Saugus selectman seeks new strategy for nightclubs

SAUGUS – Selectman Michael Kelleher said he believes the situation with the town’s nightclubs has come to a head and it’s time for a quantum change.Board members voted Tuesday to reopen a full blown show cause hearing on Tabu Ultra Lounge and Nightclub due to a series of violent skirmishes that have taken place mostly outside the club. Tabu, however, is just one of a number of clubs that are being lined up for a scolding and quite possibly more.The board will hold a show cause hearing on Jin, the Asian restaurant complex on Route 1 north regarding a New Year’s Eve brawl that took Saugus, State Police and officers from three other communities to quell. Kelleher said he also plans to call a show cause for Hooters on Tuesday.Hooters is under investigation for allegedly serving a minor. It is still unclear whether the boy produced a fake identification or not.Kelleher said people are under the impression that the board must wait until the incident has been fully investigated before a hearing can be called.”I want to and I’m sure the board wants to hear from Hooter’s about what happened,” he said.Oasis Restaurant was also in trouble and had a pending show cause hearing but it closed after a fire. Then the club’s liquor license expired in December. Kelleher said he believes the owners will be seeking a new license.”The board will have to decide how it will deal with that,” he said.As for dealing with the clubs, Kelleher said he’d like to review the town’s liquor rules and regulations to see how the board can mandate a more expeditious hearing and to set standard actions for specific incidents.Selectman Stephen Horlick all but laughed at the idea.”We can act immediately now,” he said. “There can be one incident and we could call a show cause hearing on our own.”But, Horlick added, the board rarely ever does that.Horlick said his frustration often lies with his colleagues. On more than one occasion Horlick has asked for a show cause hearing only to be voted down in favor of a more lenient attitude of trying to work things out.Just last May Horlick, along with Kelleher, sought to call a show cause hearing for Tabu because they felt the number of incidents at the club were escalating. Then Police Chief James MacKay, however, said he didn’t think club security was an issue and Selectman Peter Rossetti and Stephen Castinetti sided with him killing the hearing.Horlick, howeverm, does agree with Kelleher on the idea of setting mandatory actions for specific violations. He said he has asked the city of Lynn for a copy of its liquor rules and regulations because he believes it has specifics laid out.He said he also plans to ask the Attorney General’s office if the town is forced to send all on-duty cruisers to an incident could the town then bill the license holder for the personnel.Rossetti agrees that coming down harder on the clubs might be a deterrent but like Horlick he doesn’t think that requires a look-see at the rules and regulations. Rossetti sat on the board when it last revisited the rules and it was by all accounts a long and arduous project.Castinetti said he echoes Kelleher’s frustration but he doesn’t believe there are more incidents today than int he past.”It is scary but in all honesty I don’t feel it’s any worse today than it was 20 years ago,” he said adding, “but the warfare has change.”Brawlers are coming up with guns and knives where they used to use fists and Castinetti admitted he doesn’t know how to stop that.”But you will always have fights,” he added. “You mix alcohol with young people and I think violence will always exist to some degree.”