The Winthrop Town Council followed up a contentious and argumentative three-hour regular meeting with a 10-minute special session on Wednesday at which some members pushed again to join a private lawsuit against the state’s 3A housing law.

Without explanation, the council president, Jim Letterie, used his legal privilege on the body to postpone, to at least later this month, both that request and a separate initiative that seeks to allow the council’s consideration of topics when at least four council members request it.

While far more cordial and briefer than the marathon assembly the previous evening – the gathering began with apologies from Mr Letterie for the council’s overall behavior Tuesday – the bottom-line outcome suggested a governing body still deeply split over the 3A matter.

Before action on the two items was postponed by Mr Letterie, the resolutions were described by a council member, Patrick Costigan, as reflecting the will of town residents who voted in November to elect candidates largely promising to persist with the town’s increasingly isolated bid to defy the 3A law.

The two motions “will be part of many steps needed to move forward to ensure that the town progresses in a way that supports and addresses the needs of all residents and businesses,” Mr Costigan said, without explaining a rationale beyond the 3A issue.

Sweeping promise

“This new Town Council wants to address many issues facing the town that have gone unaddressed for many years and decades,” he said.

The 3A law requires most cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts to add zones allowing multifamily housing. Mr Costigan and Mr Letterie and four other members of the nine-seat council standing for election in November won by wide margins after they jointly campaigned on a promise to fight the 3A law and to limit housing growth in Winthrop.

They acted against town compliance with 3A despite court rulings that have upheld the state’s right to set zoning rules, despite the creation by town officials of a compliance map that would create no new housing by limiting the 3A-mandated zones to parts of Winthrop that already have multifamily housing, despite the fact that most of the 177 affected communities have accepted the law, and despite mounting losses of state funding to Winthrop as a consequence the violation.

In addition, the Massachusetts attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Winthrop and eight other non-compliant towns in a bid to force them to implement the 3A-required zoning.

Impasse breaking

The demand reiterated Wednesday by Mr Costigan and allied council members would have the town formally join a lawsuit filed in state court in late 2024 by a group of local and regional anti-3A activists arguing that the 3A law is neither fair nor equitable to Winthrop.

It is among a dwindling series of legal and political attacks on 3A that have largely been defeated in court or assessed by lawmakers as holding little prospect of success.

Mr Letterie is one of three current council members who campaigned against 3A for the November election and still describe themselves as opponents of the law, but have questioned the value of the town joining the private lawsuit.

Those three council members in February joined with a longstanding advocate of 3A compliance, at-large council member Max Tassinari, in a 4-4 vote to prevent requiring Winthrop to join the private case. But that impasse came into doubt last month when the council appointed Martin Finn to fill the body’s Precinct 6 seat.

Town responsibility

In addition to seeking the 3A lawsuit vote, Mr Costigan suggested for his second proposed rule the idea that four council members can require council action on a matter. That move followed the standoff the previous evening, when Mr Letterie used his position as the council’s elected president to restrict discussion of the lawsuit against 3A compliance.

Before Mr Costigan outlined the two proposals, Mr Letterie offered regrets for the spectacle of the previous evening, which centered on him arguing repeatedly with another council member, Joseph Romano, in an hour-long dispute over handling the 3A lawsuit question.

“I believe we as body have a responsibility to the town to act in a more professional manner,” Mr Letterie said. “I think everybody has Winthrop’s best interests at heart, and I believe everybody has different means to get to where we all want to be,” he said.

No other council members made any comment on confrontations at the Tuesday meeting.