Opposition to Saugus charter continues to mount

SAUGUS – Selectman Stephen Castinetti is calling on the Charter Commission to take a dose of its own medicine.Castinetti said if elected officials have to wait a year before seeking or accepting employment with the town, as is proposed in the new charter, then members of the Charter Commission should have to wait at least one year before seeking an elected position.He argues that as the architects of the proposed charter it would otherwise appear self-serving.Commission member Karla de Steuben said that idea is offensive.”It offends me that people are calling volunteers who are giving up their free time self-serving,” she said.De Steuben said if she truly wanted to be self-serving, there were probably easier ways to do it than giving up 100 hours to meetings and research to draft a new charter. She also pointed out that while some members might in fact seek election under the new charter if it is approved, they would still have to get elected.De Steuben said the reason for preventing town employees from holding elected offices was simple. First, she said it was to eliminate any conflict of interests. If approved the proposed charter would be covered by the state Ethics Board, which would hold the town to state conflict of interest laws.Secondly, she said, it boils down to one word: perception.De Steuben, along with Commission Chairman Peter Manoogian, said that a number of residents who spoke during public forums on the charter said they didn’t approve of town employees serving on Town Meeting because they voted their own budgets, which, to them, does not look good.De Steuben was quick to add that she personally doesn’t believe there was anything untoward going on, but said she couldn’t deny that there is public perception that there could be.Firefighter and Town Meeting member Jeff Moses couldn’t have disagreed more.”If town employees have so much influence over the budget why am I not making $100,000?” he asked.Moses said when he campaigns for his seat he tells people in his precinct that he’s a firefighter. He said if people had issues with him being a town employee they wouldn’t have voted for him and wouldn’t continue to vote him in year after year.”You’re questioning people’s ability to vote,” he said.Moses said he believes there are enough checks and balances in place to mitigate a small number of people who vote on their own budgets by virtue of voting on the town budget as a whole.”It’s a 50 person board,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get money swayed.”Moses explained that if he wanted additional money for the Fire Department he would have to pinpoint exactly where the money would come from within the budget then get two-thirds of his fellow meeting members to agree to it.”It’s crazy,” he said. “It’s just not that simple.”De Steuben said it comes down to doing what is best for the town and if the perception is there, “Why have it? Why not remove any perceived wrongdoing?”I understand the frustration of people that have served and want to serve,” she said. “There is nothing that prevents them from serving on any of the volunteer boards or supporting a candidate. They just shouldn’t be voting on their own budgets.”