The Pittsfield, Massachusetts City Council is meeting Friday night — just before the city's books close at the end of the fiscal year.
Council President Peter Marchetti said the council has not met on a Friday night in the 16 years he's served on it.
The purpose of the special meeting, just before a holiday weekend, is to address some budgetary questions and commission reappointments. Those votes were held up at a council meeting Tuesday night by a charter objection from councilor Charles Kronick. The action is allowed under Pittsfield's city charter.
Mayor Linda Tyer's requests include a transfer and appropriation of $620,000 from certified free cash to the Department of Public Services for snow and ice removal and $850,000 to the Police Department for overtime, according to the council meeting agenda.
Marchetti said the request for funds was a typical "wrapping up" of loose ends in the budget process.
"If there was more communication happening, there might be less opposition to what, to me, is normal end-of-year stuff," he said.
The request for the funds comes a few weeks after the council had already approved the budget for the next fiscal year. Marchetti said if the council doesn't cover the bills now, it could lead to a tax increase.
But Kronick said the charter objection "prevents a situation that might have happened on Tuesday, where in a council is bullied into making — pressured into making — a quick decision, poorly informed, with insufficient information."
"It creates a pause," Kronick said, to learn more.
Since he raised the objection Tuesday, Kronick said, city departments are contacting councilors to explain their requests.
A year ago, Kronick also raised a charter objection, which put the brakes on a vote for the budget that began in July 2022.
Marchetti said a review of the city's charter is coming up. He wants the charter objection to be fine-tuned.
"I think there needs to be some criteria of when it can and can't be used," he said.
