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By Neil Zolot
The City Council renewed the innholder’s license for the Encore Boston Harbor casino, despite expressing some dissatisfaction with how it’s being fulfilled, at their meeting on Tuesday, May 26. “As a Council we have no connection with you,” now former Councillor-at-Large Wayne Matewsky told attending Encore Executive Director of Government Relations Eileen McAnneny. “It’s like you’re a separate city. The people of Everett thought we’d get a bigger bang out of this. I thought we’d get more.”
He specified a concern over the lack of entertainment or restaurants in the casino for people not interested in gambling. “When are you going to bring events in?” he asked. “We thought we’d have great entertainment, but that was five years ago. If you go now there’s no entertainment. There’s nothing I know of for people not interested in gambling.”
McAnneny answered that there were plans to have high-profile entertainment, but local businesses also offering live entertainment objected, and Encore was required to sign an agreement prohibiting them from doing so. “We are not able to have live entertainment,” she said.
City Council President Stephanie Smith questioned the amount of money the casino is spending on services that are provided or could be provided by local vendors and/or to promote local businesses. “We have multiple food businesses in the city; what can we do to bring them customers from outside the city?” she asked. “I’d like to see effort to bring people into the city and not spend their money just in the casino.”
After the meeting, she told The Advocate,” They’re supposed to be spending $50,000 in promotional gift cards to Everett businesses so casino patrons will spend their money in the City, but what they’re doing is buying gifts cards for businesses in the casino. Those in-house gift cards don’t help businesses in Everett.” She also feels Encore is not sponsoring enough local cultural events and having 30% of the businesses inside the casino being from Everett is low.
In discussion, McAnneny told her there are 567 Everett residents working in the casino, which represents 17% of their workforce, with 76 in management or supervisory positions. She also said Everett businesses in the casino pay rent. Smith countered, “Our local businesses can’t afford the lease to be in Encore.”
Ward 6 Councillor Peter Pietrantonio interjected that any such rent should not count towards the amount of money Encore is spending in the city.
“We try to be good corporate citizens,” McAnneny responded, citing contributions and Encore employee volunteer work at local food pantries and with Little League baseball and the Mystic River Watershed Association. “I’d like to hear where we’re falling short.” She also said Encore donated $1.3 million to food pantries, hospitals and other nonprofit organizations in the greater Everett area that also serve local residents.
Pietrantonio also suggested contracts be given directly to Everett vendors, without a bidding process. “We are a publicly traded company with responsibilities to shareholders,” McAnneny answered. “We have to get a return on our investments.”
In further discussion, Ward 2 Councillor Stephanie Martins said that large companies have the knowledge and resources to bid on contracts that smaller, local companies don’t. She suggested Encore be present at job fairs and participate in City of Everett run educational sessions for businesses on how to procure bids.
Despite their misgivings, Martins, Matewsky and Smith voted to renew the innholder’s license, along with Councillors-at-Large Michael Marchese and Katy Rogers, Ward 3 Councillor Anthony DiPierro and Ward 4 Councillor Holly Garcia and Ward 5 Councillor Vivian Nguyen. Pietrantonio, Councillor at-Large Guerline Alcy Jabouin and Ward 1 Councillor Michele Capone dissented. Councillor at-Large Michael Marchese was absent.
Capone took issue with the number of Everett residents working at the casino, which she feels is low. “We give preference to Everett residents in hiring, but are a 5-star resort,” McAnneny responded. “We take service very seriously.”
“Are you saying Everett residents are not 5-star,” Capone shot back. “Are you looking down on the residents of Everett?”
“I’m not, but Everett residents have to meet the standards of a 5-star resort,” McAnneny answered.
“I guess we were 5-star when you wanted to do business with Everett,” Capone commented with the last word.
Other business
Alcy Jabouin cast the lone dissenting vote against borrowing $2 million for a Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Feasibility Study for a new High School. “We had studies before that went nowhere,” she said. “I’m not against a new High School; we need the space, but we keep having feasibility studies that sit somewhere that we don’t use and don’t know where they are.” She wondered if they could be used instead or in addition to a new one.
Smith told her previous feasibility signees were on the elementary schools and a Middle School, and a new study is a requirement of the MSBA to enter the funding process to rehabilitate an existing school or build a new one. She also said any reimbursement the City receives from the MSBA can be applied to the Feasibility Study.
