Oak Bluffs Town Clerk Colleen Morris is retiring after the new year, but she’ll still be around to help the town in the transitional phase.
“The good news is I will [be] working closely with the town for the next few months, starting in January 2025,” she told The Times in an email.
On Tuesday, the Oak Bluffs select board unanimously approved appointing Morris to an interim position, effective Jan. 4, until the April town election or a successor interim town clerk is appointed.
Oak Bluffs Town Administrator Deborah Potter said the town could either go to the voters for a new clerk during the spring election, or appoint someone. Potter said that if an individual is elected during the town election in April, that person would serve out Morris’ remaining term, which ends in April 2026.
Potter said appointing a town clerk would require voters’ approval at the upcoming annual town meeting in April, and then a ballot question would require another town meeting approval, potentially the next annual town meeting in 2026.
“The elections department makes you wait at least 60 days after annual town meeting, or whenever the town meeting that approves [the appointment], before you can put it on the ballot,” Potter said, who wasn’t in favor of holding a special town meeting for a town clerk appointment.
Potter said the board had appointed Morris to the interim position before during the COVID pandemic when the previous town clerk left the position. The town election couldn’t be held until June 2020, so Morris served in the interim position from April 18, 2020, to June 18, 2020.
Morris first fully became the town clerk in 2020. Prior to this, she served as assistant town clerk from 2017 to 2020, as constable from 2016 to 2020, and clerk to the town’s zoning board of appeals from 2012 to 2019.
Morris also earned a municipal clerk certificate last year from the Massachusetts Town Clerks’ Association. This designation is earned after attending courses sponsored by the association and passing a 250-question test measuring the clerk’s knowledge of state laws. At the time, fewer than half of the state’s 301 town clerks held the designation.
Meanwhile, after nearly two months of contract negotiations, Oak Bluffs officialized its fire chief decision.
After a final review, the select board unanimously approved signing a three-year contract with Stephen Foster, who was chosen to be the next Oak Bluffs fire chief in October. The contract begins on Dec. 19, 2024, and ends on Dec. 31, 2027. After the 2027 date, the contract will be automatically renewed annually. Foster will receive a salary of $175,000.
The contract’s start date is also the last day for retiring Oak Bluffs Fire Chief Nelson Wirtz.
