LYNNFIELD — Town Moderator Joseph A. Markey has accused Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School (Essex Tech) Committee member Gary Hathaway of making a “racial motivated and disparaging comment” about a Lynnfield business owner.
The accusation was made in a letter circulated via email to Essex Tech school officials and School Committee members; Lynnfield school and elected officials and staff; and several members of the media six days after the Lynnfield School Committee declined to vote to accept Markey’s nominee, Mike Geary, as Hathaway’s replacement.
Geary withdrew from consideration on Tuesday, saying he was “choosing to volunteer (his) efforts in a setting far removed from the petty and adolescent line of questioning from certain members of our School Committee.”
During the meeting on Geary’s nomination, committee members Rich Sjoberg, Jamie Hayman and Stacy Dahlstedt expressed their concerns about Markey’s relationship with Geary as an assistant high school hockey coach at Essex Tech and Wakefield. They questioned Markey on his reasons why he wants to replace Hathaway, who has been lauded by Essex Tech School Committee Chair Mark Strout (speaking for Superintendent Heidi Riccio and the other 19 members of the committee) as a person who has helped to raise “tens of thousands of dollars” for the Essex Tech Foundation and has been a key member of the Policy and Finance committees.
Hathaway said Markey’s allegations are baseless.
“I absolutely 100 percent categorically deny saying anything to that effect ever,” Hathaway said. “I did not make any racially-motivated comments of any kind.”
In an undated letter emailed to Lynnfield School Committee Chair Rich Sjoberg on Jan. 10, Markey said he was informed on Feb. 26, 2021 that a member of the Lynnfield Town Meeting Study Committee (of which both Markey and Hathaway are members) had uttered the comment.
Markey offered no explanation as to why he waited nearly a year to disclose the claims until after his failed attempt to replace Hathaway at the Jan. 4 meeting. During that meeting, Markey said nothing about the allegations he now asserts.
“I now believe that I need to disclose why I did not reappoint Mr. Hathaway and let the public know the truth,” Markey wrote, adding he “investigated the matter with the help of the town administrator’s office.”
Markey said he determined that “Mr. Hathaway made the comments referenced (and that he) was recently contacted by a (former) Town Meeting Study Committee member (Malka Aliza Travaglini) who … affirmed my conclusion that Mr. Hathaway made these comments.”
In a Jan. 10 email to Hathaway, Markey said “As a member of the Town Meeting Study Committee (TMS), you made a racial disparaging comment about a local Indian-American business owner during a public meeting. This is corroborated by sources.”
Markey declined to identify said sources. He identified only one source ― Travaglini.
On Feb. 26, 2021, Travaglini sent an email to TMS members claiming that “(d)uring one of our meetings, a member of this group made a derogatory comment about an Indian-American business owner in Lynnfield.”
On Jan. 8, after reading a news article about the Jan. 4 Lynnfield School Committee meeting, Travaglini emailed Markey and said Hathaway “was the one who made the comment (she) referenced in the (Feb. 26, 2021) email.”
Town Administrator Robert Dolan said he spoke to TMS member Gill Gulliano, who “reports that nothing racial or offensive was said at the committee meetings by Mr. Hathaway or anyone else and, as an immigrant, she would have called the person out herself.”
TMS Chair Jack Adelson said Tuesday he’s talked to every member of that committee except Markey and none of them has any recollection of any incident as alleged by Markey and Travaglini.
“I’m willing to go before the School Committee on this as Gary’s reputation is at risk and I don’t like it. I’m willing to go to war over this. It’s just wrong,” he said.
After receiving the 2021 email from Travaglini, Adelson emailed Markey, asking him if he knew who Travaglini was referring to. Markey replied “No clue, I asked her to disclose who it was confidentially and forwarded it” to Dolan.
Adelson followed up with Dolan, emailing him on March 1.
“I know you have spoken to Joe about Malka’s email,” Adelson wrote. “I was floored when I received it because I have no memory of such an incident, and if it had happened as she described, there is no way I would have allowed that to pass without a comment and/or reprimand.”
Dolan said he spoke with Travaglini within days of learning about her allegations. He asked her to identify the person who made the comment, but she refused.
“The first time I heard anyone put a name to the incident was two days ago,” Dolan said Monday. “Other members did not have any memory of any such incident and Mr. Hathaway’s name was not brought forward as the member making those alleged comments by the citizen reporting or anyone else working with the committee.”
Adelson stated in his email that, “it appears that this alleged comment was made outside of the meeting and out of earshot of me, Joe (Markey), and I’m willing to bet others. I believe she embellished the circumstances.”
“I don’t know anyone of Indian descent who owns a business in Lynnfield and nobody I’ve talked to who was at that meeting has any recollection of anything being said, either before or after the meeting,” Hathaway said.
