To the editor:

As a scientist and engineer, I always look for specifics as to why things are as they are. When you look at the backgrounds of the mayor and eight of the city councilors — Moon, Rivers, White, Krol, Marchetti, Caccamo, Persip and Simonelli — you do not find a scintilla of corporate or management experience or financial capability among them. It is imperative that the city's voters not send a vote to any of them in the upcoming election.

It is imperative that Pittsfield at some point in the future go to a city management form of government.

In the private sector, where I spent more than 40 years, boards of directors choose the most qualified candidates for all of their executive positions. In the city of Pittsfield, the miscreants who are elected are totally unqualified because they pander to the city's special interest groups. They get elected time and time again. We must break disastrous trends such as these or we will soon be facing bankruptcy.

What can we do in the meantime before we go to a city manager type of government? We can study the background of every individual running for office and weed out individuals who have no demonstrated capabilities to cast a vote on a $175 million budget. It is like choosing the lesser of evils but this is all we have to work with at present.

I have decided that I will run for Ward 6 councilor. My competitors are Dina Guiel, who is tied to the mayor's apron strings, Joe Nichols and Ed Carmel. I look forward to debates as I will dismantle them easily.

I am a decorated Vietnam veteran and an honors graduate from BCC and the former North Adams State College, with areas of concentration in chemistry and physics. I am a former high school teacher and adjunct professor of chemical, biological, and mechanical engineering at the Lenox Institute of Technology and Research. I was worldwide director of technology at Krofta Engineering and negotiated a water project in the 1980s that saved Pittsfield $116 million in capital investment costs and another $30 million in reduced water and sewer rates in the past 34 years.

You will see no lawn signs or 30-second advertisements from me. I have been providing information to you in communications to The Eagle and on PCTV, where I am starting the fourth year of my program. Do you want someone like me to be your Ward 6 councilor or any of the three other candidates? The choice is yours.

Craig Gaetani,

Pittsfield