee. I’m here speaking on item number 15 regarding amending the City Charter to implement term limits and “rotation” of elected officials. I am recommending that the City Council file this proposal instead of referring it to the Charter Review Committee.

I believe this is a problematic proposal that will lead to instability in city government. By design this proposal would make it so that all elected positions on the city council and the school committee would change between elections, which would lead to mass instability in leadership between terms. There is a reason why the surrounding towns around us have staggered terms for office, as that allows for a more smooth transition if the whole composition of an elected body changes. 

I also believe this proposal would not solve the problem that it is supposed to solve, limiting incumbency in office, as it does not limit how many non-consecutive terms elected officials can serve. In fact it could lead to a situation where there are still a set of incumbents in office, though which set of incumbents flips back and forth every term.

And this amendment also contains a proposal to require that school committee members be of the age of 30 years or older in order to serve on the school committee. Nevermind the fact that this proposal doesn’t contain an age limit for mayor or city council, I am against any measure to put an age requirement for running for any office in the city of Pittsfield. In a time where young people in Pittsfield are leaving, Pittsfield should be attracting young people back to this city. By putting an age limit for office, the city would be implying that it does not care about the voices of young people like me in this city. How would this implicit statement help to keep and attract young people to this city in a time where it is very much needed for our future?

For these reasons, I believe this petition should be filed and not be referred to the Charter Review Committee as I feel it would not be the most effective use of the committee’s time deliberating over this problematic petition that would not even solve the stated problems it is supposed to fix.

Thank you.

I am officially announcing that today I am “soft launching” my campaign for a seat on the Pittsfield School Committee, and I have pulled my nomination papers!

During my term as a student representative to the Pittsfield School Committee, I made a great impact on the role of student representative and how influential that role can be in improving the school experience for all the students in the Pittsfield Public Schools. After I graduated I intended to stay involved with the district, and I decided the best way to stay involved would be to run for a seat on the Pittsfield School Committee.

I am running on a platform that puts the needs of our students first. As a recent former student of the school system, I believe I can bring a unique perspective to the table to improve the Pittsfield Public Schools for all of our students. I am also running on a platform to increase transparency and accountability in the district, while also maintaining the School Committee’s reputation of positively working together to bring change to the school system, even if we all don’t agree on the best path forward. And I am running on a platform to ensure that all of our staff earns a livable wage and to build trust between our teaching and support staff and district administration.

Over the coming weeks I will be preparing for a full campaign launch including a release of my full platform and ways to help support my campaign. In the meantime if you have any questions, want to sign my nomination papers, or want to get involved with my campaign feel free to reach out using my contact information below!

Contact Information:

Email (Prefered): william.garrity@wgarrity.com

Phone: (413) 329-9556

Twitter: @wgarrity_ma

Facebook: William Garrity for Pittsfield School Committee

Instagram: @wgarrity_ma