JUST HOURS after the new City Council takes its oath of office this Tuesday, it will meet in Executive Session to discuss matters of potential litigation regarding an open meeting complaint, which could have a detrimental effect on the city’s position.
Nothing says “Welcome, Councilors!” or “Happy New Year!” like a potential lawsuit.
The potential litigation could be in reference to Councilor Erik Gitschier’s veiled statements during the Dec. 21 council meeting in which he challenged City Solicitor Corey Williams’ interpretation of Robert’s Rules regarding the tabling of motions. He further suggested that the city was vulnerable to lawsuits based on the process the council used to table the motions of embattled and criminally charged Councilor Corey Robinson.
“I’m just trying to protect the city from lawsuits,” Gitschier said. “You can’t repetitively go after people’s motions and table them.” He did not elaborate on who he thought would sue the city over this perceived violation.
The “potential” lawsuit language of the Executive Session also feels a bit, how does one say this delicately, as a kind of “potential” shake-down or “potential” threat. Is there a lawsuit or isn’t there? What exactly is the council potentially meeting about? Is this even legal? Don’t bother asking the City Solicitor since Gitschier, when he didn’t like the Law Department’s response – “we can agree to disagree” – suggested facts were open to opinion.
And where’s the cool and level head of Councilor John Drinkwater when you need him? Drinkwater’s last meeting was Dec. 21, during which Councilor Rita Mercier picked up on Gitschier’s thread and made a motion to take a roll call vote on allowing Robinson’s three posted motions to be heard, which Drinkwater called “speculative” and out of order.
“There are motions placed on the agenda,” he said. “As of right now there is nothing to suggest that these motions won’t be heard.”
Mercier, who has served on the City Council for 28 years, two of them as a former Mayor wielding the gavel as chair, withdrew her motion. When Robinson’s motions came before the council, Councilor Wayne Jenness made a motion to bundle them and they were unceremoniously voted down.
Take that, motion-to-table haters! Procedurally, Robinson, and his acolytes, were not only outplayed – without any potential lawsuits – but publicly humiliated for at least the third time.
A majority of councilors were sending a clear message to Robinson, one he didn’t heed when they asked him more than a month ago “to step aside from his position on the City Council pending the final outcome of (his) legal proceedings.”
In a case that has rocked the city’s political establishment, Robinson was arraigned in Lowell District Court on Nov. 16, for an incident that took place at the alleged victim’s Dracut residence, during which Robinson is alleged to have hit, chased, strangled and pulled out the victim’s hair. Unlike most “he said, she said” cases of domestic violence, this one features at least four witnesses, including an attorney known to the court, according to court documents.
Given his current domestic violence charges, Robinson is allegedly only in the humiliation-giving and not in the humiliation-taking business. But humiliation – and threats – seem to be the animating feature in the whole Robinson imbroglio, and the city’s business and its residents have all been taken hostage. And the body count just keeps rising.
For instance, following his arraignment, during which the first-term councilor was fitted with a GPS-tracking bracelet in lieu of incarceration, Robinson allegedly threatened several councilors not to sign the letter calling for him to step aside.
More alarmingly, the seasoned and someone-who-should-know-better Mercier stated on the council floor, for the public record, information she heard on WCAP 980AM in which Morning Show host Gerry Nutter read a letter allegedly from the victim stating Robinson’s innocence.
“In light of new developments such as what I heard on WCAP this afternoon, the charges against the accused from the victim who said, and I quote, ‘he is innocent of what he is accused,’” Mercier said.
The Sun did not receive a copy of this alleged letter from the alleged victim, which was widely posted on social media, and could not verify its provenance or authenticity.
When contacted by a Sun reporter, attorney Michael Najjar, who was mentioned in other outlets as a point of contact on the alleged statement, said by email that he saw the statement by text, which was not released by him, although he could verify that it came from a “real person involved in the Corey Robinson matter (and) was to dissuade efforts to track her down directly for verification … the person who issued the statement came to me after repeated articles in the Lowell Sun.”
Whew! That settles it. An unverified, unvetted and potentially (there’s that word, again) unsigned statement sent by text to an attorney not related to the case was released for public consumption to protect the victim.
In contrast, all The Sun’s reporting has been vetted and verified by pulling court documents from Robinson’s case file at Lowell District Court or by listening to the audio files of Robinsons’ three court proceedings – the real-time audio of the 911 calls the evening of Nov. 15, during the alleged assault, his 58A dangerousness hearing the morning of Nov. 16, his pretrial detention hearing that afternoon and his probationary/GPS fitting hearing on Nov. 17, following his overnight detention at Middlesex House of Correction, in Billerica.
