Longtime Oak Bluffs select board member Gail Barmakian is not seeking reelection after 15 years on the board, instead opting to run for the town clerk position. 

Ms. Barmakian, one of the town’s most passionate advocates on wastewater issues, has been serving on the Oak Bluffs wastewater commission at the same time as the select board. She was forced to make a decision about which board she wanted to serve on this year because town meeting passed a bylaw in 2023 that prohibits select board members from serving on other town boards. 

Ms. Barmakian was allowed to sit on the two boards while she finished out her current terms, but could not run again, according to the bylaw. In an interview with the Gazette Wednesday, she said she wanted to continue to help the town with its wastewater plans.

"It was really a tough decision...There is still a lot to do and I didn't want to leave that," she said. 

Ms. Barmakian, who has served five terms on the select board since her first win in 2010, is still hoping to be a fixture in town hall. She is one of three candidates for the town clerk position, facing off against Amy Del Torto and Benjamin Robert Clark. 

Colleen Morris stepped down as town clerk in December, though she has been serving as the interim and will continue to do so until the spring town election. 

Whether the town clerk role should be appointed or elected has been a debate in Oak Bluffs for the last several years. 

Ms. Barmakian has been a proponent of keeping the position of town clerk as an elected position, though other town officials have advocated for the opposite. 

As an elected role, the town clerk must reside in the town of Oak Bluffs. If the position were appointed, the town clerk could live in any town or even off-Island. Town administrator Deborah Potter has urged the board to consider making the position an appointed one to open the job to more candidates.

At a select board meeting last week, the board voted 3-1 to remove the question as to whether or not the town clerk should become an appointed role from the town warrant. Board member Thomas Hallahan provided the one vote against removing the question. 

Ms. Barmakian abstained from the vote. She, alongside board members Mr. Hallahan and Emma Green-Beach, voted to remove the question as well from the warrant agenda last year.

In a select board meeting on Feb. 24, Ms. Barmakian said that she believed it was important to keep the position as independent as possible.

“I feel very strongly that [town clerk] should maintain its integrity and independence by having the people directly vote who they want their town clerk to be because that is who the town clerk almost exclusively serves,” she said.

With Ms. Barmakian not running for reelection to the select board, only one person pulled papers before the deadline. Sean DeBettencourt, a member of the planning board, is running for the seat.