After serving five terms on the Oak Bluffs select board, longtime member Gail Barmakian will not be seeking re-election this year. Barmarkian is instead focusing on wastewater issues, and she is running for the town clerk position.
The decision to not seek re-election to the select board is not entirely her own choice. A bylaw passed by voters during the 2023 annual town meeting forbids a select board member from holding another elected position simultaneously. Under the rule, new select board members elected on or after April 13, 2023, would need to vacate any other positions they held.
Barmakian was already a select board member when she was elected to the wastewater commission in 2023, and she told The Times that town counsel said she was entitled to serve the remainder of her term.
With Oak Bluffs’ comprehensive wastewater management plan still in progress — a large infrastructure undertaking meant to reduce the amount of nitrogen impacting watersheds like Lagoon Pond — Barmakian opted to stay on the wastewater commission rather than the select board. Her term on the select board ends this year, while her term on the commission ends next year.
“I had to make a tough choice,” Barmakian said.
Barmakian is also setting her sights on a position within town hall. Colleen Morris retired from the town clerk position in January (she has been serving as interim town clerk during the transitional period), leaving an opening.
Barmarkian, Benjamin Robert Clark, and Amy Lee Del Toro have all submitted papers for the town clerk position.
With Barmakian leaving the Oak Bluffs select board, there is a three-year select board seat open. Sean Patrick Debettencourt is running uncontested.
Barmakian grew up spending her summers in Oak Bluffs, and moved to the town as a year-round resident in 1997. She was first elected to the select board in 2010. Barmakian has also served as the town’s representative to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
Barmakian isn’t the only select board member on the Island not seeking re-election. In January, Jim Malkin announced his decision not to run for re-election in Chilmark after three terms.
Hard working. Very intelligent. Knowledgeable. Careful. We will miss her on the select board.
Not my favorite person. The primary objective of any candidate seeking a waste water position should be aquirirng federal funding for a designated federal preserve area. Why not us for all these years ? Other municipalities get abbual funding.
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