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Fire Chief Jason Gilliland sat at the Select Board table on Aug. 26 while the board voted, twice, to take a decision out of his hands.
The chief is the appointing authority for promotions inside the Marblehead Fire Department. Two captain's seats are open. Two firefighters took the civil service promotional exam in April, and when the results were published Aug. 3, one of the two names on the eligibility list was Lt. Liam Gilliland — the chief's son, the department's training officer and the only other Gilliland on the roster.
Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer laid out the arithmetic.
"We had two members take the test. We have two positions to fill," Kezer said. "However, one of the members who took the test for promotion is a direct family member of the chief, and therefore that's a conflict of interest."
Dan Fox, who ran the meeting, moved to accept the chief's letter of disclosure, then moved to install Kezer as the appointing authority for the captain promotions. Rossana Ferrante seconded. Both passed without discussion. The item took under two minutes.
Liam Gilliland has been on the job since roughly 2016 and made lieutenant Aug. 16, 2022, in a ceremony at Abbot Hall where his father presided. He runs the training division with Capt. Eric Ridge, deployed with Massachusetts Task Force 1 to Florida after Hurricane Ian and to North Carolina after Helene, and earned $90,127 in overtime in fiscal 2025, among the highest totals on the town payroll. His mother, Amy Gilliland, supervises dispatch at the Police Department.
What happens when chiefs get this wrong
The state keeps a short, unflattering file. Wellesley Chief Richard DeLorie disclosed his son's candidacy for one of three firefighter jobs, said he would stay out, then pressed the hiring panel after his son was passed over. He paid a $10,000 civil penalty in 2021; his assistant chief paid $5,000. In March, the State Ethics Commission's Enforcement Division opened a case against Clinton Chief Michael Lutes over his handling of complaints about one of his two firefighter sons.
Gilliland disclosed first, and the board moved the authority before anyone was promoted — the reverse of that sequence. Kezer described his charge to the board in seven words: "keeping the chief out of the process." He did not say when he expects to make the appointments.
