State Rep. Angelo Scaccia, D-Readville, needs to make it clear why he’s holding up a vote in the House on a beer and wine license for grocery store Wegmans, slated to anchor the Westwood Station development in Westwood.
Town Meeting voted, 410 to 372, to petition the Legislature for the license in May. Although technically the Legislature, and then the governor, has to approve the bill, typically these things fly through with no opposition. A local body like Town Meeting is, after all, better suited to decide on what is a purely local issue.
Scaccia, however, who does not live in Westwood or represent it, must feel otherwise. He has indicated that he would vote against the bill and convinced some of his colleagues to oppose the petition should it come up for a vote when he is absent, said Rep. Paul McMurtry, the Dedham Democrat whose district includes Westwood.
With the Legislature in informal sessions until January, during which a bill needs unanimous support to advance, Wegmans’ license bid is in limbo until Scaccia gets on board.
McMurtry, who is pushing for the Legislature to approve the bill, thinks Scaccia is being influenced by a potential Wegmans competitor. It seems clear he is. Roche Bros. Supermarkets, whose CEO and owner, Rick Roche, lives in Westwood, hired former state representative Maryanne Lewis to lobby on its behalf. Lewis served in the House with Scaccia.
Roche, who was a vocal opponent of the measure when it was before Town Meeting, doesn’t have much to say either. “We’re trying to work together with everybody in town to work out something that’s in everybody’s best interest,” he said.
Roche’s Westwood store doesn’t have a beer and wine license, though the company holds licenses for three other stores in Massachusetts, the maximum allowed by state law. Roche has shown little interest in securing a license in Westwood, though town officials have said they would consider one.
If Scaccia has a legitimate reason for butting into the affairs of a town he doesn’t represent, he should say so. Otherwise, if he is simply doing a favor for a former colleague, he, like the rest of the legislators, should cede to the wishes of Town Meeting. Westwood residents who voted to approve the license should feel free to contact Scaccia and demand he explain himself.
Roche ought to be more open as well. His opposition before the Town Meeting vote was fine, but now it looks like he’s trying to create a different result than the one the democratic process provided.
