Saugus charter upsets Meeting members

SAUGUS – Should the newly proposed town charter be approved by the voters in November any town employees seated on Town Meeting would have to give up their seats, and many are not happy about the prospect.Public Works employee Michael Dockery represents Precinct 10 on Town Meeting. He also has four children working their way through the public school system.”I’m a homeowner and a taxpayer and I feel it’s my right to be able to serve on Town Meeting,” he said.His boss agrees.Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato has sat on Town Meeting for years and said if the charter passes he would fight for his right to continue to sit on Town Meeting.”According to the government of the United States and the constitution you have the right to run for office no matter what your job is as long as you’re not a felon,” he said.Police Lt. Stephen Sweezey said he could understand where residents might believe there was a conflict of interest but he added there isn’t one.”At the same time 89 percent of the voters know what I do for a living,” said the long serving Meeting member. “If they thought I was doing something unethical, something to line my own pockets then I would think they wouldn’t vote for me.”Charter Commission Chairman Peter Manoogian said the issue boils down to meeting one piece of what the board felt was important criteria for the proposed charter, eliminating conflict of interest for all elected positions, not just Town Meeting members.Manoogian said the National Civic League model for charters, which has been around since 1964, includes standard language that precludes town employees from running for elections.”The idea is nothing new,” he said. “Plenty of other communities have it, Saugus is the exception.”Attubato said he has no doubt there are groups in Town Meeting that have agendas but he doesn’t believe town departments are among them. He also said people sometimes forget that town employees offer a different perspective.”They sometimes have a better view of what’s going on during Town Meeting because they’re in it every day,” he said.Sweezey said the town also has a long history of town employees serving through Town Meeting and other volunteer efforts.”Take me out of the equation,” he said. “Many, many employees have volunteered endless hours to make the town better for everybody going back for the last 50 years.”Sweezey called the proposal to keep town employees out of elected positions a smoke screen and a red herring.”They are baiting the taxpayers into thinking that there is something wrong,” he said. “I’m not going to fight with (the commission), I wouldn’t take away from the work they’ve done . . . but I have a different perspective.”Dockery also wondered if anyone on the Charter Commission planned to run for any of the seats created by the new charter if it is approved.”It would seem self-serving to me,” he said.He said he was asked by a commission member why he wouldn’t want them to run since they know the new charter so well but Dockery likened it to restructuring a company. He said it would be as if he went into a company, rehabbed the operation and in doing so made himself president.Manoogian called the argument apples and oranges and said there was nothing self-serving regarding their proposal or their conduct.Manoogian said the attitudes of Dockery, Attubato nor Sweezey surprise him because he knows they do not support the charter changes in any fashion.”I would hope they would look at the whole product and not make this a personal issue,” he said.