Saugus selectmen go on defensive

SAUGUS – The four selectmen subject to a recall election banded together on Tuesday to publicly defend themselves against the efforts of Save Saugus PAC.The recall effort is in response to the board’s 4-1 vote to terminate former Town Manager Scott Crabtree last month. Selectman Debra Panetta cast the lone vote in favor of Crabtree and will not be included in the recall.Raising her voice, Chairman Ellen Faiella said that since the Sept. 15 hearing that began the process to terminate Crabtree, other selectmen have been threatened and called names by those supporting the recall.”I do not appreciate being threatened,” she said. “I find it intolerable, I find it disrespectful.”Faiella said the board has always voted with the town’s best interests in mind.”We have no hidden agendas,” she said. “Nothing has been hidden from anyone in this community.”Vice Chairman Maureen Dever called upon everyone, regardless of whom they support, to “please stop the personal attacks and character assassinations,” adding that Saugus could be much further ahead if all the negative energy were channeled toward the greater good.Selectman Stephen Castinetti said this has been the most assiduous board of selectmen he has ever worked with “and I’ve been on three of them.”Regarding the recall, he urged voters to have as much knowledge as possible before going to the polls. “Make that vote count because the future of this board depends on it,” he said.Faiella once again called attention to the $4,300 education incentive that she said Crabtree took without entitlement.”I am going to focus on that again,” she said. “Whether it’s $4,300 or $4, if it’s not yours, it doesn’t belong to you.”She said that the education incentive was not funded by Town Meeting. “It is nowhere in his (Crabtree’s) contract,” said Faiella.Selectman Paul Allan recalled the meeting of April 3, 2012 when the board at the time voted 5-0 to accept Crabtree’s job description. However, Allan said Crabtree claimed he never saw the document.Thereafter, Allan said the board was instructed not to discuss Crabtree’s job description as the town and the selectmen could be held liable. Allan did not say who rendered that directive.”To me, that backed us up against a wall,” he said. “If the former town manager truly cared about this town, he would have welcomed that job description with open arms.”Allan also called attention to the previous meeting when Information Technology Director James Rivers told the board that Crabtree had pressured him to delete documents that were public record.Allan said the sole purpose of Save Saugus has been to oust the four selectmen before other town employees come forward with similar reports.Resident Jeff Ciccolini arrived later in the meeting after watching from home.”I was quite offended by some of the comments that were made tonight,” he said, adding that the recall was the designated agenda item, not Crabtree.”Three-quarters of what I heard were about the former town manager,” he said.Ciccolini also said Allan and Castinetti had spoken in a “vindictive and deceitful tone.”In addition, he said the two selectmen did not have enough information to accurately say whether the problem goes beyond the instance that Rivers reported.”How can you can you make an assertion like that?” he asked.