O'Brien: Sweeney didn't pull permit
Published on August 9th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - A Dewitt Road resident recently discovered that Selectmen Chair Robert Sweeney constructed a deck at his Pleasant Street home without pulling a permit for the work.
According to Julie O'Brien, who complained to the town's Building Department about the unauthorized activity in recent weeks, she noticed the construction while walking around the area - which is located not far from her workplace.
The long-time Stoneham resident further charges that after learning that the home belonged to Sweeney, attempts to ascertain whether a permit was pulled for the project were stymied by Building Inspector John Luther, who allegedly claimed that he didn't know how to look-up the information in the computerized system.
"There's definitely no building permit because it's supposed to be posted on the front and sides of the house. And based on the lot, I think he probably should have gotten a variance. It's pretty close to the lot-line," O'Brien said in an interview on Tuesday.
On Tuesday evening, the Building Inspector confirmed that a building permit had not been pulled for any work at the Pleasant Street home. However, according to Luther, he never attempted to hide that fact.
According to the Building Inspector, he broke-off his conversation with the Dewitt Road resident when she began accusing him of being corrupt - telling Luther that she fully expected a back-dated permit to be slipped into Sweeney's file to cover-up the fact that no authorization was given for the work.
O'Brien, who does not dispute the Building Inspector's second contention, did predict that a back-dated permit would be issued for the deck. The Pleasant Street home's paperwork, reviewed by The Stoneham Independent on Tuesday afternoon, did not contain any applications or building permits for the deck in question.
Admitting that he was never issued permission from the Building Department for the construction, Sweeney vowed that he would submit an application this Wednesday morning.
According to the Selectmen Chair, who claims that he grabbed an application prior to commencing the deck construction, he wasn't sure how to fill out the form properly and sought help from the contractor.
"I have a patio in my back yard and I just put a small deck on top of it," acknowledged Sweeney. "I did get an application for a permit. I think the person doing the job didn't pull it."
"I really think that on the scope of what I'm dealing with, this permit is minute in the grand scheme of things," furthered the Selectmen Chair, referring to the small scale of the project. "But I will be turning in a building application first thing tomorrow morning."
Prior to 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Sweeney had submitted the paperwork for the deck as promised.
According to O'Brien, her biggest concern with the whole issue doesn't center upon the scale of the construction work, but rather with the fact that a Selectman had failed to properly utilize the system that town officials are responsible for overseeing.
Since elected officials often decide on the fate of such projects for ordinary citizens, the Stoneham resident argued, people like Sweeney need to be held to a higher standard, especially given the town's financial state.
"He sits on that board and pontificates to citizens about what's right and what's wrong. Yet, he doesn't even pull a building permit. I just think that's arrogant on his part," O'Brien admonished.
"I feel that when you're in that type of a situation, where you're voted in by the people, you especially should be following the rules," the Dewitt Road resident added. "We keep on hearing about how the town is going bankrupt and how we're in dire straights, and yet he can't spend $60 for a building permit."
Sharing the Stoneham resident's sentiments, Selectman newcomer Paul Rotondi strongly feels that town officials need to be held to a higher standard.
However, Rotondi, who admitted that he wasn't even sure whether a permit needed to be pulled for construction work like a deck, declined to comment specifically on Sweeney's deck without having first-hand details about the situation.
"I don't want to comment, because I'm not familiar with the circumstances. Quite frankly, I'm not even sure if you need a permit for a deck," the first-term Selectman said. "But in the grand scheme of things, elected officials have to do the same things that ordinary citizens do."
Although Rotondi felt uncomfortable commenting on his counterpart's situation, Selectman George Seibold jumped to the Chairman's defense, doubting that the veteran Selectman would ever deliberately perform a construction project without pulling a permit.
According to Seibold, while he's heard many stories of former Selectmen and town officials taking advantage of the system - tales he characterized as despicable - he considers Sweeney as one town father who leads by example.
"I know of people who have taken advantage, but Bobby's definitely not that type of a person. We're all under the microscope and we have to lead by example," Seibold said. "I think Bobby does just that. The last thing I can see him doing is trying to cut a corner to save $15 or $20 on a building permit."
Subscribe and get Home Delivery of The Independent
Save 36% off the newstand price — that's like 18 FREE issues!