In another baffling and disturbing development, Robinson’s public court file shows a document with the alleged victim’s name asking the court for a motion to “Impound and Redact” the councilor’s file.
That the alleged victim would file a document publicly outing herself after submitting a statement exonerating her “on-again/off-again” boyfriend through an unsigned document delivered through third-party cut-out operators via back channels to protect her identity defies common sense.
Is Turtleboy advising the crowd surrounding Robinson? “Turtleboy” is the blogging name of Aiden Kearney who is under indictment for charges related to witness intimidation in the Karen Read case. His bail was revoked last week after new charges of assault and battery and witness intimidation.
Robinson’s personal peril is imperiling the city’s reputation, business and good governance. Innocent or guilty, he is increasingly a distraction at a time when the city needs to focus on building a future Lowell for all.
For his own sake and for the sake of the city he claims to faithfully represent, it may be time to step aside.
Billerica awaits Town Center ruling
As with Lowell itself, 2023 was a busy year for many of the smaller towns in The Sun’s area of coverage.
Many stories came out of the town of Billerica throughout the year, but the most important story to come out of that town this year has inarguably been Part 2 of The Town Center Saga.
This story began building over the winter and spring of 2023, when Town Manager John Curran began making the pitch to residents and various boards and committees for a $20 million project to renovate Billerica’s town center. The renovations, Curran and others argued, would improve the overall flow of traffic while making the area safer for motorists and pedestrians alike. Despite what opponents of the project like Select Board members Michael Rosa and John Burrows claimed, Curran said repeatedly that the $20 million price tag would not result in a substantial increase in local taxes, as the funding would be provided through different sources.
The plan had support among some of the town’s elected bodies, and even received the endorsem*nts of Police Chief Roy Frost and Fire Chief Robert Cole, who both said that the plan would improve response times for emergency vehicles needing to pass through the town center to respond to a call. Funding for the project was narrowly supported by the Fall Town Meeting. Needing a two-thirds majority to pass, the article to approve funding for the project passed 126-61 during the Oct. 3 session.
It is at this point that a sense of Deja vu begins to fall on Billerica. In 2012, a similar article for a similar plan passed at Town Meeting, but it was shut down when a petition campaign led by George Simolaris successfully gathered enough signatures to bring the article to a town-wide ballot, where it was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters.
As Town Meeting representatives filed out of the Billerica Town Hall after the town center vote this time, it was clear a similar petition campaign was underway, with Simolaris again at the helm. That campaign would seemingly gather enough signatures to trigger another vote, with the Town Clerk’s office stopping their count at 2,299 signatures, 30% more than was required. Proponents of the petition have claimed that as many as 3,700 signatures were collected.
When the petition was brought to the Select Board Oct. 26, the agenda item said the board was to “Set Date and Vote For A Special Election – Town Center Referendum Petition from the 2023 Annual Fall Town Meeting, Article 14.” When it came time to vote, Burrows and Rosa voted to support the petition, while Select Board members Kim Conway, Andrew Deslaurier and Chair Michael Riley voted to reject it. Riley, Conway and Deslaurier said that they were rejecting the petition on the grounds that it was worded incorrectly, and it could not be safely assumed that those who signed the petition knew the actual meaning behind what they were signing.
The petition reads, “Petition to amend the action of the Representative Town Meeting, it voted to approve Article 14 of the Fall 2023 Town Warrant to the Billerica voters at large in order for final determination as to funding the New Town Center Plan,” followed by the full text of Article 14.
Simply put, the petition is worded in such a way that suggests that Town Meeting voted to send the article to the voters, when it simply voted to fund the project.
Regardless, the rejection of the petition angered opponents of the project, who argued that even some people that supported the project signed the petition because they wanted the voters to decide for themselves. This resulted in where we stand now in this story, which is in the courtroom.
A group that supported the petition filed a lawsuit against the Billerica Select Board seeking an injunction to cease any actions relating to the project, and a writ of mandamus compelling the Select Board to vote to set a date for a special election.
Middlesex Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggan heard the case in two hearings on Nov. 27 and Dec. 21. At the end of the Dec. 21 hearing, Haggan said he would come to a decision relatively quickly, but as of now that decision is expected to come down in the first weeks of 2024.
Drama in Tewksbury, Wilmington
In Tewksbury one of the biggest stories took place earlier in the year after voters at a special Town Meeting in October 2022 voted to reverse course and allow for recreational marijuana dispensaries to set up shop in town. When voters legalized marijuana in Massachusetts in 2016, towns were allowed to opt out of allowing dispensaries to open within their borders, but could not opt out of legal marijuana use being allowed.
