(Town of Rockland)
ROCKLAND (WBZ-AM) -- Rockland's Board of Selectmen are trying to figure out a way around rules they wrote almost twenty years ago so they can fire their Town Administrator, Allan Chiocca.
Chiocca has been on paid leave for the past seven weeks following an investigator's determination that he engaged in misconduct--some of it sexual--with now-resigned board member Dierdre Hall.
With Hall resigned and another board member, Edward Kimbell, expected to recuse himself because of his involvement in the scandal--he was having an affair with Hall--the Rockland board only has three members eligible to vote. But it's bylaws say it needs four members to vote to terminate Chiocca.
"We made this town bylaw to protect the town administrator's office from becoming a political football," chairman Jim Ryan told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bill Marcus. "When we first instituted it, it worked in our favor."
But now it's protecting Chiocca. So, Ryan said he'll be asking the Secretary of State and the Attorney General if there's a workaround.
"Because right now, we're going to have to pay this guy until we can have an election to have a fourth person," Ryan said. "And then we have to make sure that that fourth person wants the same things that the rest of the board does."
Ryan says September is the earliest an election could be held to replace Hall.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bill Marcus (@BillinChina) reports