Press Release  Wareham Public Schools Employee Melissa Fay pays $4,000 Civil Penalty for Violating Conflict of Interest Law

Boston, MA — Wareham Public Schools Director of Student Services Melissa Fay has paid a $4,000 civil penalty for violating the conflict of interest law by hiring her mother and participating in hiring her son for jobs in the school district. Fay signed a Disposition Agreement in which she admitted to the violations and waived her right to a hearing.

As director of student services, Fay hired her mother to provide translation and interpretation services to the school district on eight occasions between 2018 and 2020 without seeking or receiving the school superintendent’s approval as required for such hirings. Fay signed seven of her mother’s invoices for her services so they would be paid by the school district, which paid Fay’s mother a total of $5,975.

In 2019, Fay participated in the hiring of her son as a paraprofessional for Wareham’s Extended School Year program by recommending that the superintendent hire him along with 24 other candidates. Although Wareham Public Schools’ established hiring procedures required candidates like her son to submit an application and be interviewed, Fay’s son did not submit an application until after he was hired and was never interviewed. Fay’s son was paid $1,461 for working in the Extended School Year program in 2019.

The conflict of interest law prohibits municipal employees from participating as such in matters in which their immediate family has a financial interest. Fay violated this prohibition by participating as director of student services in the hiring of her son, by hiring her mother, and by approving payment of her mother’s invoices. In addition, by failing to follow the school district’s established procedures when hiring her mother and when participating in the hiring of her son, Fay violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against public employees using their official positions to obtain valuable benefits or privileges for themselves or others to which they are not entitled.

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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