Interviews Set for SSA Post

Dukes County Commissioners Will Meet With Candidates for Boat Line Governor Wednesday Afternoon

By IAN FEIN

Facing internal ethics issues and arguably their most important decision of the year, Dukes County commissioners on Wednesday will conduct public interviews with the seven candidates for Vineyard Steamship Authority governor.

Incumbent governor Kathryn A. Roessel's three-year term expires at the end of the December.

The commission will open its special meeting Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the county administration building near the airport. The meeting will break for dinner and reconvene at 7 p.m. County manager E. Winn Davis said he hopes to interview all seven candidates that night, though a vote on the appointment might not be taken until after Thanksgiving.

The appointment process this year is further complicated by at least two potential conflicts of interest. Commissioner Robert Sawyer applied for the position himself, while commissioner Nelson Smith is engaged to Ms. Roessel, who is seeking reappointment.

Prior to the first interview on Wednesday, the commissioners will publicly discuss how to deal with these issues. Chairman John Alley and Mr. Davis have recommended that Mr. Sawyer and Mr. Smith recuse themselves from participating in the candidate interviews.

"Because the Steamship Authority representative for Martha's Vineyard is such an important position, and because we have possibly one or two commissioners out of seven who may or may not be able to participate for ethical reasons, we want to go over in a public forum what the protocol will be," Mr. Davis said.

According to guidelines Mr. Davis sent out to commissioners this week, Mr. Sawyer would be interviewed by his fellow commissioners first, and both he and Mr. Smith would be permitted to sit in the audience during the interviews and eventually vote on the appointment.

"It is my opinion that should Commissioner Sawyer remain a candidate, he cannot not participate in the meeting," Mr. Alley said. "He should be interviewed as a candidate, treated as a candidate, and the same thing may apply to Nelson Smith. It makes it extremely difficult for me as chairman and Winn Davis as manager, because we need to draw up guidelines and schedule interviews that will make this fair to everybody concerned."

Three years ago, Mr. Alley and then-commissioner E.B. Collins applied to be governor, but both withdrew their names before the commission voted 4-3 to appoint Ms. Roessel. Mr. Alley said this week that the state ethics commission advised them it would be inappropriate for someone to serve simultaneously as SSA governor and county commissioner.

Commissioner Leonard Jason Jr., who has said that county commissioners should not seek appointment for other county positions, said he told both Mr. Sawyer and Mr. Smith "that they were conflicted and should not even be in the room for the interviews."

Mr. Jason also recommended that the commission postpone their appointment, so that if Ms. Roessel is replaced she would not be a "lame duck" governor for too long.

However, both Mr. Alley and Mr. Davis said they hope to make a decision by the first week in December, so that a newly appointed representative would have ample time to prepare before taking office Jan. 1.

The county commissioners' appointment comes at a critical time: The Vineyard governor will serve as chairman of the boat line board in 2005 and is also the only SSA board member up for reappointment this year. There are four other SSA governors.

The seven candidates, listed in the order in which they will be interviewed on Wednesday, are:

* Mr. Sawyer, a Vineyard Haven resident who is halfway through his second term as county commissioner. He served on the Tisbury finance committee for 10 years, and in 1996 sought appointment from the commissioners to the SSA finance advisory board in an effort to oust longtime representative Robert C. Murphy. Prior to that, Mr. Sawyer was appointed by commissioners in the early 1990s to represent the Island on the SSA parking subcommittee.

* Mark A. Snider, an Edgartown resident and owner of the Winnetu Inn, believes that the SSA needs to coordinate more with public transportation organizations on and off-Island.

* Ms. Roessel, the Vineyard's first female governor, is an attorney and Vineyard Haven resident. She listed "traditional values" and "long-term maritime interests" as focal points of her tenure.

* Marc N. Hanover is the Oak Bluffs representative to the SSA port council and is currently chairman of that board. Mr. Hanover owns Linda Jean's restaurant and is a leading member of the Oak Bluffs business community.

* Joanne M. Philbrick, an Oak Bluffs resident, applied for the Vineyard governorship four years ago when J.B. Riggs Parker was selected to serve out the last year of outgoing governor Ronald H. Rappaport's third term. A former Oak Bluffs personnel administrator, Mrs. Philbrick now works as a commercial loan coordinator for the Bank of Martha's Vineyard, formerly Compass Bank.

* James T. Morse, a Vineyard Haven resident and sergeant in the Oak Bluffs police department, has a master's degree in criminal justice administration and will take the Massachusetts Bar exam next summer.

* Kenneth DeBettencourt, an Island native and Oak Bluffs resident, has served on town boards in Oak Bluffs and also worked stints in the United States Army and Coast Guard.