Attorney Asks Town for Probe of Zoning Board

Attorney William DiMento asked the town administrator and Board of Selectmen Tuesday night to investigate the Zoning Board of Appeals requirement that the condominium developers on the site pay $50,000 to the town for undetermined improvements on Humphrey Street.

Saying he “has no dog in (the Cap'n Jack's) fight,” DiMento called the fee “illegal” and “embarrassing.”

The zoning board last week voted four to one to approve the 15-unit condominium project where the Cap'n Jack's Inn stands on Humphrey Street now.

Prior to the vote, zoning board chairman Marc Kornitsky said, “It (the $50,000 payment) will help me get to a yes vote.” Without his vote, the project would not have been granted a special permit.

The fee was designed to mitigate any negative impact the large new condominium building might have on the neighborhood, zoning board members said.

DiMento, calling the selectmen's attention to Kornitsky's statement, cited a court decision involving the city of Boston and Emerson College that outlawed any payment required by a government body to gain a special building permit.

He asked the administrator Andrew Maylor and each of the selectmen if they had suggested to Kornitsky that the zoning board impose the $50,000 fee on Parturk, the condominium developers. Parturk is a partnership that includes Bruce Paradise and Barry Turkanis.

Maylor took offense at the suggestion that he or the selectmen had involved themselves in the zoning board's decision.

In a heated exchange, Maylor and DiMento debated whether DiMento had accused the selectmen and Maylor of acting improperly.

“Well, it came from somewhere,” DiMento said.

Maylor asked DiMento why the idea for the payment had to come from outside the zoning board. After the meeting, the administrator said the idea may have come from Kornitsky himself.

Each selectmen and Maylor said they had not talked with any zoning board member about the project.

“My vote is not for sale,” said board chairman Matthew Strauss.

DiMento said he was not suggesting that anyone is “putting money in their pocket.”

Maylor told DiMento that he should get the evidence before he makes any accusations.

DiMento disagreed, saying he is asking only if the top town officials knew about the $50,000 payment in advance of the zoning board hearing last week.

And he said he is asking that the administrator or the board conduct an investigation.

Strauss said the board would “do our due diligence.”

Maylor, who returned from Florida two days ago, said he would also look into it once he has a written decision from the zoning board.

Kornitsky has about two weeks to write and file the official decision. Maylor said he would listen to the tapes of the zoning board meeting.

ZBA board member Andrew Rose last week called the payment “extortion,” a word that he later said was ill-chosen.

DiMento said last week that Swampscott has enough money it does not need “its reputation sullied by this extortion.”

Paradise initially objected to the $50,000 payment, saying there was no plan for improvements to Humphrey Street. “There is nothing we could give the money to,” he said.

But after talking with Turkanis, he agreed to a revised proposal that the project contribute $3,333 per unit within 18 months of completing the residential units for a total of $50,000.

He said the project would make the donation voluntarily. The board appointed Paradise and Maylor and asked them to pick three others to form a five-person board to decide how to spend the $50,000.

Maylor said this week he learned about his role on the new committee from reading a news account.