Fate of Saugus club left in limbo

SAUGUS – The Board of Selectmen deadlocked over whether to hold a show cause hearing on Tabu Ultra Lounge and Nightclub so it did nothing.The club was called in for a show cause hearing based on a number of violent incidents that have taken place inside and outside the club over the last six months.When the hearing opened, however, Police Chief Domenic DiMella asked board members to continue the hearing for six months. DiMella said he had met with the club owner and worked out several new security measures. He said he felt confident the security measures would solve the club’s problems and he wanted to give the plan six months to see how it played out.The new measures included expanding the number of security personnel on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, adding police details in the parking lot on Fridays and Saturdays and eventually adding two additional cameras. DiMella said the owners also agreed to brighten the lights inside the club so the cameras could pick up better images and they agreed to hang on to the tapes for a total of 16 days rather than 10.While selectmen Peter Rossetti and Stephen Castinetti, who led the meeting supported DiMella, selectmen Michael Kelleher and Stephen Horlick did not.Horlick said when the new owners first took over the club the board was assured that all the violent incidents that plagued the club in the past would be just that, in the past.”I said I didn’t believe that someone with no experience could run the club without incident and here we are,” he said.DiMella said he would never diminish the violent incidents that have taken place.”What I want to do is put the club on notice,” he said. “This is a last ditch attempt to solve the problems that have been plaguing the club for years.”Ira Zaleznik, Special Counsel for the town said he too supported DiMella’s request. He also reminded the board there was nothing that prohibited them from calling the club in if there was another incident before the six months was up.Kelleher said he appreciated DiMella’s work but thought the club should still take suspension. He even asked club owner Joe Louis if he would consider a voluntary suspension but his attorney Frank Russell declined on his client’s behalf.Rossetti called DiMella the expert on the issue and said he would support the chief as such.”I wholeheartedly support the chief,” Kelleher said. “My comment is not a lack of support, it just has more teeth.”Kelleher’s motion for a three-day suspension failed 3-1 but a call to support the chief’s recommendation and continue the hearing also failed, 2-2.While Horlick announced the tie meant the hearing was on Kelleher said not so fast and even Zaleznik said he was unsure what the vote meant.What he was sure of he said, however, was that if the hearing was going to be held it couldn’t be held then because there were no witnesses to testify or documentation to consider.”Two to two is ambiguous,” he said. “It doesn’t pass or fail. There would have to be at least some resolution by a majority of the board to proceed.”While Rossetti said the hearing could result in an expensive, drawn out affair, Kelleher said that is exactly what he was hoping to avoid with a suspension.The hearing was continued to an unspecified date.