Saugus exploring constable bylaw options

SAUGUS-Paul Minsky lucked out when the Board of Selectmen reappointed him as a constable.Selectmen Stephen Castinetti and Michael Kelleher have been putting together a procedure that would allow the board to track and most likely limit the number of constables working in town.Since Minsky lives in Swampscott, if he had not been reappointed Tuesday he may have lost his standing in town.Castinetti said Monday that the work is in the very preliminary stages.”We’ve done some research looking at how other communities handle the constable issue,” he said. “There seems to be a wide range of options.”There also seems to be a wide range of options on exactly what constables do.The constable issue for Saugus has been growing for the last two years. Kelleher said he wanted to deal with it head on because he felt there seemed to be much confusion over whether requests to be appointed or even reappointed as a constable should be or would be honored. He said he didn’t even know what to tell people when they asked.Nicola Nicosoia, who last year was named unofficial Town Constable, has been a constable for 45 years. He feels Selectmen should not appoint any more constables, at least not now.The town currently has roughly 24 constables, but Nicosia argues the town needs only three constables, or five at the most.Castinetti said he agrees that three or four constables would be plenty, and said he can’t imagine why everyone wants the job.”I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know why they do it.”Minsky said he does it because it’s his job. Minsky owns a constable business and does the work in four counties. He said he also has a number of people who work for him.But Castinetti said he has found others who don’t use the title at all and he speculates they simply like having the moniker attached to their name.In looking at other communities, Castinetti said there seems to be little rhyme or reason as to how or why constables are appointed.”I think we need to make a stand and decide how many we need,” he said. “I will lay out a procedure but it’s not my decision. It will be the board’s decision.”Castinetti said having a guide for approving requests would put the board in the position to manage the issue.In the meantime, both Castinetti and Kelleher said they would continue to reappoint constables as they appeared before the board because they felt it is only fair.”As we’ve looked at this, the idea is to create a fair playing field and it would not be fair to not reappoint since we’re still working on it,” Kelleher said.Castinetti said there is no deadline for he and Kelleher to make their report but he is shooting to finish his draft procedure sooner rather than later. w options