"Please Step Away From The Mic" - Testy Exchange Over Surfside Crossing Mars Select Board Meeting

Meghan Perry, a vocal opponent of the proposed Surfside Crossing development off South Shore Road, frequently speaks her mind during the public comment section of the Select Board's weekly meetings.

But on Wednesday, her comments - specifically the length of her prepared remarks to the board - led to a tense exchange and prompted Select Board chair Brooke Mohr to turn off the microphone she was speaking into, and demand that Perry "leave the microphone and sit down. Now, Meghan!"

Perry, who wanted to brief the board and the public on the results of her latest public records requests related to the Surfside Crossing project and propose an alternative, continued to speak into the mic and ignored Mohr's repeated requests to stop.

Mohr was attempting to enforce the board's policy of allowing people no more than three minutes of remarks during public comment. At one point she called on town counsel John Giorgio as Perry continued to speak, and Giorgio stated Mohr could choose to ask Perry to leave the meeting. If she declined, Giorgio said, Mohr could request the police to escort her out of the building.

"I'm not going to go to that, I'm going to count on Meghan's respect for this body to please leave the microphone and sit down. Now Meghan!"

You can watch the entire exchange below:

Perry was urging the Select Board to consider having the town buy the 13-acre property where Surfside Crossing developers Jamie Feeley and Josh Posner hope to build a 156-unit condominium development. The hope, Perry said, is that the property off South Shore Road, which was cleared last August but remains vacant, could be used for additional athletic fields for the public schools, affordable housing, and as a possible spot for the new Our Island Home nursing facility which is currently slated to be constructed just down the road on the Sherburne Commons campus.

"This is basically a clear canvas," Perry said. "The community could benefit and it would be astounding if we could come together in a collaborative manner instead of having closed-door meetings. I'm asking to see if this board would please put an agenda item on to discuss a collaborative effort to move forward in a way that could benefit the entire community for the greater good and see what we could get done."

Mohr declined to comment about the incident on Thursday, stating she was still processing what happened. 

In a social media post the day after the meeting, Perry stated that "Initially I was just continuing the theme of transparency and accountability. I was reading off a timeline (2023- current) of events that occurred based on correspondence and documents I obtained from a few large FOIAs (Freedom Of Information Act requests) discussing agreements various town staff, board members, and town counsel were making and/or were involved in the process. It is information that to the best of my knowledge and that I believe has not been seen or discussed with the public or in some cases the full boards. I believe it also further explains why independent counsel for the Zoning Board of Appeals is needed and what happened in 2023 with the dropping of the appeal of Surfside Crossing by the town and the sudden hard push for mediation over the summer 2024 after the Superior court win by Nantucket Tipping Point and Land Council. I then asked if the Select Board would consider putting a collaborative idea that many stakeholders in the community have been discussing over the last few months so that the Select Board as a group could discuss it in public - no violations occurring - but something that could benefit the entire community. Three minutes was just not long enough to get out both items even though I tried my very best. But the first item was needed to better help understand the second."

After nearly a year out of the spotlight, Surfside Crossing was back before the Nantucket Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) last month for a remand hearing - the result of a Nantucket Superior Court judge’s decision back in January to reject the state approval for Surfside Crossing and send the project back to ZBA for further review.

The three-hour hearing was filled with accusations of conflicts of interest, demands for recusals, a split vote on which ZBA members would be voting on the 156-unit condominium development, disagreements over what aspects of the project the board would be able to consider during its review, and a contentious exchange between town counsel George Pucci and ZBA member Jim Mondani over Pucci’s legal advice. That back-and-forth ended with the ZBA voting to issue a request to its appointing authority - the Select Board - for independent legal counsel to replace Pucci during the remand hearing.

As expected, the hearing ended with a continuance to the ZBA’s October meeting, and a formal decision will likely not come until early next year.