Ethics liability clouds Marblehead search

MARBLEHEAD – Two Marblehead selectmen need approval from the State Ethics Commission before they can join the search for a new town administrator – and the search clock is ticking.Selectman Harry Christensen said Monday he and Selectman Bret Murray have asked the commission to rule on their eligibility to participate in the search process, so far without result.Town Administrator Tony Sasso plans to step down next spring, after 18 years on the job. If Christensen and Murray cannot participate, the selection will be made by three board members – selectmen Judy Jacobi and James Nye and Selectmen Chairman Jackie Belf-Becker – a bare majority of the board.Christensen and Murray have blood relatives working in town departments. Christensen?s son is a firefighter. Murray serves the town as a permanent intermittent police patrolman and his brother is a captain in the fire department.?The town administrator negotiates with the firefighters? union so there is a potential conflict,” Christensen said.?Bret and I have called the State Ethics Commission numerous times without a response,” Christensen said Monday afternoon. “I have called (U.S. Rep. John) Tierney?s office, Sasso?s office and others to see if we can get this expedited, we need to get this search started right away.”?Hopefully we can participate in it,” he said.When selectmen voted June 8 to authorize Sasso and Chief Procurement Officer Becky Curran to seek proposals from search consultants who can assist the selectmen and the yet-to-be-named Town Administrator Search Committee, Christensen and Murray were present and voted in favor of the motion.Ironically, Christensen campaigned to return to the board this year as the only candidate who served the town before there was a town administrator. He served on the search committee that recommended Sasso for the job 17 years ago and wanted to share his experience.?I never thought of it (the conflict),” he said, adding that when he served on the search committee Police Capt. Mark Mills was his son-in-law but in-laws don?t count as a conflict.?Bret raised the question and I joined him,” he said.Murray mentioned his conflict at a selectmen?s meeting last week and said he was seeking a ruling from the Ethics Commission. “I might be prevented from participating in the discussion,” Murray said.?This is the way things happen in small towns like this,” Christensen said at that meeting.?Families grow up in town and some people go to work for the town.”