Gortikov pledges continuity at MassEquality

With the departure of Marc Solomon from MassEquality on April 1, Interim Executive Director Scott Gortikov and board president David Wilson said the organization would continue to move forward with the agency's agenda items while undertaking a search for a new leader.

"Our goals are really clear for this year," said Gortikov during a March 10 interview at MassEquality's Beacon Street headquarters, where he was joined by Wilson and Solomon. Gortikov cited the passage of the transgender nondiscrimination bill in Massachusetts and helping Vermont, Maine, and New Jersey secure marriage equality as the agency's top priorities.

"We have our work cut out for us at the State House, doing our best to protect ... essential funding for LGBT issues and organizations: elders, youth and those who are fighting or susceptible to HIV/AIDS," he added. "And we have a special interest, a core interest in special elections that may come up. We continue to be committed to electing pro-equality lawmakers."

MassEquality, however, will not be making an endorsement in the upcoming 3rd Suffolk District special election to replace former House Speaker Sal DiMasi, a longtime leader on LGBT issues, said Solomon. "They're all good," he said of the candidates, "which is a problem we've been having, where one [candidate] is as good as the next. It's a lovely issue to be having."

Gortikov, who lives in Jamaica Plain with his spouse Ross Ozer and their two children, has served as the agency's development director since 2004, after having done similar work for the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts. A skilled fundraiser, he played a pivotal role in MassEquality's rapid expansion after the 2004 constitutional conventions, when its budget ballooned from just thousands of dollars to $3 million. With marriage rights secure in Massachusetts, the organization's operating budget now stands at about $1.5 million, said Gortikov, who also noted that MassEquality is weathering the financial downturn.

"This is an organization that in the future, necessarily, is going to be a smaller organization because we don't have a three million dollar marriage fight and we've sort of achieved for the moment ... pro-equality majorities in the State House," he said. "That investment continues to work for us."

Gortikov emphasized that though the organization is leaner these days, MassEquality "will be a stable organization financially that's sustainable over time where we can always deliver the mission. And that mission, which includes grassroots advocacy, the State House lobbying, the public education and electoral support - that's the magic formula. And that's the job of us all."

Gortikov was asked to serve as interim executive director by MassEquality's board of directors, which will soon begin the search process for Solomon's replacement. "The board needs to take a step back and basically figure out, where do we go from here?" said Wilson. "We have an interim [leader], now we have to look at a search process."

As the person driving the organization's fundraising, Gortikov said he is well prepared to take on a broader leadership role at MassEquality. "[At] equality organizations, and small non-profits particularly, development directors have a hand in everything," said Gortikov. "Go ask Marc Solomon ... in these five years is there anything I haven't had a hand in terms of strategic planning, in terms of messaging, organizing, in terms of board selection, in terms of legislative and electoral support? I have from the beginning had a hand and a leadership role in all of this."

"From my perspective he was the natural person, without any question, to step in and take this on," Solomon said of Gortikov.

Gortikov declined to say if he would seek the job of executive director. "It's too soon," said Gortikov, noting the board of directors needs to develop a criteria for a new executive director and begin their search. "My job right now I think is to make sure the organization is implementing successfully those ... clear goals we've set out for ourselves and make sure that this operation keeps going organizationally to support that."

"From the board perspective, we expect Scott to put his head down and get the job done while we as a board figure out the search process," said Wilson. "It will be thoughtful, it will be comprehensive and at some point in time we will get to the end of that search process. But we're expecting that Scott will continue to execute and implement and keep his head down and get the job done."

Either way, Gortikov acknowledged that he has big shoes to fill, given the respect that Solomon enjoyed in the LGBT community and the personal relationships he formed with Beacon Hill power brokers beginning with his tenure as MassEquality's political director, the post he held for several years prior to assuming leadership of the organization.

"I feel confident that organizationally, we maintain those relationships," said Gortikov. "I don't have as many relationships currently as Marc, but I have to say I'm going to need to rely on my political director [Matt O'Malley] like Marc relied on his political director when he was in his position. ... I'm certainly going to rely on Matt, I'm certainly going to grow into my job and my relationships, as Marc did when he became executive director."