Citing failed bid to resolve ethics law issue, Barron resigns from Marblehead School Committee

Citing a decision not to implement a solution that would have allowed her to continue her professional work and serve as an elected official under state ethics rules, School Committee Co-Chair Emily Barron submitted her resignation on Oct. 27, bringing an abrupt end to the final year of her three-year term.

As reported recently by the Marblehead Beacon, Barron appeared before the Marblehead Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 30, as a representative for architect Jeffrey Tucker. Barron explained that she is not a licensed architect but does have expertise with the design aspects of projects submitted to zoning and planning boards for approval.

Barron had not been working for Tucker or anyone else when she was first elected to the School Committee in 2020 but began assisting him during her term.

Under §17 of the state’s conflict of interest law, G.L.c. 268A, public official are prohibited from acting as an agent for anyone other than the municipality for which he or she serves in connection with any matter in which the municipality is a party or has a direct and substantial interest even if the public official abstains from taking any official action on this matter.

The law also prohibits a public official from requesting or receiving compensation in relation to any particular matter in which the same municipality is a party or has a direct and substantial interest.

“These provisions are intended to prevent divided loyalties,” the Ethics Commission’s website explains.

Barron said she did not realize her work was an issue under the ethics law until after she appeared before the ZBA. Another member of the School Committee, whom she would not name, recognized it as an issue but did not tell Barron about it. Instead, she “found out through other channels,” Barron said.

As soon as she became aware of the problem, Barron said she immediately took action and went to the Ethics Commission to ask, “How do I fix this?”

The answer, she was told, was to have the Select Board designate her or the School Committee as a whole a “special municipal employee,” a status that members of the majority of Marblehead boards and commissions enjoy, with the School Committee and Select Board the primary exceptions.

Once designated as a “special municipal employee,” an elected official may act as an agent before municipal boards other than her own, provided that she has not officially participated in the matter and the matter is not now (and was not within the past year) within her official responsibility.

Barron would have not been able to represent any third party before the School Committee or any board that falls under its jurisdiction. But the ZBA and Planning Board would have been OK.

However, until she received the “special” designation, Barron was prohibited from appearing before any boards in Marblehead.

Through discussions with the Ethics Commission that had occurred over the past month, Barron said that she had also learned that it was not only appearing at public meetings that would have caused a problem under the conflict-of-interest law, but it would have also been a problem to complete paperwork or perform other tasks for an applicant as well.

Barron said that in discussions that also included Town Counsel Lisa Mead and her firm, the Select Board initially seemed open to putting on its agenda a vote on whether to grant her status as a special municipal employee.

But while no one has told her so directly, the publication of the Beacon’s story seemed to change the game. The word that she got back, Barron said, was that it “could be a conflict of interest” for the board to take such a vote.

With that possible solution off the table, Barron said she felt like she was left with no choice but to resign.

“I wasn’t going to say I’m not going to do my job for the next seven months,” she said.

Marblehead Select Board Chair Moses Grader was not immediately available for comment.