Peabody City Council Regular Meeting and Legal Affairs Subcommittee - December 11, 2025
Peabody City Council Regular Meeting and Legal Affairs Subcommittee - December 11, 2025
The Peabody City Council convened on December 11, 2025, first in the Legal Affairs Subcommittee and then for the regular City Council meeting. The subcommittee reviewed a home rule petition and a land sale request; both items were later approved by the full council. The regular meeting included appointments to city boards, a hearing on a junk dealer's license (later withdrawn), approval of numerous 2026 license renewals, and farewell remarks to three departing councilors. All votes were unanimous unless noted.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Joel Whitman (abutting property owner at Walnut Street, via Zoom): Stated he has operated a multi-business facility since 1985, expressed no opposition to the flea market applicant if operations are confined to the applicant's own land and conducted in a city‑agreeable manner, and deferred to the council's judgment on downtown planning.
- David Whitman (son of Joel): Present in the audience; no additional testimony recorded.
Discussion Items
- Item A – Home Rule Petition (Pre‑Employment Physical Exam Records for Public Safety): Mayor Bettencourt presented a home rule petition to allow PERAC (Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission) to accept alternative documentation in lieu of pre‑employment physical exam records for police and firefighter disability retirements, as records often date back 20–40 years and are no longer available. The petition was developed jointly with the fire union (President Corey Desman) and the police union. The subcommittee voted 5‑0 to advance it to the full council, which later approved 11‑0 to send it to the state legislature.
- Item B – Purchase of City‑Owned Land (Paper Street/Mechanic Street): Attorney John Kelty represented Megan and Michael Lynch, who live adjacent to city lots (Map 75, lots 1, 2, 3). They seek to buy the land to rebuild a garage that had been on the property for decades. An appraisal valued the three parcels at $4,000, $4,710, and $4,800 (total $13,510). Councilor McGinn provided history on the property and confirmed no departmental objections. The subcommittee voted to declare the parcels surplus and refer the matter to community development for the disposal process (flow chart policy); the full council later approved 11‑0.
- Appointments (Item 7A): Mayor Bettencourt nominated four individuals: Kevin Venagro (Historical Commission, full term, replacing Frank Hardy), Bob Dunn (Historical Commission alternate), Darrell Ann McCarthy (Liquor Licensing Board, 3‑year term), and Jeffrey Saliba (Planning Board, 1‑year term, replacing the late Peter Avernides). All were approved 11‑0.
- Hearing – Junk Dealer’s License (Item 4B): Constellation Gemini LLC (dba Peabody Flea Market) applied for a junk dealer’s license to operate an indoor community flea market at 20 Wallace Street. Attorney Kelty stated the market would be indoor only, Wednesday–Sunday, 8 AM–6 PM, with no alcohol or outdoor storage. Councilor Peach objected, noting the property had been used as an outdoor flea market without permits over the summer, raised concerns about zoning, parking, and alignment with downtown redevelopment plans, and stated a special permit would likely be required. After discussion, the applicant withdrew without prejudice (11‑0).
- Hearing – Special Permit (Item 4C): Continued to January 2026 at the applicant’s request, with no opposition.
- Motion on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): Councilor Gamash moved that the building inspector and community development (ICD) provide an update on ADU zoning, including responses to outstanding questions from a prior committee meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
- Conservation Restrictions (Items 8D and Late 4): Councilor McGinn moved to approve two conservation restrictions for 86.01± acres of open space land to Essex County Greenbelt Association, as required by state law. Approved 11‑0.
- PK Motors License Revocation Hearing (Item 8F): Councilor McGinn moved to schedule an evidentiary hearing to consider revoking the Class 2 motor vehicle license of Christine Fisher (doing business as PK Motors) following her federal conviction for money laundering conspiracy. Approved unanimously. The hearing date was not set.
- License Renewals (Items 9A–9G, Late 8A–8C): Councilor Turko read and moved approval of numerous 2026 license renewals: Class 1 motor vehicle (9A), Class 2 motor vehicle (9B), Class 3 motor vehicle (9C, including Holiday Inn Suites after confirming fire and health department sign‑offs), entertainment licenses (9D), general licenses (9E), innholder licenses (9F), lodging house licenses (9G), and late renewals for auto transport and used car dealers. All were approved by voice votes with no opposition.
