North Adams City Council Will Seat Victor Early
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The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a recommendation by council President Alan Marden to more swiftly fill the seat left vacant by former Councilor Clark H. Billings through the general election on Nov. 3.
Fifteen candidates, including eight incumbents, are vying for the seats handed to the top nine vote-getters. The newest councilor will be the non-incumbent polling the most votes. Any other new councilors will be sworn in at the first of the year with any incumbents re-elected.
Councilor Gailanne Cariddi said she had been approached by a couple people who didn't want to run but were interested in filling in until the new council was elected.
"I thought it should be that the voting public should fill the seat," said Cariddi. "I think that the public is served best by a full council."
Councilor Ronald Boucher agreed: "If you have a 4-4 vote it's essentially no vote."
Marden said there are only three meetings before the election, and another three afterward. The council is usually sworn in the first week of January.
Billings resigned his seat effective Aug. 29, the same date he retired from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He hadn't attended a meeting since May.
The council also accepted a communication from Susan Chilson, president of the North Adams Teachers Association, stating the city had not lived up to the council's desire for open dialogue over the festering health insurance issue.
Chilson, speaking as a representative of the North Adams Public Health Insurance Committee (created by the city's three unions last year in anticipation of joining the state's Group Insurance Commission), said the committee had had one meeting with the city's attorney that went nowhere.
The unions allege the city has been underfunding its self-insurance plan by more than a $1 million over the past few years, effectively raising the raising the employees' premium above 30 percent. Mayor John Barrett III rejected the allegations raised at a City Council meeting in July.
Chilson said the unions wish to see the current state of the so-called insurance trust fund to determine if the city is meeting its obligations.
The council also gave approved the second reading of an order authorizing the mayor to borrow $680,000 toward a school feasibility study.
