SAUGUS — During a Monday morning meeting at which Town Manager Scott Crabtree was set to deliver a quarterly update on numerous town projects, he and Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Cogliano repeatedly butted heads over the way the town has approached welcoming marijuana dispensaries.
Crabtree brought the marijuana issue forward only to caution the board against politicizing the process, which he said had resulted in disparaging comments being made to town employees who were part of the Marijuana Establishment Review Committee that compiled a report on the seven companies seeking to open in town based on their responses to a request for information issued by the town.
“These are delicate situations,” Crabtree said, adding that members of the board discussing the performance of town employees would be akin to a School Committee member publicly discussing the performance of an individual teacher. “It puts us in a tough position, but I don’t know if everybody understands that.”
“They have reputations, they’re professionals,” Crabtree added. “The board needs to understand that there’s politics and then there’s people that are employees that have their own reputation, and that’s what they’re concerned about.”
In doing so, Crabtree opened the door for harsh criticism of the report from Cogliano, who said he was “bewildered” by some of the scores assigned to companies after having conducted visits to some of their facilities. Cogliano was particularly critical of Uma Flowers — the unanimous top recommendation of the committee — saying he believed they have the worst location in town and that he was unimpressed with their facility in Pepperell.
And, he said, he would continue to question the results of the report — regardless of the consequences.
“I think there was ill intent in the report, someone takes that the wrong way, that’s too damn bad,” he said. “I got elected to represent the people and I don’t think that report is just. I think it was flawed, and I have no problems standing my ground on that report.”
Cogliano said during the second night of the selectmen’s marathon hearings earlier this month on the S-2 permit applications submitted by the companies that he felt people he is friends with who were participating in the process had gotten short shrift because of their connections to him.
While Cogliano did file disclosures with the town clerk’s office regarding his relationships with Medi Mirnasiri, who owns 173 Main St., the property leased by Olde World Remedies; Ray Falite, the co-owner and CEO of Bostica; and Sal Palumbo, who owns the property leased by Triple M at 1393 Broadway, he has maintained his vote will not be swayed by his personal relationships. Copies of the forms obtained by The Item reveal closer ties than Cogliano had previously revealed — including that his family rents space from Palumbo and that he had paid Falite for HVAC work done on his behalf in the past.
With Board member Jeff Cicolini having already recused himself from the process due to a conflict of interest stemming from the fact that his accounting firm does business with one of the companies, Cogliano serves as a critical fourth vote for any company seeking an S-2 permit. While the S-2 permit does not guarantee the final granting of a license, companies cannot open their doors in Saugus without one — a fact Cogliano acknowledged Monday.
“At the end of the day it needs all four votes, we’ll probably never end up with a marijuana place in Saugus,” Cogliano said.
Cogliano primarily pressed Crabtree on the subject of the report, and was particularly frustrated by the lack of an opportunity for board members to ask the committee questions about the report’s contents and Crabtree not attending the hearings earlier this month.
But, for his part, Crabtree said it would be “completely inappropriate” for him or other members of the committee, which included public-safety officials and town department heads, to talk with the selectmen about the report.
The report was “separate and distinct” from the S-2 permitting process the board has undertaken this fall, Crabtree said. The RFI process is governed by the office of the inspector general. As a result, Crabtree and other committee members are limited in what they can discuss publicly — particularly, they cannot discuss material submitted to the board outside of the RFI, which many companies did in the wake of the report’s issuance.
“We have to do certain things that are legal under a process,” Crabtree said, noting that the report was not issued as recommendations to the selectmen, but to the manager.
Cicolini suggested that the board seek updated recommendations from town officials as it typically does for an S-2 permit process, noting that in his nine years on the board, he has never voted against the recommendations submitted by town officials. While Crabtree suggested they likely could not do so because of their service on the committee, Cicolini still indicated that the board should consider the report as guidance from town department heads.
But, it wasn’t enough for Cogliano, who said Crabtree would have held undue sway over the process and suggested the recommendations were not the true opinions of committee members.
“How many S-2 permits come before us that (Crabtree) asks for the opinion of? There’s a difference, there’s a big difference,” Cogliano said. “It’s a different process because these people all answer to you. Every single one of those people answers to you, if you want this one, this one, or this one, that’s what you’re going to get.”
That comment prompted an objection from the board’s vice chair, Debra Panetta, who said she disagreed, adding that the recommendations represented those officials lending their expertise.
The discussion represents a microcosm of Cogliano’s ongoing frustration with Crabtree, who answers to the Board of Selectmen but is given wide license under the town’s charter to perform executive functions. That frustration perhaps in part motivated Cogliano’s petition drive to get charter change on the ballot this fall, with his proposal centering on the idea of an elected town manager — a post he said he would run for if given the opportunity.
