Businesswoman accuses Pittsfield mayor of racially insensitive comments

PITTSFIELD – A businesswoman interested in relocating to The Berkshires has leveled allegations of racially insensitive comments against Mayor Daniel L. Bianchi, which the mayor strongly denies.

Doreen Wade is the publisher and CEO of the New England Informer, a monthly online news magazine.

“I call it a news magazine that uplifts educates and informs,” said Ms. Wade in comments to The Beacon.

Presently a resident of Medford, Mass., Ms. Wade is contemplating relocating to The Berkshires and bringing her news magazine with her.

She would also like to restart the print version of The Informer (which was discontinued when the publication made the jump to being online only in 2002) because she doesn’t see any publications directed at the minority community in The Berkshires.

“There is nothing there for the minority community,” said Ms. Wade.

With this in mind, Ms. Wade went to the City of Pittsfield to see if there were any grants specifically for black-owned businesses to relocate to the city and discovered there were none.

“I wanted to see if there was anything available for a black woman who would relocate and bring her business there,” she said.

After meeting with Ann Dobrowolski of the Pittsfield Office of Community Development, Ms. Wade had a meeting with Mayor Bianchi on April 3 at 11 a.m. to discuss the relocation of The Informer, as well as why there were no programs available specifically for black-owned businesses.

What happened at that meeting is currently disputed.

“It was all racially based,” said Ms. Wade.

Ms. Wade claimed when she asked Mayor Bianchi if Pittsfield had an affirmative action policy, he said it did not because Pittsfield is only seven percent African American.

She also alleged he said that black children aren’t graduating high school in Pittsfield because there are no black role models in the city. Furthermore, she said when she asked why Pittsfield City Hall didn’t have any black employees he said it was because there was a lack of qualified candidates.

Finally, Ms. Wade claimed Mayor Bianchi said he would not support an application from her business to get funding from the city’s PERC program.

“He said because, as far as he’s concerned, a black business would not survive here,” said Ms. Wade, referring to The Informer’s goal of branching out into a print publication aimed at the county’s minority community.

Ms. Wade said she left what was supposed to be an hour-long meeting after 25 minutes and was very upset. She then contacted William Singleton, president of The Berkshires’ chapter of the NAACP, and Churchill Cotton, Pittsfield city councilor-at-large, and relayed her experiences.

“The operative word here is allegedly,” said Mayor Bianchi in comments to The Beacon. “I don’t know how she could have misconstrued anything I said.”

Mayor Bianchi said after the April 3 meeting had finished, he thought it had gone well.

He denied saying Pittsfield doesn’t have an affirmative action policy, saying he told Ms. Wade that he didn’t know if the city had one and he learned later the city actually has an affirmative action policy posted on its website.

On the subject of black role models, Mayor Bianchi said what he told Ms. Wade was there aren’t enough black role models in Pittsfield and denies saying anything about black children not graduating from high school.

“It’s not like we discourage people from applying,” said Mayor Bianchi, when asked about the subject of black employment at city hall, also noting the city’s police chief is black. “It’s not as if we don’t encourage people to be part of our municipal community.”

Mayor Bianchi also denies saying that he would not support Ms. Wade’s application for PERC funding.

“What I said was, if she was doing a print-based medium in Pittsfield, the demographics might not support it,” said the mayor, who noted the prospects for an online publication were not bound by these demographic concerns.

After Ms. Wade spoke with Mr. Singleton and Councilor Cotton, another meeting was arranged between her and Mayor Bianchi on April 29. Mr. Singleton, Ms. Dobrowolski and the city’s director of administrative services, Mary McGinnis, also attended this meeting.

“I really thought he was going to apologize and make good,” said Ms. Wade.

She described this second meeting as “ugly” and said the mayor denied everything she described about their first meeting.

After this second meeting, Ms. McGinnis, who also owns Mary’s Carrot Cake, took Ms. Wade around to the SBA, the Chamber of Commerce Office, the Berkshire Visitor’s Bureau Office, an office with incubator spaces and BBE Office Interiors on North Street, an office furniture store.

Ms. Wade indicated to The Beacon she was pleased by this tour, which Mayor Bianchi told The Beacon he had arranged for.

She then spoke before a closed meeting of the Berkshire County chapter of the NAACP.

“Everybody expressed their concern about the description that she gave,” said Mr. Singleton, referring to her account of her dealings with the mayor. “But, we didn’t have Mayor Bianchi to hear his side.”

As such, Mr. Singleton has organized a delegation of the NAACP to meet with the mayor on this issue and will do so on Wednesday, May 22 at 1 p.m.

“Hopefully we can gain a better understanding of what happened after we meet with the mayor,” he said.

“It just seems as though…my comments are being unfairly interpreted,” said Mayor Bianchi.

“That was one of her opening comments to me,” said Mayor Bianchi, when told by The Beacon about Ms. Wade’s comments about black people not being valued in the City of Pittsfield. “I’ve never heard anybody…say that.”

He also said the city’s programs and resources were available to Ms. Wade to assist her in relocating her business.

“We’ve made our community development office available to her, and like anybody else, she can certainly avail herself to any of the services,” he said.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on May 16, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry