WILMINGTON, MA — At Monday’s Selectmen Meeting, Chair Judy O’Connell allowed Selectman Mike McCoy an opportunity to respond to comments made against him by former Selectman Mike Newhouse at the May 23rd Selectmen meeting.
“You name the restaurant that comes in on Lowell Street, and he gets hammered. That’s how you use the weight of your office,” Newhouse told McCoy, during a heated discussion that stemmed from claims McCoy made alleging O’Connell and Newhouse threatened muscled Town Manager Hull during his 2015 contract negotiations over the mishandling of the Finance Committee appointment process.
“The difference is, when you’re using the weight of your office to effectuate change for the residents, that’s called hardball. That’s what people expect you to do, from time to time,” explain Newhouse. “When you use the weight of your office to try to engage in patronage hires or to gain some competitive advantage or to realize a personal financial gain, that’s just bullying.”
Newhouse suggested that while he always used the weight of his office for the betterment of the town, McCoy could not say the same. Newhouse advised interested parties to contact the former Town Manager, town officials and Board of Appeals members to verify that McCoy never tried to use his power improperly or in a bullying manner.
O’Connell invited Newhouse to Monday’s meeting as a courtesy so he would have the opportunity to respond to McCoy’s rebuttal. Ironically, Board of Appeals member Ed Loud, who would play an important role in McCoy’s rebuttal, happened to be in the audience at the meeting due to an earlier agenda item pertaining to an imminent Board of Appeals vacancy.
Below are five moments during the 35-minute discussion that were particularly wild:
#1) O’Connell tells McCoy she no longer respects him and hopes he gets voted out of office.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re a disingenuous human being,” Selectwoman Judy O’Connell said to Selectman Mike McCoy at the end of the discussion, noting that he never disclosed that he was going to blindside Board of Appeals member Ed Loud with personal attacks when he requested agenda time from her to rebut comments from former Selectman Mike Newhouse. “I will work with you, but I do not respect you or the conduct you’ve exhibited over the past several meetings.”
“As a resident,” O’Connell continued, “in the next election, if you do run, I hope the residents will have [paid attention to your conduct] over these past several months and make a change. That’s what I hope for.”
During the exchanges, O’Connell referred to McCoy’s recent behavior as “a vicious downward spiral;” stated he was acting like a “loose cannon;” and said he should be raising his personal grievances outside of Room 9 (where the Selectmen meet in Town Hall) rather than on the town’s time.
#2) Board of Appeals Member Ed Loud accuses McCoy of applying pressure to give some of his (then) restaurant’s competitors a hard time.
Board of Appeals member Ed Loud claimed that Selectman Mike McCoy pressured him into having the Town’s Building Inspector take action over a possible violation of a special permit regarding the number of parking spaces allowed in AJ Kitchen’s parking lot. AJ’s Kitchen is located on Lowell Street, near McCoy’s former restaurant.
Loud said he felt “uncomfortable” that McCoy contacted him directly, rather than Building Inspector Al Spaulding, who had the sole authority to enforce the special permit. Loud said McCoy reminded him who helped him get appointed to the Board of Appeals and, later, to the Yentile Farm Development Committee.
Loud also said McCoy brought complaints to him from an engineer about the septic system at AJ’s Kitchen when the restaurant was being built.
“You asked me to look into the concerns further,” Loud said to McCoy. “Do you remember that, Mike? I’ll bring it to the next meeting, because I still have all that paperwork.”
Loud also alluded to a request McCoy may have made when As Good As It Gets, another Lowell Street restaurant, was looking to open.
“Let’s talk about what you asked me to do when As Good As It Gets was coming in! We’ll talk about that one off-line,” promised Loud.
During the discussions, Loud called McCoy a “liar” or told him to “stop lying” approximately 10 times, often in a raised voice. Loud also claimed McCoy’s change in behavior since the Annual Town Meeting blindside was merely an attempt to “stay relevant.”
McCoy argued that Loud embellished the AJ’s story because he was angry with McCoy for asking the Town Manager’s Office to instruct Loud to write a letter to formally request reappointment to the Board of Appeals when his term expired last year.
McCoy also alleged that investigating the AJ’s parking permit issue was not his idea, but was first raised to him by an employee at West Springfield Auto after AJ Kitchen customers were parking in his lot. Loud responded that McCoy never mentioned West Springfield Auto in any of the conversations they had on the matter.
McCoy said he confronted Loud last year at his home after Loud shared these allegations against McCoy at the Board of Appeals meeting. McCoy again stressed the allegations were made in retaliation for McCoy requesting that Loud formally write a letter to the Town Manager’s Office to request reappointment. McCoy said he isn’t Harry Potter and doesn’t have an invisibility cloak, but did have a source on the Board of Appeals that was informing him of Loud’s anger over the letter request.
