WESTBROOK – A recent series of Zoning Board of Appeals meetings dealing with the Dreamers Cabaret controversy is just a small piece of a much larger puzzle.

The meetings, which were scheduled to conclude Wednesday night, represented an attempt to seek administrative remedies to the situation facing Dreamers, a strip club the city shut down a day after its Sept. 17 opening.

The hearings were a necessary step before the case goes before a U.S. District Court judge, said Tom Hallett, an attorney representing the club.

When Rick Gouzie, the city’s code enforcement officer, revoked the business’s certificate of occupancy, owner Larry Ferrante hired Hallett and filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks damages from loss of revenue, attorney’s fees and other costs.

Hallett spent hours grilling city employees through two, three-hour hearings before the appeals board in November. He has repeatedly posed the club’s closure as an issue of First Amendment rights and requested the board reinstate Dreamer’s certificate of occupancy.

The city contests that the club’s closure has nothing to do with freedom of expression and everything to do with fire safety violations and dishonest business dealings.

Natalie Burns, an attorney for the city, said it does not matter that Dreamers had live, nude entertainment. The fact there was live entertainment of any form is the issue because Ferrante originally concealed that from the city, she said.

The board met on Wednesday night, Dec. 1 to render a decision on the issue. The meeting was after the American Journal’s deadline.

Early deliberations at the zoning board meeting on Nov. 23 indicated the board members were leaning toward voting against reinstating the certificate of occupancy.

Board chairman Aaron Burns said a number of aspects of Dreamers’ opening troubled him. One was Ferrante’s “lack of candor” about his intentions for the facility.

Ferrante only told city officials the former warehouse at 84B Warren Ave. would be converted into a “private recreational facility.” He had workout equipment in place and numerous city officials said Ferrante mentioned having pool tables, which he has denied.

During sworn testimony on Nov. 23, Ferrante said he intentionally withheld specifics from the city because the public perception of nude entertainment would have prevented him from moving forward.

Hallett, though, suggested Ferrante was not required to share those details because at the time there was no ordinance regulating nude entertainment.

“I would have divulged the information if they had asked the question,” Ferrante said.

Nonetheless, Burns said the deceit “doesn’t sit well” with him.

He also suggested that reinstating the certificate of occupancy might be meaningless at this point because the building has changed substantially since Gouzie first issued the certificate on Sept. 10.

Board members raised additional questions about a contract Ferrante supplied the city showing an agreement with Maine State Security Systems to install a fire alarm and Ferrante’s original change of use application. The contract had no dollar amount or specifications, and the change of use application was likewise thin on details.

If the board rejects Dreamers’ request to reinstate its certificate of occupancy, the decision can be appealed to the Cumberland County Superior Court, Hallett said.

That could mean more legal costs added onto an already expensive endeavor. The Ferrante Group has poured tens of thousands of dollars into the building to install a complex fire alarm system, add flame resistant paint and furniture, modify means of egress and install a 16,000 gallon septic tank.

Hallett called those requirements “outrageous,” and in the findings of fact he submitted to the board, said concerns such as plumbing “emanated from a concerted effort to research any and every applicable regulation that could be used to restrain any further presentation of expressive conduct.”

And yet, the Ferrante Group has responded to the city’s requirements by meeting nearly all of them in short order. The club still requires more toilets, though Hallett has requested the number be reduced because Gouzie has made similar reductions for other city businesses.

When pressed in an interview, Hallett would not comment specifically on the origins of the money used for the club, saying only the amount spent shows the Ferrante Group is “serious about doing business” and “serious about operating a top-rate club.”

The Ferrante Group, too, remains an enigma, as Larry Ferrante is its only known member. According to Hallett, “Larry Ferrante is the 100 percent owner of the Ferrante Group. It’s as simple as that.”

Even when references to Dreamers appear in unlikely places, Hallett brushes them aside as red herrings. John Perry, a podiatrist from Cumberland, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Documents filed in court by a drug enforcement agent indicate Perry had in his car business documents pertaining to Dreamers.

Hallett – who is also representing Perry – said that case is “totally unrelated” to Dreamers and that he knows nothing about the documents in Perry’s possession.

He also stated he “probably will not” represent Perry, but would not elaborate why.

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