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.