
Questions over laws prohibiting conflicts of interest and town officials’ obligations to live up to the guidelines are suddenly swirling around Tisbury Town Hall this week.
Just days before he is set to retire from his role as Tisbury town administrator, Jay Grande finds himself the focus of a complaint to the State Ethics Commission that alleges he violated state guidelines.
Grande is set to step down from his town role of 12 years at the end of the year, and is lined up for a job with Vineyard Haven–based Sourati Engineering Group. As the town administrator, and in charge of overseeing departments across town hall, Grande played a role in overseeing departments that themselves oversaw permitting and construction of Vineyard Wind’s Maintenance and Operations building in downtown Vineyard Haven, which Sourati worked on.
Town laws also prohibit leaving public service and then taking a job involving public contractors, or any matter in which the official participated as a public employee.
The oversight and approval process for the sprawling energy project’s facility has a complex layering of local, state, and ultimately federal approvals; a glimpse of this came in June when Gov. Maura Healey visited the Vineyard Wind’s Tisbury headquarters along with State Sen. Julian Cyr and Grande. The building site in question is on Beach Road, and is a 36-foot-tall structure with some 36,000 square feet of combined office, storage, and parking. Initial approvals came from the town, then key approval came after a unanimous vote by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in August 2022, and it was completed in May 2023 and erected with what some have called surprising speed for such a vast structure in a federally recognized flood zone.
Grande is set to leave the town on Jan. 1, but he asked for permission to train for the job around a month ago, and he has an email address and a direct phone line with his own voicemail at Sourati’s offices. The company previously confirmed with The Times that while Grande isn’t currently on its payroll, it does plan to hire him.
On the face of it, it would appear that Grande is violating the spirit if not the letter of the town laws, and that there was no public disclosure of his actions, as is also required.
The State Ethics Commission does not comment on the record about any potential conflict-of-interest scenario. Rep. Julian Cyr was not willing to comment directly on the specifics of the complaint against Grande, but said, “Massachusetts has robust ethics and conflict-of-interest law relating to those of us who do the people’s business. These questions are best directed to the ethics commission, which has oversight and can provide guidance on these matters.”
“I’m not surprised that personnel matters and negotiations are often kept in executive session,” he also said. “I would defer to the opinion of town counsel as well as the State Ethics Commission.”
Seeking greater clarity on the layered claims of conflict of interest in town hall as it relates to Vineyard Wind, The Times has reached out to Tisbury town legal counsel David Doneski for comment. He has not responded to requests for an interview.
And so far, town officials are standing behind Grande. Tisbury select board chair John Select board members told The Times last week that Grande sought permission around a month ago to begin training at Sourati Engineering not in public.
Town policy, however, prohibits an official from taking an action that could reasonably constitute an appearance of bias unless they make a proper, public disclosure.
Cahill told The Times that his board’s approval of Grande’s arrangement “would not have been made public.”
The spotlight on the town’s conflict-of-interest laws comes as two more Tisbury officials recently recused themselves from a Dec. 12 meeting due to possible conflicts of interest with developer Xerxes Aghassipour, who is building the controversial 97 Spring St. project intended to house workers of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm.
Meanwhile, town select board member Christina Colarusso works for Avangrid, which owns Vineyard Wind jointly with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Colarusso’s LinkedIn webpage lists her as facilities manager at Avangrid since September 2023; she was elected to the select board in May.
Colarusso declined to comment on the record when reached by The Times.
Grande’s private arrangement to train for Sourati may violate Tisbury’s Workplace Conduct Policy, specifically section M. of its Conflict section, which requires an official to publicly disclose a matter that an impartial observer could believe constitutes bias or favoritism.
Section J. also prohibits an official from leaving public service and then taking a job either involving public contractors or any matter in which the official participated as a public employee.
Tisbury’s conflict policy states that it is meant to ensure compliance with Massachusetts General Law.
Grande is the subject of a state-level complaint, filed on Oct. 29 to the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission by town planning board administrator Amy Upton, a source close to the filing told The Times. Grande placed Upton on leave on the same day she filed, pending the town’s review of misconduct allegations not publicly disclosed.
Upton’s complaint involves Grande having a professional email at Sourati Engineering, the source told The Times last week. The Times has confirmed that email, as well as an extension for Grande in the company’s phone system.
Tisbury’s website also lists Grande as town personnel director, a position listed atop the Workplace Conduct Policy.
This policy was revised on Oct. 25; Tisbury has received a public records request from The Times for past versions of the document and relevant public meeting minutes.
Last Thursday, town zoning board of appeals members Jeff Kristal and Akeyah Lucas recused themselves from a meeting in which the rest of the board unanimously rejected an appeal, thereby upholding a commercial building permit for Aghassipour’s 123 Beach Road property.
The MV Tile Co. operates out of the Aghassipour-owned address, and had received a permit from town building inspector Greg Monka to add bedrooms on its property.
123 Beach Road, the planning board argued, should have needed a special permit before its commercial permit, as the commercial permit is for a substantial extension, a nonconforming use — including the doubling of the property’s bedroom count.
The appeal was filed by the town planning board, and planning board members successfully asked Kristal and Lucas at the Thursday meeting to recuse themselves from the vote.
Kristal’s disclosure, received by the town on August 8, states that he has the same attorney as developer Aghassipour, Peter Brown of Brown Legal PLLC, for a case he is involved in in state Land Court.
Brown represented Aghassipour at last week’s meeting, and has done so at zoning board meetings earlier this year when Kristal did not recuse himself.
Lucas’ filing states that her husband has been compensated approximately $150 for work that he did on 97 Spring St. “He has no plans to perform any further work concerning this address at this time,” she wrote in the document. “Neither I, nor my husband, nor any of our relatives or friends, have any financial interest in this project.”
Kristal attended the meeting after recusing himself, which planning board chair Connie Alexander alleges goes against State Ethics Commission recommendations. Lucas left the room after her recusal.
“It is the recommendation of the ethics commission that [the recused] leave completely,” Alexander said. “Anytime I’ve needed to recuse myself, I’ve removed myself completely from the meeting at hand. I was actually surprised [at Kristal],” she said.
“I think just the mere presence of someone who could maybe influence those who are hearing the issues at hand — it can have an influence,” she explained.
Alexander added that the select board failed to dismiss the zoning board members’ appearances of conflicts of interest, which she said the select board is supposed to do as Kristal’s and Lucas’ appointors.
She also told The Times that the zoning board meeting did not address the lack of a site plan review at 123 Beach Road, which she said is required before a permit. “We brought it up at the start of the meeting,” she said. “That [matter] was brought to the building inspector’s attention a long time ago. Nothing ever transpired. We don’t understand why some past practices aren’t being practiced anymore.”
Kristal and Lucas did not recuse themselves from an August 8 meeting in which their board upheld the removal of a stop-work order at 97 Spring St.
That meeting and the zoning board members’ apparent conflicts are also a focus of a November Massachusetts Land Court filing by Mary Bernadette Budinger-Cormie, a direct abutter to 97 Spring St.