The Oak Bluffs Public Library was packed Wednesday night for the League of Women Voters’ candidate forum ahead of this spring’s election. There are four contested races this season.

Three people are running for town clerk, a position which opened after the current clerk, Colleen Morris, announced she was resigning in December. Gail Barmakian, Benjamin Clark and Amy Del Torto are all running for the position and outlined their relevant professional experience Wednesday.

Ms. Barmakian is an attorney who has been involved in town government since 1997. She currently serves on the wastewater commission and chairs the select board. Ms. Barmakian has been a member of the select board for 15 years. Unable to run for re-election on the select board while also serving on wastewater due to town bylaw, she decided to run for town clerk.

Mr. Clark is a lifelong resident of Oak Bluffs. While attending high school and college, he worked summers at the town’s marina. After graduating from Quinnipiac University with a degree in economics, he began a career in financial planning.

“My experience in navigating complex regulations and working within a highly-structured, highly-regulated environment has prepared me to handle public records, ensuring compliance within the local laws and procedures,” he said.

Ms. Del Torto was also born and raised on the Vineyard. She worked as a real estate paralegal in Connecticut for 25 years. Her career in that field began in Oak Bluffs, where she worked for local attorney Richard Walton after graduating from Elms College, where she says she became familiar with Massachusetts municipal documents and camp ground leases. She returned to the Island and currently works as the operations manager for Martha’s Vineyard Interior Design.

“I’m a people person at heart,” she said. “Serving as town clerk would allow me to connect with the community, assist residents directly and use my problem solving skills to ensure people feel heard and supported.”

After the candidates introduced themselves, they fielded questions from the audience. Allyson Malik, the library director, said that she and her staff often field questions meant for the town clerk and have to rely on a Portuguese speaking member of staff to point residents in the right direction. She asked if any of the candidates spoke Portuguese. None of them do.

Tony Lima, the chair of the parks commission, asked whether candidates would be willing to do additional work outside of the office, such as officiating weddings, which the current town clerk did for him and his wife. All candidates said that they would be willing to put in extra hours, and Ms. Barmakian cited the work that the town clerk has to do following elections.

“I think the responsibility of the town clerk is to make sure the job gets done,” she said. “After elections, you see Colleen and her staff in there over the weekend, whatever it takes, after hours.”

One resident asked what the candidates would prioritize once in office. Ms. Barmakian said that her two priorities would be to digitize records to make them more easily accessible and to better centralize all official town documents in the office of town clerk. Mr. Clark and Ms. Del Torto echoed Ms. Barmakian’s answer.

Another resident asked whether or not the candidates believed that the town clerk should remain elected or become an appointed position, an issue that the select board has debated in the past. All three agreed that the role should remain elected.

Other contested races at the April 10 election include the board of health, wastewater commission and parks commission. 

James Butterick and Sherry Countryman are both running for the board of health. Ms. Countryman could not attend the candidate forum and sent a letter to be read that outlined her experience and platform.

Ms. Countryman has served as the chair of the town’s finance and advisory committee. Her current work in town includes chairing the adhoc dredge committee and serving on the personnel board as well as the comprehensive wastewater management plan advisory group. Ms. Countryman said that her focus would be on environmental solutions, citing concerns about impaired waterways. She also said that Oak Bluffs needed to work to enforce the single-use plastic bottle ban.

Dr. Butterick, the incumbent, spoke about his experience in the medical field and on the board. In addition to serving on the board of health since 2016, he has worked as an anesthesiologist and in hospital administration. He was on the board of Hospice and Palliative Care of Martha’s Vineyard and the medical director at Vineyard Medical Care.

“I do have a public health mantra,” he said. “It’s about the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the food that we eat. All of them have to be safe.”

Dr. Butterick also fielded questions from the audience, explaining how the board responds to complaints about overcrowding, its considerations on septic systems and encouraging people to vaccinate their children. 

Julia Keefe and Peter Hart are both running for wastewater commission. Mr. Hart sent in a letter outlining his family’s Island history and his career. He worked in higher education administration and served on the board of directors for the New England chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation, an organization that promotes awareness of the autoimmune disease. 

Ms. Keefe is a retired attorney who worked in Edgartown District Court for 10 years. She told the audience that she wants to ensure that everyone who comes before wastewater is treated fairly and that the commission helps enhance the water quality of the Island using funds the town is eligible for following the approval of the comprehensive wastewater management plan.

Triva Emery and Dana Hughes are both running for parks commission. Ms. Emery runs a small health and wellness company with a focus on serving municipal employees. She has personal experience working with the parks commission through that work. Ms. Hughes is a lifelong Island resident with a passion for gardening that has inspired her to run for parks commission. She volunteers as a tree steward, people who help plant trees in town parks. They both fielded questions about the permitting process and preservation of the parks.

Sean DeBettencourt, who is running for the select board unopposed, also introduced himself to the crowd. Mr. DeBettencourt is a teacher in Tisbury and has served on both the planning board and the finance and advisory committee.

The candidate forum will be available to watch through Martha’s Vineyard Community Television until the election on April 10.