Tewksbury was one of those towns, though after six years of legal weed, the first two of which the state went without any dispensaries, voters in Tewksbury decided perhaps that the devil’s lettuce is not all that bad, or perhaps they decided that if it is going to be legal anyway, the town should get some tax money out of it.
Regardless of any one voter’s motivations, the Town Meeting vote kicked off a process between the Planning Board and Select Board where the town then had to then decide which marijuana retailers would be given the three licenses that would be available in the town. What started as just a few local companies expressing interest turned into a much more involved process when at one point as many as nine businesses were competing for the three licenses.
That number dwindled all the way down to eight by the time the Select Board had to make the final decision July 18. Those eight were Sundaze, Full Harvest Moonz, The Stories Co., Community Care Collective, Bella Luna, Carbonear, Lazy River Products and Smyth Cannabis.
The Select Board went through each business one-by-one, and voted yes or no on providing each business with a license. After voting on all eight, only two received enough votes to get the green light: Smyth Cannabis and Lazy River Products. The board would later approve Host Community Agreements for each business.
One last available license remains for Tewksbury, which naturally has already seen interest from one of the previous applicants, Cannafords, Inc, and a newcomer, Route 133 Cannabis, LLC.
In Wilmington the biggest news item of the year was the retirement of Town Manager Jeff Hull, and the chaotic search for both his interim and permanent successor. Hull had been in Wilmington’s town administration since 1987, first as the Assistant Town Manager and then as Town Manager when he was appointed by the Select Board in 2012.
Hull had announced in June that he would retire Oct. 31, giving the Select Board a little more than four months to find somebody to fill the role in the interim while they took a longer time to decide on someone to serve permanently as Town Manager. As the date ticked closer, however, little progress was being made. The Select Board appointed a Town Manager Search Committee to spearhead the overall search with just two months to go before Hull’s departure, and by the committee’s first meeting questions remained over whether the committee or the Select Board itself should be leading the search for an interim manager if the committee will also be searching for someone to fill the role permanently.
Before that first meeting even, tense exchanges became commonplace on the Select Board in response to Assistant Town Manager Susan Inman submitting a letter of interest for the interim role, apparently at the request of the Select Board itself. Select Board member Kevin Caira had criticized Inman as a candidate for the role during a meeting over the summer, which resulted in him being admonished by Hull, and tensions between the two were palpable up to Hull’s final meeting on the job.
The search committee ultimately put the charge of finding an interim Town Manager onto the Select Board, who eventually settled on Building Director George Hooper. In another twist, however, Hooper afterwards withdrew his interest, leaving the Select Board again without an interim Town Manager named with less than a month until Hull’s retirement.
In Hooper’s stead, the Select Board voted 4-1 to name Veteran’s Services Director Louis Cimaglia as the interim role, in which he now serves while the search committee finds someone to fill the role in the long term.
Where to put the Winslow School?
THE TYNGSBORO SELECT BOARD is in for some “interesting conversations” as the new year begins, according to Town Manager Colin Loiselle. Those conversations will focus on the Winslow School and what is envisioned for its future.
Built in the 1890s, the Winslow School occupies pride of place in Tyngsboro, overlooking the Tyngsboro Bridge, the First Parish Meeting House, Old Town Hall and a memorial park.
As work was underway to create a town center around those structures, the old school was neglected. The last classes were held there more than 20 years ago and the building fell into disrepair. Conditions deteriorated despite the emotional ties long-time residents of town felt.
Occasionally, interest in the old clapboard building sparked but then died out. A year ago, the Select Board created a visioning committee and set a deadline of March 1 to present options for the school. That committee developed four options, including demolition.
But the town voted at the May Town Meeting to appropriate $1.5 million to preserve the center portion of the school, tear down two early 20th century additions and move the original portion of the building to a new foundation elsewhere on the property.
That vote also approved mothballing the structure pending a determination of its future use. And that is where things now stand. The town is still without a plan for how to use the building. In a separate vote, town meeting $250,000 to abate the lead and asbestos contaminating the land around the building.
Loiselle is advising the Select Board that at least a general, high-level direction should be developed before the $1.5 million is expended. And a plan not just for the building, but for the five acres of land it sits on. For example, a recreational use for the property would influence where the old school is moved; and its use as town offices might require a different location.
In a recent status report to the Select Board, Loiselle said the design architect for the project – SOCOTEC, a building design firm with offices throughout the country, including three in Eastern Massachusetts – has completed the “existing conditions phase of their design work and are now working on the schematic design phase.”
The project could go out to bid sometime this spring. But before the town gets to that point, Loiselle wants more clarity about the intended result.
This week’s Column was prepared by reporters Melanie Gilbert in Lowell; Peter Currier in Billerica, Tewksbury and Wilmington; and Prudence Brighton in Tyngsboro.
