Wilmington Selectman: Town Manager Is 'A Sneaky Little Weasel'

WILMINGTON, MA -- The Wilmington Town Clerk ruled Friday that the 649 signatures collected to force a special town meeting to consider changing the laws on where drug treatment facilities could be located in town were invalid. The group, led by Selectmen Michael McCoy, has already started collecting new signatures. Meanwhile, McCoy blamed Town Manager Jeffrey Hull for trying to do "damage control" in publicizing the paperwork snafu that led to the invalidation of the signatures.

"What this tells me is that the town manager is nothing more than a sneaky little weasel trying to do damage control," McCoy said Monday. "He is absolutely, without a doubt, in the tank doing everything he can do derail a citizen driven special town meeting."

Hull said he was taken aback by McCoy's comments, as the selectman was"very cordial" towards him during the Friday meeting that prompted McCoy's Monday-morning press release. In an email, Hull said people who signed the petition would not have known whether or not the proposed bylaw changes would be discussed and voted on at Town Meeting or at a special town meeting.

"Regardless of who the petitioners are or the nature of the petition one of my responsibilities is to see that the procedure for calling a special town meeting conforms to state law and local bylaw," Hull said.

McCoy said he and Ed Coughlin , another backer of the petition, met with Hull and Town Clerk Sharon George Friday morning. At the meeting, George told McCoy and Coughlin that she had given the group the wrong paperwork. McCoy said the group had been given paperwork for the regular Town Meeting, not a special town meeting. He said George was visibly upset and that she said she took full responsibility for the snafu.

McCoy said before having volunteers spend two weekends collecting signatures earlier this month, he had George look over the wording of the proposed warrant. George, who could not be reached for comment Monday, said the wording looked okay, McCoy said. McCoy said Hull said little at the Friday morning meeting but then told two news outlets that the petitioner had made several errors beyond using the wrong form to collect the 200 signatures they needed to call a special town meeting. "That is a flat out lie," he said of Hull's comments to the Lowell Sun and the Wilmington Apple.

But Hull said he only provided fats to the two news outlets.

"Those facts are that the petitioners did not provide notice in their petition that they were seeking to hold a special town meeting. The petition article that was presented was simply an article seeking to change zoning with no instruction as to whether it was intended to be addressed at a special town meeting or an annual town meeting," Hull said. "While there has been much talk by some residents interested in holding a special town meeting, that intention needed to be expressed in writing as part of the petition that residents were being asked to sign based upon the legal opinion of Town Counsel."

The group wants a special town meeting to consider a new zoning bylaw that would change the town's bylaws to limit drug treatment facilities to areas of town zoned "general industrial." The group is made up of residents that had opposed a plan to build a detox center at 362 Middlesex Avenue and collected 649 signatures, well above the 200 needed to call a special town meeting.

The next step would have been for selectmen to schedule the town meeting; the new rules would require 2/3rds majority approval of town meeting. McCoy said the group has already started collecting signatures on the proper form.

While the project's backers have seemed to cool to the site at 362 Middlesex Avenue and are considering other options, McCoy is seemingly hoping to avoid a repeat of the debate that split Wilmington residents and officials. On one side are residents who argue that the a 48-bed detox center is needed in Wilmington, which, like dozens of other Massachusetts towns, is facing an opioid epidemic. Wilmington Police have responded to 40 reported overdoses so far this year. On the other are North Wilmington residents who live near the lot and have raised concerns about the quality of live and the impact on property values, as well as questions about the proposal's backers.

The possibility of a special town meeting came up at the Selectmen's meeting on October 10, when McCoy first suggested a special town meeting to consider the bylaw changes. The meeting would cost the town between $7,500 and $8,000, which McCoy said would be "money well spent...This will give a comfort level to folks who will be able to sleep easy at night."

This is a breaking news story. Wilmington Patch will update this story as more details become available.

More on this story:

• Wilmington Detox Center Opponents Force Town Meeting: Report (10/27/2017)
• Wilmington Official Who Would Decide Fate Of Detox Center Calls Drug Addicted 'Junkies'(10/16/2017)
• Wilmington Detox Facility Backers Considering Other Sites For Controversial Proposal (10/10/2017)
• Residents Start Petition Opposing Wilmington Detox Facility Proposal (10/5/2017)
• Who Are The Other Partners Behind The Wilmington Detox Center Proposal? (10/4/2017)
• Lead Backer Pulls Out Of Group That Wants To Build Wilmington Drug Addiction Treatment Facility(9/27/2017)
• More Questions, Concerns Raised About Wilmington Detox Facility Backer, Proposal (9/27/2017)

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).