By Adam Swift
Councilor-at-Large Max Tassinari, who is facing a citizens’ recall initiative, addressed conflict of interest claims at last week’s council meetings.
Tassinari said those claims revolve around his working for MassDOT and its potential role in developing the guidelines for the MBTA Communities Act, also known as 3A).
“It’s come to my attention, quite clearly, that having lacked an explanation as to the recusal of the guideline discussion versus the vote on the regulations discussion, I have created confusion as to how that comes about, how that works,” he said. “A lot of folks have misunderstood what a conflict of interest is and whether or not I had one.”
Recall petitioners have stated that Tassinari admitted to a conflict of interest in the 3A discussion and votes.
Tassinari said he had recused himself from the 3A guidelines issue because he lacked information as to the extent of the involvement of his employer, MassDOT, in creating those guidelines.
“I never wrote anything about a conflict of interest because I did not have that information,” said Tassinari. “At the time, I didn’t know all the facts and I sat out those discussions. I sat out the vote on the guidelines.”
After sitting out the discussion on the guidelines, Tassinari said the state Supreme Judicial Court decision was handed down and the guidelines were struck down because the SJC ruled that the implementation of the law requires that the state issue regulations.
“Regulations are not guidelines. Regulations require promulgation, they require public hearings, they require a higher standard of publication before they actually go into effect, which makes them harder to change ad hoc, but it also makes it easier for government to enforce the law,” he said. “The SJC also ruled that the governor has a wide latitude to enforce compliance, including limiting grant eligibility.”
Tassinari said some of the ways compliance can be enforced is through making the town ineligible for grant funding for infrastructure and other town needs.
“Now, I could have stayed on the sidelines because it is politically convenient, but the potential loss to this town of these millions of dollars will be catastrophic, and 2,600 people didn’t vote for me to do the convenient thing, they voted for me to do the right thing,” said Tassinari. “The right thing was to find a way to be involved, or to at least do everything in my power to gather the information on what it would take to be involved and to voice my opinion and voice the opinions of pretty much 90 percent of the people I spoke to about this issue in the town.”
Tassinari said he researched how disclosures work and what constitutes a conflict of interest.
“It turns out that all that is required to dispel the appearance of a conflict of interest is an explanation through filing what is called a 23B Disclosure, which is what I sent to the (town) clerk on June 12,” he said.
In the disclosure, Tassinari states that his employment with MassDOT does not create a conflict of interest because there is no gain to him or the agency as a result of taking part in the discussion and vote on town-wide zoning.
“There is also no evidence that I have found, after combing through the (Executive Office of Housing and Livable Community’s) records and speaking to our own counsel at the agency, that MassDOT was involved in creating any of these regulations,” said Tassinari. “There is also no enforcement capacity that MassDOT has on any of these regulations. There is no way that I would be representing the town to my agency or the agency to my town, which is another type of conflict of interest called divided loyalties.”
Tassinari said he filed the public disclosure, but what he failed to do was to explain it publicly.
“I should have done that before I started my explanation on how I saw how the MBTA Communities Act would affect the town. I should have done a similar thing to what I did now, explain why it is not a conflict, and that my disclosure had already been submitted,” said Tassinari. “It did take me, really, just until the last hour to gather all that information as to my agency’s involvement in these regulations because there was nothing to find. It’s hard to find answers when what you are looking for just is not there.”
Currently, petitioners looking to recall Tassinari have collected enough signatures to activate a petition to have a recall on the fall ballot.
For an outright recall of the councilor, the petitioners need to collect 2,863 signatures. Petitioners have until August 13 to complete that second round of the recall effort.
If that threshold is reached, there would be an opportunity for Tassinari to resign his seat before being removed from office. However, Tassinari could still seek a slot on the election ballot to run for the at-large seat and return to office.
“This effort is about protecting the values that define Winthrop, and our expectations of elected officials: decency, transparency, and public service,” said Diana Viens, who is helping organize and lead the recall effort.
“This historic recall was sparked not by politics, but by principle. It’s been driven by neighbors, parents, and long-time residents — including those who once supported Councilor Tassinari but can no longer ignore his betrayal of public duty,” she said.