Politics & Government

Foxborough's Public Drunkenness Bylaw Disapproved

Foxborough's public drunkenness fines were disapproved for the second time Monday night.

Foxborough's public drunkenness fines were disapproved by Attorney General Martha Coakley Monday. 

In a letter sent to Town Hall Monday night, Coakley disapproved the proposed by-law for the second time. The to the Attorney General's office by the town after the by-law, passed at the , was disapproved for the first time by the Attorney General back in June because of a conflict with a 1971 state law decriminalizing public drunkenness.

The letter outlines that the conflict between the proposed by-law and the state law remains, thus the same grounds remain as before for disapproval.

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"On the basis that the amendments conflict with the provisions of Section 18 of Chapter 1076 of the Acts of 1971," the letter details.

After the by-law was rejected in June, Paul DeRensis, Town Counsel, explained to the Board of Selectmen that the customary practice by the Attorney General's office is to offer the municipal body the opportunity to present the case (bylaw) in favor before a decision is made. That opportunity, according to DeRensis, was never offered – and was something that DeRensis found “unusual.”

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If the Attorney General had offered Foxborough the opportunity to present their case, town counsel would have quickly realized that the wrong bylaw was submitted. The first bylaw, drafted in January, was submitted to the Attorney General instead of the amended bylaw passed at the special town meeting.

The town resubmitted the amendments adopted under article 10 on July 6 for review on the basis that "in the original submittal, the incorrect final version of the by-law was inadvertently appended as submissions."

However, according to the Attorney General's office, in each of the submissions (the original submittal on March 24 and the resubmittal on July 6), the same language and proposed by-law text was submitted; The result is that the by-law text under Article 10, which was disapproved Monday, is the same by-law text the Attorney General previously disapproved back in June.

Looking ahead, if Foxborough wishes to redraft the by-law, the Attorney General's office offered the additional comment, "that the town may be able to lawfully adopt a by-law by prohibiting certain conduct so long as it is not directly tied to public intoxication."

According to the Foxboro Reporter on Sept. 22, if the by-law was rejected, town officials would consider re-drafting the law with input from that office.

Board of Selectmen Chairman, Lawrence Harrington, spoke of the Attorney General's decision Tuesday night to reject the by-law. Harrington made two points that he believed the public should be aware of. One item included clearing up the rumor that the Town Clerk submitted the wrong article to the AG's office.

"That is incorrect, what he submitted was correct. [The AG's office] wanted to make sure that the Town Clerk's reputation was cleared," said Harrington.

Harrington also said that the AG's office wanted to convey to the public that "contrary to the rumors that the Kraft Organization was trying to influence the outcome, she (Martha Coakley) assured me there was none of that, that happened at all and she was insulted [by that thought]."


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