PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Craig Gaetani's talk about saving the city millions of dollars on its water treatment plan will remain at open microphone.

On Tuesday, the City Council shot down a petition from Ward 2 Councilor Charles Kronick requesting that a public hearing be held to provide Gaetani the opportunity to explain the technology of the plant.

Kronick was the lone vote in favor and Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi abstained.

"I believe that the people of Pittsfield and this body, the City Council, should give him this opportunity," he said. "What are we afraid of?"

Councilors believed that allowing the public hearing would set a dangerous precedent for anyone proclaiming themselves an expert on a subject and that the information was just not useful at the time. It was pointed out that the resident is welcome to rent space at the library and hold his own public hearing.

Gaetani has a testy history with city officials and has been a regular at open microphone for several years. He is a former marketing director of Krofta Engineering and has said the city could save upward of $150 million by using that technology on its water treatment plant.

He is currently vying for the Ward 6 seat.

"I've come here for seven years. I've seen nobody else come up to talk to about flotation technology and what can be saved if we go with flotation technology," Gaetani said, adding that six of the incumbent "rubber stamp" councilors are responsible for the high costs of the water and sewer plants and should have listened to him because he is an expert on the matter.

In 2018, Gaetani and a representative from Prescott Clean Water presented to the public works subcommittee on new technology that they said was better for the environment, smaller in footprint, easily adaptable over time if newer standards are issued, and less costly.

Councilor at Large Earl Persip III pointed to the presentation, which was not of interest to a majority of the former council or Mayor Linda Tyer.

"We need to be careful about who is an expert since I haven't seen any documentation of Mr. Gaetani being an expert beside him up here telling us he's an expert," he said. "So I need to see some sort of proof that you're an expert. I can come up to City Council and say I'm an expert on rocket science. It doesn't make me an expert."

President Peter Marchetti pointed out that allowing the public hearing would be a slippery slope and said that it could be done privately without the council's involvement.

"Just based on what's on the agenda tonight, next month when somebody wants to have a public hearing about roundabouts and they want to give their explanation because they're an engineer about roundabouts, are we going down that slippery slope of creating a forum?" he asked.

Councilor at Large Peter White seconded his thought, expressing concern that it would set a bad precedent.

Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren believes that Gaetani has knowledge about the plant but pointed out that it is currently not being bid and has already been built.

"So therefore, we do not need a presentation at this time," he said. "When we decide to go out to bid his expertise will be valuable and he can come to speak to us but just to, in the middle of an election season, watch you make a presentation on something that's not going to be fixed doesn't make sense to me."

In his opening statements, Kronick acknowledged that the request comes during a campaign season with Gaetani on the ballot but pointed to the near decade that he has spent speaking on the topic.

Kronick unsuccessfully motioned to table the petition until the political season was over.

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