Loud countered by saying (1) the heated exchange between the two men happened over the phone, never at Loud’s home; (2) Loud only made the allegations against McCoy off-the-record after a meeting had ended, just when the Chair and Secretary were present; and (3) he never discussed McCoy’s request for a letter with his Board of Appeals colleagues.
#3) Newhouse Doubles Down On Suggestion That McCoy Used His Office To Improperly Influence Town Officials; McCoy Says Newhouse Is “Full Of Bull.”
“Of all people, you should not be accusing anybody of trying to use their influence as a public official,” former Selectman Mike Newhouse said to Selectman Mike McCoy, an observation he also made at the May 23rd Selectmen Meeting.
Newhouse asked McCoy directly if he ever used his influence to try to interfere in any permit that was before the Board of Appeals.
McCoy said “absolutely not.”
Newhouse asked McCoy if ever used his influence to have the police chief delay an investigation into a matter involving a Board of Appeals permit?
McCoy seemed taken back, responding “You seem to have all the answers. Why don’t you elaborate? You know everything.”
“I don’t remember everything, but I remember a lot of things,” shot back Newhouse.
McCoy changed the subject, asking Newhouse if he ever composed a letter to the editor “whacking the crap” out of him during one of his re-eleciton bids, but had someone else sign it.
Newhouse denied the claim, and added he would gladly write and sign a letter slamming McCoy today.
McCoy did not believe Newhouse’s denial, yelling that he was “full of bull.”
“How many more meetings am I going to have to come to [defend myself],” said an exasperated Newhouse, who noted he has had to take time away from his family and his son’s lacrosse team because – for a year – Selectman McCoy said and did nothing regarding his concerns and waited until Town Meeting, after Newhouse was no longer a Selectman, to attack him “out of the blue.”
McCoy responded that it would stop once Newhouse stopped telling half-lies and half-truths, to which Newhouse stated he stands by everything he has said at recent Selectmen meetings.
#4) McCoy Said Newhouse Is Exaggerating Claims Against Him; Newhouse Calls McCoy’s Argument “A Croc.”
Selectman Mike McCoy argued that former Selectman Mike Newhouse was misleading when, at the last Selectmen Meeting, Newhouse claimed McCoy gave a restaurant owner looking to open up a diner on Lowell Street an unnecessary hard time when he came in front of the board seeking a common victualer license in March.
“At the last meeting, Mr. Newhouse made a comment that I basically slammed a poor guy for about 15 minutes who was applying for a common vic. That’s not true,” said McCoy, who stressed his issue was with the developer.
McCoy urged residents to watch the footage from that meeting on WCTV. He noted Newhouse actually seemed to sympathize with him during the discussion, stating “I wasn’t privy to the conversation Mr. McCoy had, but if I felt someone had misled me, I’d be agitated about it too.”
What viewers will also see, however, is, as Newhouse claimed, McCoy taking nearly 15 minutes of the meeting to criticize the actions of the land owner, who was not present, over alleged conversations that happened three years ago. After McCoy finished, (then) Selectman Chair Mike Champoux, in the politiest way possible, even apologized to the diner owner and noted McCoy’s comments weren’t really relevant to the pending vote.
McCoy would ultimately abstain from the vote to grant the common victualer license.
“I [was] just trying to make that poor son of a gun who is trying to get a common victualer license [feel better] after having to sit through 10-15 minutes of ancient history for you, where you had some ax to grind with some guy who wasn’t even in the room,” recounted Newhouse.
“You spent a lot of time giving a hard time to a guy… and then you call it ‘the town’s business,” said a fired-up Newhouse. “To be doing that at a Selectmen’s meeting? What a croc!”
#5) Caira Says What We’re All Thinking — This Is Ridiculous!
After four consecutive meetings of Selectman McCoy looking to raise issues that his colleagues contend aren’t germane to town business and certainly aren’t in the best interest of the town, Selectman Kevin Caira had had enough.
“I don’t understand why Mr. McCoy keeps bring this up, over and over again,” said Caira. “I’m kinda fed up with it. I would agree with Mr. Newhouse about the comments Mr. McCoy said about [the developer back at the March meeting]. I thought it was a little bit too much as well.”
“And to attack Ed Loud is absolutely ludicrous,” said Caira, who serves with Loud on the Yentile Farm Development Committee. “He’s a great guy and one of the best, as is Mr. Newhouse.”
“I have absolutely no idea… why you’re bringing this up,” Caira said to McCoy. “It’s absolutely ridiculous!”
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s now done,” responded McCoy.
Watch the exchanges below, courtesy of Wilmington Community Television, beginning at 54:50 and lasting until 1:31:00.
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