Key Outcomes
- Home rule petition: Approved 11‑0 and transmitted to the Massachusetts General Court for enactment.
- City‑owned land sale: Lots 1, 2, 3 on Paper Street declared surplus; referred to community development for disposition process.
- Appointments: Four individuals appointed to city boards; all votes 11‑0.
- Flea market license: Withdrawn without prejudice; no further action.
- ADU update: Building inspector and ICD directed to report back to council (likely January 2026).
- Conservation restrictions: Approved 11‑0; council president authorized to execute.
- PK Motors hearing: Scheduled; no date set.
- License renewals: All approved en masse.
- Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at an unspecified time after farewell remarks to Councilors Gould, McGinn, and Melville, who will not return for the new term.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, welcome to the legal affairs subcommittee meeting. In attendance, myself, Councillor Rosgnall as chair, as well as Councillor Higgins, Councillor Melville, Council of Peach, and sitting in for Councillor Turk will be uh Council Gamash. Is that okay? Other counselors in attendance, uh Councillor Gould, Councillor Manning Mountain, Council McGinn, and Council President Julie Daigle. We have two items on the agenda this evening. Item A is a home rule petition and act relative to the maintenance of pre-employment physical examination records for public safety personnel in the city of Peabody. Item B will be on behalf of Megan and Michael Lynch of 10 Stephen Street regarding a purchase of city owned land of Paper Street on Mechanic Street. We'll start with item A. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening to you. Good evening, Council. Hope everybody's doing well. Nice to be with you. I'm here today to present as outlined by uh Mr. Rosignal item A, a home rule petition, uh an act relative to the maintenance of pre-employment physical examination records for public safety personnel in the city of Peabody. And this would apply to police officers and firefighters. Uh uh both um of our public safety officers. And uh this was brought to us, an issue arose, and this is uh an item we've been working with the uh fire union. Uh I want to recognize and thank uh union president uh Corey Desman and the leadership team along with their attorney. We met on a couple of i a couple of occasions to review this issue, and this is something that's not just uh for the city of Peabody, but this is something that unions across the state are working on, and home room petitions are being filed with a number of cities and towns across the state relative to this specific issue. And what uh is happening here is uh PERAC is um requires for a disability retirement uh pre-employment physicals from the time that the officer or firefighter started working for the city of Peabody. So those records could go back 20, 30, 40 years. And the fact of the matter is uh that we do not have uh some of those records uh anymore in in our files uh just because of uh that they were not kept at that time. And again, this goes back 20, 30, 40 years. Just to give you a little bit of background in terms of a disability retirement. I think everybody's familiar with uh a regular retirement, a superannuation, but there's also a disability retirement, and there's a three-step process to a disability retirement. The first is getting approval from your local retirement board, uh, the City of Peabody retirement board. Uh, once that comp is complete and approved a disability retirement, it goes then to uh PERAC, the state retirement board, and it's uh public employees retirement. Um, what's the A stand for? Administration committee. Administration committee and city solicitor Don Kahn is here as well. He was a part of those meetings with uh the union attorney and union leadership. Umce it goes to PERAC, uh it gets sent to a medical board, a medical review uh doctors, independent doctors review the records uh and look into the matter to determine if it does qualify as a disability. Uh once that is cleared, then it goes to a uh third step, uh which is approval by PERAC itself, the board members themselves. Uh we had a firefighter and um we anticipate others in the future. Uh that was moving forward with the disability retirement, and they got approved at the local level, they got approved by the medical panel, and then it went to PERAC, but they would not approve until uh they had the pre-employment physicals uh records. And again, we just do not have those. Uh so um this was recommended by the the union and we wanted to support our police officers and firefighters to bring this forward. This allows PERAC to uh receive this in lieu of the pre-employment physical and allows our firefighters and police officers when they have a disability retirement issue to move forward with the process. Again, this was a joint effort by the fire union and the police union, but more the fire union uh to try to help uh some of our firefighters and police officers with this step. Uh this is kind of a a new issue, and uh that's why cities and towns are are all dealing with this, and some have already approved it, and some are in the process, or some will be doing it in the future. This very thing, doing this as a home rule petition. Uh so we wanted to move forward. Happy to answer any questions. We do have Dawn Carner, city solicitor here that can also answer any questions. Uh but this is uh I think a great step in supporting our police and firefighters when unfortunate uh instances such as a disability retirement happens. Mr.
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