Oak Bluffs clerk candidates make their cases

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With elections only a couple of weeks away, three candidates in Oak Bluffs are making their cases to be elected as the next town clerk. 

The three candidates are Gail Barmakian, who is ending a long tenure on the town’s select board; Benjamin Robert Clark, who works in finance; and Amy Lee Del Torto, an operations manager for a local interior design company. 

The League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard hosted a candidates forum in a packed Oak Bluffs Public Library meeting room on Wednesday evening where the three candidates introduced themselves to the community. 

While there are a few contested races on the Oak Bluffs town election held April 10, the clerk race has attracted the most attention, with town clerk Colleen Morris retiring earlier this year (Morris has been serving since January as interim town clerk during the transitional period). 

Barmakian — a select board member for 15 years — is a practicing attorney whose ties to the town go back three generations. She moved to the Island full time in 1997. On Wednesday, she highlighted her deep knowledge of Oak Bluffs that she has developed over the decades as well as the families she’s gotten to know. 

She also held numerous public service positions outside of the select board, including the wastewater commission and the Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters. Barmakian underscored that relationships she established with state officials will be beneficial while in the town clerk position. 

“The position of town clerk in Oak Bluffs is a natural progression of my public service in the town during the past twenty-five years,” Barmakian said. “Through that service, I’ve gained tools necessary to hit the ground running.” 

Clark said he is a lifelong, 13th-generation resident of Oak Bluffs who graduated from the Island’s school system. Clark said he worked at the Oak Bluffs marina during the summers where he developed a “deep understanding” of the community; his family’s own roots in the town grew his appreciation for Oak Bluffs.

“Growing up here, we’re given a pin on the first day of kindergarten saying ‘proud to be from O.B.,’” Clark said. “I’ve worn that pin with pride and I still carry that pride today.” 

He earned an economics bachelor’s degree from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and began working for a financial planning firm in Needham. Clark also spoke at seminars for Boston graduate students to help them plan post graduation. Clark said his experience handling sensitive financial documents and dealing with “complex regulations” prepares him to handle the tasks of town clerk. He also highlighted his comfortability in learning new technology to “streamline” public records. 

“I’m running for town clerk because I’m passionate about Oak Bluffs and I believe my experience and dedication uniquely qualifies me for this role,” Clark said. 

Del Torto is a born-and-raised Islander and works as operations manager of Martha’s Vineyard Interior Design. She previously worked as a notary public and real estate paralegal in Connecticut. She said her skills and experience are “perfect” for the town clerk position, highlighting that she handled up to 100 client files at a time, handling municipal deadlines and preparing legal documents. 

“I understand the importance of finding solutions rather than roadblocks,” she said. “Whether it was clearing title issues or putting in extra hours, I always helped clients meet their deadlines.” 

Del Torto also said she is a “people person” and hopes to make the town clerk office a friendly place for residents. Del Torto earned a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies at Elms College in Chicopee, first working under local attorney Richard Walton and later in Boston. She also highlighted her family’s contributions to the Island — her parents previously ran the Square Rigger restaurant in Edgartown and her grandparents owned businesses on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs. 

The three candidates held nearly identical platforms regarding the role of town clerk. They wanted to prioritize digitizing records, centralizing them into the town clerk office, and making the office more accessible and efficient for constituents. They also agreed that the town clerk should be willing to go above and beyond and that the position should remain elected rather than appointed. 

There are three more contested races in Oak Bluffs: 

• Sherry Countryman and James Butterick are running for a health board seat.
• Julia Keefe and Peter Hart are running for a wastewater commissioner seat.
• Triva C. T. Emergy and Dana Elizabeth Hughes are running for a parks commissioner seat. 

The only candidate in an uncontested race who attended the forum was Sean DeBettencourt, who is running for the select board seat that will be vacated by Barmakian.

DeBettencourt is a social studies teacher at Tisbury School and a fourth generation Islander. He also has experience in public service as the current chair of the Oak Bluffs finance and advisory committee and having served on the planning board.

DeBettencourt said he “cares tremendously” about Oak Bluffs, the town he and his daughter grew up in. 

“I’m tremendously lucky to be — hopefully, knock on wood — stepping into a board that works so well together,” he said. “We’re blessed as a community to have people who collaborate well that work and manage the affairs of the town and give it its due diligence and respect.”

There are still open seats for the Oak Bluffs election, including for constable and five finance and advisory committee seats. While the deadline to return nomination papers had passed, Judy Crawford, a member of the League and facilitator of the forum, encouraged Oak Bluffs residents to run write-in campaigns, especially for the finance committee which has open seats.

“Most of us kind of come to town meeting and then go in and vote, and we trust that the finance groups are really doing their due diligence,” Crawford said. “If there aren’t people there, they can’t do it.”

Candidate forums held in each town with contested races are being filmed by MVTV and will be available for viewing on its website under the section “VOD-PUBLIC-CH.6.”