Press Release  Former Gloucester Harbormaster Thomas Ciarametaro Jr. pays $16,200 for Violating Conflict of Interest Law

Boston, MA — Former Gloucester Harbormaster Thomas Ciarametaro Jr. has paid a $15,000 civil penalty and $1,200 in restitution for violating the conflict of interest law by having a subordinate city employee complete his Endicott College coursework which Ciarametaro submitted as his own work for course credit toward a bachelor’s degree. The State Ethics Commission has approved a Disposition Agreement in which Ciarametaro admits to the violations, waives his right to a public hearing, and pays the $15,000 civil penalty and $1,200 in restitution to the City of Gloucester for the public worktime spent doing his college coursework.

As Gloucester Harbormaster, a position he held from 2016 through April 2024, Ciarametaro oversaw the Shellfish Constable. From February through October 2020, Ciarametaro asked the Shellfish Constable to complete more than a dozen writing assignments for courses Ciarametaro was taking at Endicott College. Endicott awarded Ciarametaro a bachelor’s degree in December 2020. The Shellfish Constable, with Ciarametaro’s knowledge and approval, spent over 20 hours of municipal worktime completing at least six of Ciarametaro’s college writing assignments.

By asking his subordinate to complete his college coursework and by allowing the subordinate to use city worktime and resources to complete it, Ciarametaro violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against public employees receiving anything of substantial value given to them because of their official position, as well as the law’s prohibition against public employees using or attempting to use their official positions to obtain valuable unwarranted privileges that are not properly available to them. Ciarametaro also violated the law’s prohibition against public employees acting in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to conclude they would unduly favor another person when performing their official duties.

“A public official who asks a subordinate employee for a personal favor risks taking unlawful advantage of an inherently coercive situation in which the subordinate may feel they can’t say ‘no,’” said David A. Wilson, Executive Director of the State Ethics Commission. “Regardless of coercion, when the personal favor involves use of the subordinate’s substantially valuable public worktime, the conflict of interest law is violated. The violation is particularly harmful to public confidence in the integrity of government employees when the favor secures for the public official a clearly improper benefit such as the unearned college course credit Mr. Ciarametaro received.”

The Commission encourages public employees to contact the Commission’s Legal Division at 617-371-9500 for free advice if they have any questions regarding how the conflict of interest law may apply to them.

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