Marblehead historical board chair to resign

MARBLEHEAD – Historical Commission Chairman Wayne Butler, whose institutional memory and ability to catalog the town’s historical relics has enriched the town’s historical traditions, has had a really frustrating winter – and he’s stepping down.While Selectman Harry Christensen convinced selectmen to table Butler’s resignation letter last week in hopes of talking him out of it – and Historical Commission member William Conly said Tuesday the commission members are "devastated" at the thought of Butler leaving – Butler seemed set in his decision Tuesday afternoon.His problems are with state law, which has inadvertently shut down his historical treasure hunt in the basement of Abbot Hall until November 2012, and the State Ethics Commission, which requires many town volunteers to take an online ethics exam and sign their name to it."I’m willing to work with him, but I have to do my job under the law," said Town Clerk Robin Michaud. "My priority is to do things the right way.""We need volunteers. He’s a great cataloger. It’s sad to lose him, but I have to do my job."Butler had no complaints about the town clerk, but his problems began Dec. 9, the day after the special Senate Primary, when the primary ballots were stored in the same room as the piles of uncataloged town historical records that Butler and other volunteers were sifting through in 2009 – the room where newsworthy records pertaining to Elbridge Gerry and Paul Revere were found.State law requires Michaud to store the ballots in a room that is solely under her control for 22 months. Butler’s historic treasure hunt has been on hold for the past eight weeks – and ballots from the Jan. 19 special election have been stored there as well."Abbot Hall’s only got so much space," she said. "There’s nowhere else here that other people don’t have keys to.""It’s the only place they had to store the ballots," Butler said. "We can’t go in."This month, Butler was told that a new state law requires him and other unpaid volunteer officials to take an online multiple-question ethics exam and sign his name to the results or face a possible $10,000 fine.The test is rigged so that everyone passes – test-takers have to keep picking answers until they pick the right one – but Butler refused."He has to take the test," Michaud said. Town Counsel Jeffrey Shribman is the town liaison on this program and Michaud handles the paperwork."When you sign your name on that test you’re telling the state you know all the answers," Butler said. "If you slip up and do something out of line, they’ve got you." Feeling between a rock and a $10,000 fine – not a comfortable spot for a man who has logged 5,100 hours as an unpaid volunteer – he wrote his resignation letter.Butler makes no pretense about his feelings about being chairman. Since he took over after the death of former Chairman Paul Lausier, burdensome administrative duties have constantly interfered with the invaluable cataloging that he loves to do – but no one else has stepped forward to chair the commission."Maybe it’s time to do something else," he added. He’s already had an offer to do cataloging for the Marblehead Historical Society, a private group that does not fall under state ethics laws."That’s how I started," he said Tuesday. "I spent two years as a volunteer cataloger before I was appointed to the commission."He added whimsically, "It’s the same job for the same pay."