Saugus board scorned for Crabtree dismissal

SAUGUS – Following the Board of Selectmen’s vote to dismiss Town Manager Scott Crabtree on Monday night, some residents and Town Meeting members on Tuesday vowed to seek a recall vote against the board.This comes on the heels of a 4-1 vote by the selectmen to begin the termination process against Crabtree and to place him on three-month suspension with pay.Under the Town Charter, an affidavit describing the recall must receive 250 voter signatures before any action can be taken against the selectmen.”I haven’t seen this since the 1980s,” said Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian of Precinct 10. “There’s a lot of politics here.”Manoogian, a Crabtree supporter, said that the board has also compromised the town’s request for state funding for a new high school. He said that Sen. Thomas McGee, D-Lynn, will be in Saugus today to discuss the plans for the project, however, “there will be no town manager present.”In a letter Monday to Selectman Debra Panetta (prior to the board meeting), Town Counsel John Vasapolli wrote that the board should have given advanced public notice of a separate meeting to discuss and approve the preliminary resolution that lists nine allegations against Crabtree.”The Board of Selectmen cannot, in my opinion, take any action to suspend or remove the town manager as the board has not given proper notice of a meeting to consider the adoption of a preliminary resolution,” he said in his letter.Vasapolli added that this is required under both the Open Meeting Law and Article 2 Section 11 of the Town Charter.Manoogian agreed Tuesday that Crabtree should have been privy to the preliminary resolution prior to the meeting.”This has been their style all along,” Manoogian said of the selectmen. “Obviously, they wanted to employ the elements of shock and surprise.”Town Meeting member Al DiNardo of Precinct 4 said the town was beginning to regain its financial stability and removing Crabtree will cost taxpayers upward of $500,000.”I don’t know how people are going to support an override with this roller coaster we’re on,” he said.Under the current circumstances, Manoogian said it is not likely that Crabtree will return to his town manager position as the board is planning to add to its list of allegations.”It would take a Market Basket-like campaign for him to overcome this,” Manoogian said.