By Beth David, Editor
Patrick Carr, an appointed member and chairperson of the Fairhaven Zoning Board of Appeals, failed in his bid to get the Select Board to allow him to chair a hearing involving the Fairhaven School Department, which is a customer of his container business, Seaspray Container Company, that he owns with his daughter. Mr. Carr is also an elected member of the Planning Board.
Mr. Carr filed a Conflict of Interest (COI) disclosure and appeared before the SB at its 12/30/24 meeting to get approval from the SB, which is the appointing body, to participate in the hearing on 1/7/25.
SB member Andrew Saunders recused himself from the proceedings, which left four members to vote. The split was 2–2, resulting in a failure of the measure to pass.
The School Department is constructing a storage building at the high school. Mr. Carr’s company has two storage containers at the site, both of which will not be needed if the new building is completed. The containers have been there for several years. The company rents six containers to the school department at different sites. The two at the high school are $99/month for a total of $198/month. The others are $110/ month each.
The board was being asked to determine that the financial interest to Mr. Carr was not substantial enough to affect the “integrity of the services” provided by the town, as stated in the language of the statute.
Mr. Carr said he spoke with the Ethics Commission three times for an hour or more. He said he supplied the contracts and the correspondence from the Ethics Commission to board members. Those documents, however, were not made available to the Neighb News by press time despite repeated requests.
Mr. Carr said he needed to participate in the appeal hearing because the matter is complex and he did not feel the alternates could step in.
The appeal was filed by 10 abutters citing a variety of complaints, including that abutters were not notified, and a claim that the Dover Amendment does not apply. That law exempts school departments from most zoning restrictions.
Mr. Carr also said he would participate in the meeting regardless of the SB decision because he would terminate the contract if necessary, although it would only give the school seven days to find new options. His daughter, Erin Carr, however, noted later in the meeting that they had not actually discussed that option.
SB member Keith Silvia voted to allow Mr. Carr to participate, saying he had put in a lot of time and that things were not done right at the high school.
SB member Charles Murphy voted to allow Mr. Carr to participate, saying he did not believe that $198/ month was substantial. He did, however, encourage Mr. Carr to recuse himself, saying his business could suffer.
SB Chairperson Stasia Powers referred to the pages of documents saying there was a lot there and it was a clear conflict of interest. She voted not to allow Mr. Carr’s participation.
SB member Andrew Romano also voted not to allow the participation, noting that Mr. Carr said he would participate anyway.
The meeting is available on demand at www.FairhavenTV.com
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