Ethics question remains roadblock in Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD – The search for the town?s next director of public health got under way this week – but the search for the director?s boss, Marblehead?s next town administrator, is still waiting for a ruling from the State Ethics Commission.Current Town Administrator Tony Sasso plans to step down next spring. Selectmen voted in June 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.Selectmen Jackie Belf-Becker, Judy Jacobi and James Nye are ready to participate in the search but Selectmen Harry Christensen and Bret Murray have close relatives working for the town and could face a conflict of interest if they participate in the search for the administrator who oversees all town departments and negotiates employee contracts.Both men sought opinions from the State Ethics Commission in August, so far without results. They joined the unanimous vote in favor of the consultant motion, which is not directly related to hiring.?It?s getting closer and closer to the time that we have to act,” Selectman Harry Christensen, whose son is a Marblehead firefighter, said Wednesday evening. “I gave them all the information they requested and haven?t heard a word back from them.”Murray, who is credited with raising the question of conflict, said he left two phone messages with his contact at the commission and hasn?t had a call back. Murray?s brother is a captain in the fire department, his father is a seasonal employee in the harbormaster?s office and his mother works as an occasional police matron for female prisoners.As Christensen has said, “The town administrator negotiates with the firefighters? union (and other unions) so there is a potential conflict.”