Saugus selectmen approve warrant article

SAUGUS – The Board of Selectmen backed a request to put a $75,000 article on the warrant for the next special Town Meeting despite a low blow lobbed at Town Manager Andrew Bisignani.Selectman Stephen Horlick requested the article, which seeks a $75,000 appropriation for the Youth and Recreation Department to be placed on the warrant. The funding, he said would be to restore programs that address the drug problem facing youths in town.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani asked him to reconsider, which led to Horlick questioning Bisignani’s job sincerity due to his residency.Horlick said if the town of Nahant was faced with an issue concerning a drug problem with its youth Bisignani would never speak against it.”You wouldn’t speak out against where you live,” he said before Chairman Donald Wong brought the gavel down on him.While Wong admonished Horlick to stick to the issue at hand Horlick kept going.”If you have an issue in your house you take care of it,” he said. “This is our backyard and we should take care of it.”Bisignani called the remark hurtful, offensive and unfair.”That is the second time someone has made a remark about how not living in town may skew my decisions,” he said following the meeting. “Where I live has no bearing on my commitment and my ability to do my job. I give 100 percent to my job.”Bisignani said during the meeting that he wouldn’t support the request because the town simply couldn’t afford it. He said he planned to give the Youth and Recreation Department $25,000 in the budget for fiscal year 2010 but he had nothing to give them now.”I support the effort . . . but this is the year we’re hoping to regain financial stability,” he said. “We have to prioritize and we have obligations we’ve already budgeted for and to request $75,000 would put a strain on our resources.”Horlick argued that the issue should be debated on the floor of Town Meeting.”If Town Meeting doesn’t want to vote it or wants to reduce the amount then fine,” he said. “I support all of your articles even though you don’t give them to us on time. I’m asking for the same courtesy.”Horlick’s colleagues did not necessarily agree with his attack on Bisignani but did support his request.Selectman Michael Kelleher said the board never failed to place an article requested by a colleague on the warrant. Technically, however, he is wrong. Last year Horlick was forced to go out and seek 100 signatures to get an article seeking an audit on the town’s landfill account on the warrant because his colleagues twice shot down his request.”Let Town Meeting debate it,” Kelleher said. “I’m not saying I’m for or against it just let it be debated on the Town Meeting floor.””Seventy-five thousand is a large chunk of money and it’s money that will have to come at the expense of some other service,” Bisignani said.