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Former Gloucester harbormaster fined more than $15K for having employee do his homework
Thomas Ciarametaro Jr. admitted to having a subordinate complete assignments for him while he was enrolled at Endicott College.
While enrolled at Endicott College, the former harbormaster in Gloucester had a subordinate within the city government complete coursework on his behalf, according to the State Ethics Commission.
Thomas Ciarametaro Jr. admitted to violating the state’s conflict of interest law, signing a disposition agreement earlier this month. He agreed to pay a $15,000 civil penalty and $1,200 in restitution.
Ciarametaro worked as harbormaster in Gloucester from 2016 through April 2024 before being fired over allegations of forgery. He later sued the city, alleging he was fired in retaliation for filing a hostile work complaint against a former mayor.
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Ciarametaro also attended Endicott between September 2018 and December 2020. From February through October of 2020, Ciarametaro asked the city’s shellfish constable to complete more than a dozen assignments on his behalf. The constable spent more than 20 hours doing this work while on paid duty for his municipal position. Ciarametaro authorized the constable to use his municipal worktime for these assignments. He was paid $39.91 per hour by the city during this time, according to the ethics commission.
Endicott awarded Ciarametaro a bachelor’s degree at the end of 2020. The constable helped Ciarametaro complete assignments for courses in creative writing, English literature, and juvenile justice. Ciarametaro ultimately earned A grades in these courses, according to the disposition agreement.
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“Endicott College is firmly committed to academic integrity. Upon being made aware of these allegations, the College addressed the matter promptly and appropriately, and fully cooperated with the State Ethics Commission’s investigation,” a spokesperson for the college said in a statement Wednesday.
These actions violated state law in a number of ways, including a prohibition on public employees receiving things of substantial value given to them because of their official positions.
“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,’” David Wilson, executive director of the ethics commission, said in a statement.
“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,” Wilson added.
In his lawsuit, Ciarametaro alleged that former Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken made “outrageous sexual comments” about a female secretary that Ciarametaro hired, including saying that “everyone would think that the candidate ‘only got the job because she was [expletive] everyone in the department.’”
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Ciarametaro filed a hostile work complaint against Romeo Theken in November 2020, leading to a lengthy dispute between the two that necessitated an outside investigator. The lawsuit was settled last summer.
Ciarametaro was fired by Romeo Theken’s successor, Greg Verga, in April 2024 after an investigation into falsified signatures on grant contract paperwork.
The shellfish constable, Peter Seminara, was also charged with stealing city funds from Ciarametaro’s office. He was allegedly caught on video taking cash from a locked cabinet in the harbormaster’s office in February 2024. He was fired and is facing a larceny charge in Salem District Court; he has pleaded not guilty.
When he was fired, Seminara alleged that Ciarametaro had him complete homework on his behalf.
“Upon his termination, Seminara announced in no uncertain terms that he was ‘out for blood’ and that he was going to ‘ruin [Ciarametaro’s] life,’” the lawsuit Ciarametaro filed against the city said.
In that lawsuit, Ciarametaro claimed that none of Seminara’s help occurred at work or during work hours.
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