The Board of Health voted to reelect Helaine Hazlett as its chair during its meeting Tuesday, but not without opposition from Board member Tom McMahon.
During the board’s vote to reelect Hazlett as chair, McMahon said the past year has been “very difficult for me with Helaine as chair.”
“I completely felt unappreciated and dismissed with Helaine as chair,” McMahon said. “You were chair in the past year. From my view, from day one, it was clear that your goal was to obstruct anything and everything I brought to the table, regardless of whether it was a sound idea and had community support.”
McMahon said that at a previous meeting, he had pushed for transparency in the board’s spending by spending a few minutes each meeting to discuss the bills the board was signing off on. He said Hazlett rejected the idea.
“As someone in this room pointed out to me about these and other instances, these are all missed opportunities with your leadership,” McMahon said. “Leaders prioritize the people they represent, not simply titles and making sure they get recognition.”
McMahon said that he wanted to be clear that he does not want to be chair of the Board of Health and said that he instead wanted Thomas Massaro to become the chair.
He closed his statement by saying that he wants to “move forward without fear of needless obstruction or speed bumps from other board members.”
“I’d asked you to take a moment of reflection and ask yourself, is this what’s best for Marblehead or is this what’s best for Helaine?” McMahon asked.
Hazlett was reelected as chair by a vote of two to one.
“As my very dear friend’s mother always used to say, when she didn’t agree with someone, she would say, ‘Let them be well,'” Hazlett said. “Let you be well, Tom.”